Books and Film - Explore Shanghai - page 332

Shanghai Express (1932). Set on an express train between Beijing and Shanghai as war
wages outside. Director Josef von Sternberg's muse, Marlene Dietrich, smoulders as an in-
famous courtesan.
Shanghai Gesture (1941). Mother Gin Sling runs her infamous joint with the help of Victor
Mature's Doctor Omar, corrupting Gene Tierney in the backstreets of old Shanghai.
Empire of the Sun (1987). Steven Spielberg's gripping movie, based on a World War II
memoir by J.G. Ballard about a teenage boy abandoned in Shanghai during the Japanese
occupation, was the first Western film shot in Shanghai since Mao's 1949 Communist Re-
volution.
Shanghai Triad (1995). Zhang Yimou reimagined the 1930s underworld with China's first su-
perstar actress Gong Li giving a stellar performance as a gangster's moll.
Suzhou River (2000). This film noir directed by Shanghai native Lou Ye weaves a love story
against a backdrop of Shanghai's emergent, gritty urban experience, starring then-unknown
actress Zhou Xun, who is now a Chinese movie megastar.
Lust, Caution (2007) Espionage thriller by Taiwanese-born director Ang Lee (Life of Pi)
based on a novella by Eileen Chang about a group of university students who plot to assas-
sinate a government agent during the Japanese wartime occupation of Shanghai.
Skyfall (2012) The 23rd James Bond movie brought 007 to Shanghai, where the futuristic
skyline and elevated highways made a star appearance.
Gone With the Bullets (2014) Jiang Wen's gritty follow-up to Let the Bullets Fly is set in
1920s Shanghai and is a based on the true story of a beauty pageant patronised by the city's
glamorous elite that triggered a succession of dramatic and tragic events.