According to Taiwan newspaper United Daily News, which just had a phone interview with Gong Li's manager, Chow Yun-Fat and Ken Watanabe will join Gong Li and John Cusack in Swedish director Mikael Håfström's new thriller Shanghai. The story tells an American journalist (Cusack) comes to Shanghai just before the attack on Pearl Harbor and discovers his friend has been killed. This city has already fallen into the hand of the Japanese with a small district being jointly-controlled by major western powers. He falls in love with a beautiful woman (Gong), whose husband (Chow) is the boss of a powerful local gang. Watanabe will play a Japanese military officer. While trying to uncover the truth behind the death of his friend, the journalist discovers a much larger secret the US government is hiding.
As shown on MonkeyPeaches - Edited for this blog
UPDATED: TRANSLATION OF FIRST HALF OF UDN ARTICLE
CHOW YUN FAT TO ACT AS SHANGHAI DAI GO (GANG BOSS) ONCE AGAIN
Film stars Chow Yun Fat and Gong Li are to work together again in an new English Language film "Shanghai", again acting an unhappy couple! The background story of this film is the Shanghai of the Second World War. Gong Li is a famous singer in a fashionable Shanghai night club, and Chow Yun Fat is the boss of a "Hak Se Wui" - a criminal gang - who is her mentor and "looks after" her. However, after meeting an American reporter Gong Li finds true love, and courageously leaves Chow Yun Fat. Love turns into hatred in Chow Yun Fat, who mobilizes all the power of his gang to take revenge. "Shanghai" is to be made by an American film company, the Weinstein Company, in their first production made on the Chinese mainland. This English language film will be filmed in Shanghai after the Spring Festival, and is already in the last stages of fund-raising. A month ago, the film company signed up Gong Li.......having got Chow Yun Fat's preliminary agreement to play the role of villain. The article goes on to discuss Chow Yun Fat's decision to play the chief villain again, and concludes he is doing it to develop his acting skills.
As shown on Chow-Yun-Fat.De forum
