10 replies to this topic

[YOLT]

Watching Skyfall I was amazed how beautiful and "improved" Shangai was. After watching the third world country images of Turkey ( I am Turkish ), I was shocked the way they filmed China. It seemed the Chineese goverment paid money to the producers.
Ofcourse China is developing in a great way, but I had the feeling that 007 procuders are being let to film China if they show the country impeccable.

I dont argue that Turkey is a rich country. We dont have those skyscraper's here. ( I am thankful we dont. ) However they spent 3 months here, they could have shot 5 or 10 seconds from the Bosphorus, the Golden Horn etc.

Anyway From Russia With Love does everything right.

[Dustin]

Mod note: title edited.

[NATO Sub]

I think the parts in Shanghai (the airport - which was actually not Shanghai airport) were set in the more "corporate" bits, they were all in fairly new areas, recently developed. Showing a city at night always looks cleaner - you can see all the lights, but none of the dirt!

If it's any consolation, it made me want to visit Istanbul more than Shanghai... I've been to plenty of big shiny corporate cities dominated by cars, but Istanbul came across as being more interesting - to me anyway

[dogmanstar]

Well, I don't think that it was particularly important that is was Shanghai per se--it could have been Dubai or any new major metropolitan area--former East Berlin is fantastic these days. I think they were looking for fresh and new and techno. It might have made a difference if most of the film was shot there--but the Shanghai sequence was relatively short.

[Pussfeller]

Yeah, it could have been Minneapolis.

[JCRendle]

The fact that China is in the film could help with the Chinese Box Office numbers...

[HellIsHere]

You cannot compare between oranges and apples.

[marktmurphy]

Both of the sequences could have been set anywhere, really. The globe-trotting is very arbitrary in this one. At least Die Another Day had to be set in Korea, Cuba, Hong Kong and even Iceland to an extent: there were valid and specific story reasons for each.

In Skyfall the Istanbul sequence could have been set in Swindon and it would have made no difference- high bridges, trains and markets can be found anywhere. In neither do they interact with the locals. Shanghai just needed somewhere with tall buildings and a sex trade. Komodo dragons were probably the most amount of local flavour there. Silva's island could have been anywhere at all, in fact there's barely anything to indicate where it is. We have to conclude it's a night's sail from Macau but other than that... looks a bit like Spain.

[Chief of SIS]

I think that choosing to paint Shanghai the way they did was not a choice to reflect reality, but a choice to aesthetically distinguishing itself from the film's other locations. Turkey's vibrant scene with gorgeous landscapes played perfectly against Shanghai's neon jungle. I think the fact that one location was portrayed at night compared to the day completely alters how a mood has to be set. It is almost more productive to compare London and Turkey, which I think London was stereotyped in its own way. And Scotland...well...Scotland was Scotland.

Yeah, it could have been Minneapolis.

False. People are not wearing enough layers.

[Vauxhall]

As has been said elsewhere, Istanbul was only used because Mumbai was too difficult logistically.

Now, obviously I can't be sure that Shanghai was always the first choice for its part of the movie, but comments from Alexander Witt, Dennis Gassner and Michael Lerman all suggest it was chosen due to the fairly unique neon blue highways and gaudy skyscrapers, and the sharp juxtaposition this gave compared to the sombre tones of wintry London.

[YOLT]

I think the parts in Shanghai (the airport - which was actually not Shanghai airport) were set in the more "corporate" bits, they were all in fairly new areas, recently developed. Showing a city at night always looks cleaner - you can see all the lights, but none of the dirt!

If it's any consolation, it made me want to visit Istanbul more than Shanghai... I've been to plenty of big shiny corporate cities dominated by cars, but Istanbul came across as being more interesting - to me anyway

Thank you there. I am sure that Scotland aslo has much to offer than what we have seen in Skyfall. I think its a problem of time, older Bond movies had less locations filmed but had more time spent there.