SHANGHAI SURPRISE
August 29, 1986
Directed by Jim Goddard
Madonna as Gloria Tatlock
A Romantic Adventure
For The Dangerous At Heart.
Shanghai Surprise (1986) is an adventure-comedy film directed by Jim Goddard and starring Madonna and Sean Penn. Loosely based on the novel Faraday’s Flowers by Tony Kenrick, the film is set in 1930s Shanghai and follows an unlikely partnership between a small-time American adventurer and a missionary nurse searching for a cache of stolen opium intended for medical use.
The film attracted significant media attention upon release, largely due to the real-life marriage of Madonna and Sean Penn at the time. It was produced by George Harrison through his company HandMade Films, and although its critical reception was generally poor, it remains a notable collaboration between the two actors.
Shanghai Surprise stars Sean Penn as Glendon Wasey, a quick-witted fortune hunter looking for a fast track out of China. Madonna is a determined missionary nurse seeking the cursing powers of opium for her patients. She wants to help the suffering.. he want boat fare back to the states- so fate sets them on a hectic, exotic, quixotic, and quite often romantic guest for stolen drugs. The trouble is, the opium they’re after is also the target of every thug and smuggler in Shanghai.
It’s a wild rickshaw race adventure with every concubine karate-killer and crime boss in town in hot pursuit. When the hottest star couple in America hit menacing streets of seaport China, you’re in for a Shanghai Surprise!!
