Shanghai Kiss (2007)

Liam Liu (Ken Leung) is a Chinese-American actor struggling to make it in L.A. He meets high school student Adelaide Bourbon (Hayden Panettiere) on the bus. Six months later, he's in an engaging relationship with the 16 year old and sleeping with other women. His hated drunken father tells him that he inherited a house in Shanghai from his grandmother. He expected $500k but it turns out to be 500k yuan. He decides not to sell and meets Micki Yang (Kelly Hu).Hayden Panettiere is the best part of the movie. The Shanghai is some OK travelogue but nothing really funny. Ken Leung needs better actors to play with. He's much better with either Joel Moore or Panettiere. The movie falters without them. I would rather skip Shanghai and stay with the relationship digging into its obvious inappropriateness. This is an odd pairing and I wish they played with that more.

This movie made me laugh out loud. For that alone it gets my vote. It has a witty script, with more than a nod to Woody Allen along the way. The wonderful Ken Leung as Liam carries this movie on his very able shoulders and keeps the viewer watching throughout. I am not Asian or Asian-American, so I cannot comment as to whether or not this film accurately portrays the Asian or Asian-American experience. However, issues of isolation, family alienation, a desire for connection romantically are common to us all, so for me the film works. I like romantic comedy with a serious side, and I found that in Shanghi Kiss. On the negative side, the female lead is stereotypical, which was disappointing, hence my rating of 6. I would have liked the female lead to have as much depth and charm as Mr. Leung's character Liam, but she does not. This weakens the film. I would have liked to see more of Liam's father in the film. We hear about his mother, and again I want the same balance for both characters. Regardless of these reservations though, I recommend this film.

The title and the DVD screen does not show the real emotions and reality of the movie, I'm from India, but the movie was soo personal and touchy, that i felt like it happened in my backyard.Many of the plots have happened to me personally, and i guess an independent, out of the box minded Asian guy, even though not living in USA would relate to this movie.This is so real man, i could not believe David Ren born in US, got around in Shanghai had a parallel level of emotions and life with me being able to relate to it here in India.This is my first post, due to the intensity of the emotions in the movie, i had no choice but to comment.David movies are a must see, and with that kinda talent, I'm sure, we are going to see really awesome movies in the coming years.Thanks for making such a great movie, you have touched many hearts around the world.

Much has been made by other reviewers about how "Shanghai Kiss" breaks away from the unflattering stereotypes that dog Asian men in American popular culture. And to be sure, I'm glad to see these folks playing roles other than martial artist or math geek. But in its relentless quest to show that, yes, an Asian guy can indeed sleep with white chicks, this movie gives us an entirely unsympathetic main character and throws him into completely implausible situations.Nowhere do we see why it is that Ken Leung's character is such a babe magnet. Instead, we get someone who is shallow, egotistical, moody, immature, and just plain annoying. And he's not even especially handsome, either (though he does have a sort of boyish cuteness). In short, there's nothing particularly desirable or appealing about this guy. Yet, inexplicably, the ladies just can't get enough of him.And as if the fact that the protagonist is totally irritating isn't enough to detract from our enjoyment of the movie, there's also the rank implausibility of the storyline. I mean, how often do attractive women (of any race) blatantly throw themselves at random strangers (again, of any race) on public buses? Or, when someone just steps off a trans-Pacific airline flight, how likely is it that they are immediately going to go someplace where -- you guessed it -- women are eagerly waiting to pleasure him? To me, the whole thing smacked of the film makers shouting out as loudly as they can, "Hey, look at this! Asian guys can get some action in bed!" Well, OK, that's swell, I guess. But somehow, I don't think that making our "hero" out to be as unappealing and unsympathetic as possible, while putting him into completely implausible and unbelievable situations, advances the cause of Asian male de-stereotyping.Full disclosure: I hit my limit and stopped watching the movie about a half-hour into it (right after the main character arrived in Shanghai). So that's why I'm giving it two stars, because maybe it got better after that. But as for me, I'm afraid I'll just have to keep hoping that maybe someday I'll find a non-stereotypical Asian guy in the movies who's actually worth spending some time with.