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Mikael Hafstrom

Shanghai * Mikael Håfström (2010)

During WWII marine officer Paul Soames goes undercover to Shanghai because a colleague is in trouble. Shanghai is the only Chinese city not occupied by Japan, but the Japanese presence is evident and the Japanese in fact control the streets with their violent police force. Soames pretends to be a journalist and tries to work himself into the strange web connecting all kinds of (political) groups, ties that seem unlikely. He soon discovers how his colleague got himself into trouble and has to fight the currents himself. “Shanghai” has the atmosphere of a 50’ies film and the acting and story are alright, but overal it is not a that interesting film. A bit of a history lesson perhaps.

1408 * Mikael Håfström (2007)

We watched this film during holidays, it was the ‘best’ we could get… Mike Enslin (John Cusack) is a writer about ghost phenomena. He visits places that are supposedly hunted and writes books about his experiences, doing financially well. When he tries to visit room 1408 of some hotel where Gerard Olin (Samuel L. Jackson) is manager, it takes some effort to get the room booked. Once there, Enslin experiences a poltergeist going crazy on him which (of course) is supposed to make a scary film. Instead, every ghost-film clichee is presented without much originality and overall the film is pretty dull.