Shanghai Surprise is a 1986 adventure comedy film directed by Jim Goddard and starring then-newlyweds Sean Penn and Madonna.

The only problem is that a lot of other people want to secure the stolen opium as well—gangsters, smugglers, thugs and a host of upstanding air force recruits.

In November 1985 it was announced Madonna and then newlywed husband Sean Penn had signed to do Shanghai Surprise with principal photography set to begin in Macau and Hong Kong by January 1986.

Their discontent led some crew members to spread gossip to the tabloid reporters on the scene, further inflaming the hostility between the press and the stars.

[2] Prior to release both Madonna and Penn attempted to distance themselves from the film with the two insisting their likenesses be removed from the tie-in novel from Viking Press a few days before it was set to hit printers.

[8] In the United States, however, as The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in October 1986, "The movie opened so poorly in its first wave of playdates (late August in the Northeast and Midwest) that MGM has made severe cuts in its marketing budget.

[11] Shanghai Surprise currently holds a 20% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 10 reviews, indicating generally negative responses.

Though widely anticipated as a musical, Shanghai Surprise is actually a kind of miniaturization of Raiders of the Lost Ark / Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, with a feisty heroine (Madonna) in the vain [sic] of Rita Hayworth in The Lady From Shanghai, and a roguish adventure hero (Sean Penn) as well as a pop-sprinkled score (partly the work of George Harrison)...

There's a plot here, involving Madonna's quest to find a load of hijacked opium for conversion to morphine to help the troops fighting the Japanese.

"[13] The Philadelphia Inquirer also gave it only 1 star: "Shanghai Surprise is so dismally scripted and directed that no one could redeem it... an atmospheric, handsomely shot and, sadly, utterly empty piece of work.

"[16] The Philadelphia Daily News faulted the casting as well as the script: "The ever-important spirit is missing as Mr. and Mrs. Penn wrestle with old gags that are beyond their ken.

"[17] The Chicago Sun-Times, awarding the movie half a star, complained of its "warped attitudes toward women," adding, "It's hard to know for whom this wretch of a film was made.