Irishchatter After watching "Maid of Manhattan" recently with Natasha Richardson(RIP) and Ralph Fiennes, I decided to give this film a go. I thought the film was so so good. However I don't understand why Fiennes had to put an American accent onto this because he can't do a Amercian accent!! I always thought as the blind English Diplomat not American at all! They either should've got someone better or written the character off if they weren't going to get the character development right among the actors! Anyways moving in, I loved how himself and Richardson's relationship developed throughout the whole film. The story- line was sad because it was set in near World War 2 and the fact people running for their lives to Japan (I think)in order to be safe from the soldiers. Omg one scene that even more frightened me as well was, when Fiennes character met with the soldiers face to face. I really thought they were gonna shot him right on the spot but thank god, he made it out alive and let him go without hesitant!I really liked this film, it really shows the history of China and it had a good cast to entertain us with their fine acting. I give this movie 8/10!

didiermustntdie one of the family members supposes to be a princess, I call it a joke, even though the story is fictional. the Russian refugees were actually largely lower class "white" Russians from Russian far east. the story is made up by a Japanese writer ,so I can understand why japs are given quite many undeserved dignities. but in fact japs were never so generous nor powerful.actually the west didn't take japan seriously at the time they invaded shanghai, the largest foreign community in china. both Chinese and whites are portrayed OK, white slightly degraded. seem like although no apparent race mixing, there isn't any racial tension in 30s, .but I heard during the time, Chinese weren't allowed to enter concessions,at least not so easily..just like happy tourists....my 2 main concerns about the film are 1, the french influence is underrated.before Japanese came, shanghai was actually run by french.but they don't give a single role to frenchmen.OK, i know the french were/are very corrupt leftists, so the place became quite chaotic, and relatively less conservative compared to British owned hong Kong, so the family want to move to hongkong,that is reasonable..2, the Jewish thing, according to my knowledge, jews who escaped Germany occupied Europe were mostly rich people, they become quite influential wherever they arrived..the only untouchable citizen in shanghai I heard were not Brits, not yanks,not even Germans but jews.. it's said on wikipedia that about 10000 jews during WWII in shanghai and all of them survived and returned to Israel.. on wikipedia, the only group that referred as being treated differently were jews. surprised? when I saw the Jewish old man being insulted several time in the movie, I laughed terribly. even in shanghai, they couldn't forget to victimize jews..(I swear I even saw beautiful Natasha put an embarrassed grin on her face when the fisherman shouts"Jewish scum!".)BTW, Macao is safe because protugual owns brazil which had about 1 million Japanese, some liberal moron says Macao is probably better than hongkong i agree.except for the things I said. this movie is good enough. similar feeling to the "remains of the days", Natasha's character is very good woman,although lost dignity, as the movie implies she actually only sells herself very occasionally when really in need for money ,far from everyday escort.we saw her reject several good enough potential clients oh, well, the Russian family is also cartoonish villains..even though there are so many from liberal political agenda, I moderately enjoyed this movie.there should be more movies like this showing whites are weak and in danger of non white threat honestly, there are too many "white supremacism" in movies now-days..the saddest thing is both Natasha and producer are impossible to read my genuine opinions now..

happipuppi13 I've realized over the years that I have a fondness for "underdog" movies.No,not in terms of plot but for movies that either don't get the critical recognition they deserve or just were not widely accepted or known by audiences.A family member received this from a friend and we watched it together and while they liked the movie okay,I liked it more and decided I'd keep the DVD.The reason I liked it more was that it could tell a story about this time in the Orient's history,without resorting to overly-violent,disturbing images.We see the invasion of Japan on Shanghai and the chaos and violence associated but are spared having to see bloodied or burned bodies or bullets entering flesh. I found this refreshing for a change.The Russian Countess and her "royal family" and the Mr. Jackson character share the burden of having had their lives leveled by sad and unexpected circumstances. They suffer in their own ways , which is how the two story devices come together as one.She has to be a "private dancer" (and more) to earn money and he's losing his place in the political world because of his blindness. The two are brought together by the taking of blind faith chances or risks.He offers her the chance to be the "centerpice" of his dream of the perfect club,without her having to sell her body. He also takes a long shot risk on a horse race to make this dream a reality.They are also surrounded by people who have no faith in them and dislike their personal choices. Most notably the Countess's family. They are "shamed" by her line of work but do nothing to make money themselves. They also fear her choice of profession is a bad example for her young daughter.It's probably a no brainer that they would fall in love and I like the way it was handled here. They have an agreement not to get personal when working together and for a time I didn't think they'd be lovers in the end.It's the realities of their situations that eventually do bring them together and I found their realization of feelings completely real. This and the climax of the film make the ending not just dramatic but a fully realized and sensible conclusion.Ten stars from me to the late Natahsa Richardson & Lynn Redgrave both who were gone by the time I had seen this. Bravo to you both and all involved. (END)

kyrat For someone whose family went through this, it was a very emotional film to watch. My great-grandparents and grandparents lived in Shanghai from the about the twenties to the early fifties. Watching this, and imagining my family having to go through similar issues made it hard to watch for me.It meant a lot to get a glimpse of what Shanghai might've been like in those years, what living there as a refuge was like, being driven out by the communists, having to flee to yet another country. This was something they did not like to speak of, so I did not have much knowledge of it. On the other side of my family, my great-grandmother could not get a visa along with my grandparents and their kids so she stayed behind and died in France, so I also understand the heartbreak of leaving one behind.Which brings me to my one problem with the film -is the way the family treated Sofia. Yes, they were probably too proud (willing to live off her but not work themselves), very judgemental of her, ashamed of her - but I can not imagine them purposefully leaving someone behind! It would have made more sense if the French consulate who was pursuing Sofia would refuse to give her a visa in retaliation for his snub.There will be many thing probably lost on most people. For example, the movie title plays on her name means WHITE and from czarist Russians being referred to as "white" Russians. Those who understand Russian will get more from the background dialogue and the caberet acts. Those descended from "white" Russians may recognize that certain nostalgia and a certain deluded belief that they could recreate their lost world (or the belief that when the communists were defeated, everything would go back to life pre-1917). A struggle to hold onto as much of the culture, way of life and religion seemed to be very prevalent. Unfortunately, the anti-semitism may also ring true (having already been prevalent in Russian and exacerbated by the revolution). I think others will also enjoy it. The sets, costumes, general mis-en-scene seems very realistic. It has exceptionally fine actors, Ralph Fiennes, Natasha Richardson and Hiroyuki Sanada and others. I would say it's worth a watch for most people - though they may not get as much out of the film as a Russian descendant, it's still quite good.