Cast: Madonna, Sean Penn, Paul Freeman.

Shanghai 1937. Sean Penn teams up with then wife Madonna in a vintage plot set in age old China. Gloria Tatlock (Madonna) is a missionary/nurse befriends Glendon Wasey (Sean Penn) trying to track down a shipment of stolen stash of high-grade opium meant to help her patients and worth a thousand pounds', the hidden legacy of a murdered drug smuggler.. Glendon reluctantly teams up with her, more because he needs to raise enough money to make his papers and return ...    to the U.S. Gloria and her companion prowl the streets of Shanghai in search of ‘Faraday's Flowers’ the local code phrase for the missing opium. Or at least, they think it's opium. Unfortunately, every smuggler and gangster in Shanghai is also after it. There’s fairly interesting rickshaw chase, gunfire and a lot of sex too.. Incidentally ‘Faraday's Flowers’ is also the name of the book by Tony Kenrick.

Produced by ex – Beatle member George Harrison who also wrote and sang the score, the guitarist also appears in a nightclub as a singer in the movie.

Shanghai Surprise was the winner of a 1987 Razzie for Madonna's performance. The film was also dishonored by Razzie with nominations for Worst Actor (Sean Penn), Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, and the penultimate prize of Worst Picture.

While the tabloids claimed that the duo Sean and Madonna had chemistry in real life, those sparks never showed up on the screen though the love scenes are an exception. Shanghai Surprise was sufficient proof that Madonna had a long way to go to be an actress. Though the duo were married prior to the movie, sadly the marriage didn’t last and the movie probably paved the way to a divorce by 1989.

A good pick for die hard fans Madonna who have longed to see her on the silver screen since her last date with ‘Beautiful Stranger’.

Rating: ****

Reviewed by Verus Ferreira