Developed as a micro-budget indie film, the original production crew set out to write a story based in China, where they believe it would be cheap to shoot.

The film follows Johnson as he makes his journey through Shanghai to achieve his dreams, from nightclubs to market streets, after becoming involved with scam artists Magnus (Dan Sumpter) and Olive (Syna Zhang).

[1] This resulted in one instance in which a London-based production company’s offer had to be rejected because they deemed the crew’s guerilla shooting style too risky and wanted to switch filming locations to Hong Kong instead.

[1] Krant insisted that Shanghai’s cityscape was essential to providing production value since it was “inherently visually exciting” and has yet to be fully explored by the indie lens.

[5] After approaching director Krant about the situation, Kuehn described her temperament was akin to that of "a king cobra about to strike a blind burrowing rodent" and he concurred.

[4] The film was shot in High Definition at 720p, 24 frames per second, with natural lighting being utilised in the majority of the sets and was edited in Final Cut Pro by Sumpter, Victoria Mauch, Bart Rachmil.

[7][24][25] Honolulu Star-Advertiser's Burl Burlingame called it "a thoroughly charming, quirkily funny independent film with a standout performance that would never have been touched in a million years by a major studio".

[27] A sentiment that is echoed by Richard Whittaker of The Austin Chronicle, who called the film a "semi improvised comedy" that "dances charmingly between the ingenuity of human inventiveness and the deviousness of the duplicity people commit on each other.

"[14] Addington further gave notice to director Krant's influence on Made in China citing that: "Her own ingenuity helped mark the film as a stand out at festivals this year.

"[14] Scott Roxborough of The Hollywood Reporter called the film a "globalization comedy" and "crowd-pleaser", referring to it as a story of an inventor "who follows his American dream all the way to Shanghai.

"[5] Hope referred to both Kuehn and Krant as "the real deal" and recommended Made in China to audiences as a piece of "diverse & unique film culture" which showcased ambitious indie film-making, one that created a lot from very little.

[5] Duane Byrge of The Hollywood Reporter praised the two main actors’ performances for how convincing they were, with Jackson Kuehn as the good-natured Texan and Sumpter as a versatile scammer.

[20] The film’s cinematography, shot on the run, had mixed reception: with some, like Byrge and Pride, appreciative of its “droll” and composition[15][20] whilst others like Variety's Alissa Simon criticizing it for being amateurish.