Shanghai Calling is an entertaining romantic comedy and very accurate portrayal of expatriate life in Shanghai, China. Daniel Hsia, the writer and director, has created a funny and strangely personal adventure of an American executive navigating the personal and professional idiosyncrasies of modern expat/Chinese culture. I can attest to this given I also was an expat executive in Shanghai. (Several scenes are shot in Vizcaya, the exact same housing complex I lived in from 2005 to 2008.) While it may not be as funny for those that haven't had similar experiences, there is still enough unique comedy scenes to make it an enjoyable romp for most. What makes it stand out from most of Hollywood's stereotypical coverage of life in China is that it takes conventional perceptions of China and turns them on its head.

The latest comedy written and directed by Daniel Hsia is his debut feature. It is about a Chinese American who speaks no Chinese dealing with his relocation to Shanghai. The movie opened in Chinese cinemas last week. [img]http://www.2film15.in/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Shanghai-Calling-2012.jpg[/img] The film stars American Korean Daniel Henney as Sam, an attorney from New York City. Sam is sent to China by his employer with no knowledge of the local language and customs. The culture clash is huge and he tries to tackle it but with no success - we are witnessing his embarrassing encounters with locals as he tries to understand how things work in China. Eliza Coupe plays his relocation specialist and later Sam's romantic interest. The cast includes Geng Le and Zhu Zhu but even with them the acting is bellow average. The main problem of this movie is that comes out as a kind of a cross cultural romcom with nothing behind it! You could say that there is semi-cute romance and lightweight comedy but the thing you'll remember is that the director is really trying hard taking his time to highlight the virtues of China in general and the city of Shanghai in particular. This official US-China co-production is like some kind of advertising designed to appeal to both Asian and Western audiences... but talking with my friends from both sides - wasn't very successful doing it!