Reviewed by: Beat TG Date: 04/06/2025 Summary: Donnie Yen's Last 1990s Movie as the Leading Actor There's very few positives movie reviews regarding SHANGHAI AFFAIRS, with the sole reason being that it's a low-budget movie that went completely under the radar for most people counting out the hardcore Donnie Yen fanbase. Even with the fanbase in consideration, the movie is less known due to its' low production values and "subpar" acting from the cast. But I see no wrongs here, it's all managed good for a low-budget movie. The direction makes the story a bit underwhelming, and the low-budget also plays a big part in affecting the movie quality. But that could also be the standard definition scans of the movie for the DVD releases. My point is that if the movie gets a new scan in HD, things would look much better making you more appreciative of the movie. Hope it happens soon considering Donnie Yen's raised stock in market value and popularity after the release of IP MAN. The action choreography more than makes up for everything that could've made the whole movie better. Donnie Yen is as great and captivating as always, using his action filmmaking style pioneered in HIGH VOLTAGE, evolved from LEGEND OF THE WOLF, and this time tweaking it by utilizing more slow motion, less undercranking, and relying on scuffle-based fighting techniques for raw damage/pain. I could watch Donnie and Yu Rong Guang fight onscreen here over and over, and not get tired! Overall, SHANGHAI AFFAIRS is serviceable when it comes to the story and acting but delivers what we all want to see from Donnie Yen and his fellow action performers anyway: The fight scenes. Reviewer Score: 7

Reviewed by: j.crawford Date: 04/10/2006 Am I the only one who liked Shanghai Affairs? It has a different 'style' for sure. I liked both of Donnie Yen's films from 1998 [Ballistic Kiss is the other]. As a director, he sure is making interesting choices. In Shanghai Affairs, I liked the performance of Yu Rong-Guang as the bad guy. The fight at the end between him and Yen was great! On the other hand, it was hard to take the sappy 'romantic' cinematography where you can just about see the grips off-camera tossing hands full of leaves into the wind machine. Blame the bad stuff on Executive Director Alan Lo Shun-Chuen, a "real" hack. Reviewer Score: 6

Reviewed by: nomoretitanic Date: 05/19/2001 Summary: Why oh why? Why oh why did I shop at Mediaplay? Why oh why did I buy a Donnie Yen-directed DVD for $24? I didn't think a plain Rushmore DVD (my favorite movie) was worth $20 yet I bought this special featureless DVD for four more bucks. Not only was it special-featureless, it was also plotless, funless, medium-shot in fight scene less, and ultimately pointless. This movie has Donnie Yen in a Bruce Lee kinda role where he's a martial artist who helps the weak and keeps on getting crap from people until he can't take it any more (neither can we) so he busts out his martial arts. Sounds cool, yeah, so does Gladiator. Let's not kid ourselves, Donnie is an actor who lacks conventional charms and good looks--I doubt if he even has "non-conventional" charms and good-looks. But in this movie he spends so much time making himself looking as good as possible with his slo-moed stances and sped-up fight sequences. That's like using computers to remove the shadows of Cher's nose--she's still ugly. But enough, I mean, Iron Monkey is good despite its sped-up choreography and Donnie Yen. Donnie can kick, he can do tai-chi, he can do weapons, he's capable of both wushu and more contemporary kickboxing choreography, then why oh why must he Good Will Hunting it away? In the movie he seems to be content with his sped-up supertight fight scenes (so you can't tell what the hell is going on) and lame lame tasteless storylines that can only shock audiences by killing off all important characters. Oh my god, she's dead! What a twist! It's not a twist. It's twisted. And tasteless. Okay back to the fight scene, what makes directors nowadays think that in order to make a good movie, one (the filmmaker, not the martial artist) must cut a lot and zoom in a lot? To quote Jarett's review of Shanghai Noon, the cynical critic from www.dumbassandthefag.com, we're basically "watching a martial arts movie filtered through a car commerical." Each fight is no longer than 3 minutes long and most of the time you just the hands flailing with the sound guy clearly in love with his new synthesized drumset that goes "pah pah pah pah pah pah pah" it's more fun picturing what could've happened than to watch the movie--and that's not very fun to begin with. There are decent actors in this movie, namely Yu RongGuang, but hey guess who is wasted? Any answer is probably right since everyone is wasted in this movie. And wasted here encompasses multiple meanings. It can mean wasted= underused (the great martial artists), wasted=beat up (the stuntguys whose axes are no matches for Donnie Yen's improvised-weapon of choice--broken twigs) or wasted=inebriated (the camera guy, and <gasp!> Donnie Yen.) So yes, I strongly urge you to not watch this movie, unless you like crap. God I've just heard about Donnie Yen's big ego and I can so totally picture myself getting my ass kicked by that guy for this review. Go to sleep now Donnie. It's all just a bad dream. (That's what I kept telling myself when I was watching this movie, except I didn't call myself Donnie, I went by my real name instead--"The Poor Bastard Who Got Ripped by Mediaplay AND Donnie Yen All in the Same Day".)

Reviewed by: hellboy Date: 09/26/2000 It's hard to believe this movie was made in 1998 and after Donnie Yen's debut film Legend of the Wolf. SA lacks the style and atmosphere present in Yen's previous efforts. SA also lacks figurative and literal kick as the fight scenes and story are poorly rendered. Even the welcome presence of Yu Rong-Guang don't help this melodramatic mish-mash. Blah. 4/10 Reviewer Score: 4

Reviewed by: Sydneyguy Date: 06/09/2000 Summary: ok i think?? IF this is NOT the Donnie Yen movie, then OPPS~~!! I got the wrong movie then.....i saw this years ago so my memory is not so good......i can't remember the plo too much apart from Donnie being a doctor, coming in to help this town. His gf as actually the local Triad bosses sister. Well fighting, fighting and more fighting occur. The plot here was simple and the action, a bit above average. The ending suddenly ends which is not good. As i remember, it was a below average movie!! As i can't remember much of it, my rating maybe way off!! But i remember reading other reviews somewhere. They didn't think too much of this movie either so........... 3.5 out of 10

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