An average first draft
Donnie Yen is surely not a great director, but he has some ideas. Watching his first movie, I was complaining about the poor story and production values, but also being surprised by some interesting directing ideas. Shanghai Affairs is a low budget action movie, quite romantic as all Donnie Yen's movies and displaying both a modern side and a tribute to old kung-fu movies.
Unfortunately, after a decent beginning, the movie clearly lacks some rythm, even if it's always nice to look at Athena Chu's cute face. Even worse, the last fight between Donnie Yen and Yu Rong-Guang seems like cut in the middle of what should have been an awesome hand to hand. Everybody knows that those two guys know how to fight, but this '"climax" is very disappointing.
Fortunately, there are some ideas which make the movie watchable, despite the low budget and common story. First, there is like a scent of old kung-fu movies, a respect shown by Donnie to the classics. Then there are also some interesting work on the directing, especially for a director without any experience. And the romance features some nice music and cute scenes.
Watch Shanghai Affairs is you are a Donnie Yen's hardcore fan, that's probably the only advise I could give. Maybe Athena's and Rong-Guang's fans can also give it a chance. But don't expect too much from this first attempt of Donnie Yen behind the camera.
