 Shido Nakamura (qv) does not speak Mandarin, but he needed to in  the film, so he found a tutor, even though the director told him to  just memorize and recite the sounds. He also tried watching TV  channels in Shanghai, but it wasnt a week later until one of the  film crew noticed that he was watching a Cantonese channel, which of  course, speaks Cantonese, not Mandarin.