Film Preview: Shanghai (2015)

Page Revisions:

(August 16, 2015) Original
(September 27, 2015) New Poster (#11)

Release Date:

August 21, 2015

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “A ’40s period piece which revolves around an American expat who returns to Shanghai in the months before Pearl Harbor due to the death of his friend.”

Poster Rating: C / B / B- / C+ / C+ / C / B- (4) / B

Review: (#1) There’s so much more that could have been done to avoid making this look like Charlie’s Golden Ticket were in the hands of Chinese historical drama reenactors. (#2) From a distance, the design doesn’t look particularly appealing; however, once you get closer and notice the details within the broad paint stroke, an interesting design starts to take place.

(#3) I like the core concept of this design, but it ultimately feels very simplistic and unnecessarily broad. (#4) This is a semi-jumbled mess of a design that has some interesting elements, but nothing particularly outstanding. (#5) Another design with concepts at play that have promise, but which are ultimately unapplied.

(#6) Subtle perhaps, but lacking a necessary depth to create visionary interest in the film. (#7-#10) These character posters borrow a design concept from poster #2, but embellish it with differing poses and a fascinating glimpse into the background of these characters. The bold white foreground is a distraction, though.

(#7) It’s a well designed poster that evokes a sense of place, but suffers the same lack of tension that the other designs have had. It could work as an American poster, but appears to be isolated to foreign territories.

Trailer Rating: B-

Review: If the trailer didn’t feel like watching a two-hour movie, perhaps it might have been more engaging to disintersted audiences. As such, it has some intriguing ideas at play, but looks like a bare-bones attempt at assimilating Chinese historical events where those who are more adept at understanding them needed to be more involved.