A refreshing new documentary manages to reframe the origins of one of the music world’s superstars through extensive restored visual and audio material. The result is closer to a visual essay along the lines of the Maysles Bros’ 1970 Rolling Stone film Gimme Shelter and is a credit to director Mike Christie, who intercuts original material with reflective contemporary footage revealing far more than we have heard or seen before.

The subject of Wham! 10 Days in China is the lead-up and aftermath of two groundbreaking gigs staged by the English pop group Wham! during April 1985. China had previously been sealed off from outside worldwide influences, and the Wham! tour would prove to be a test of how Chinese authorities and audiences would react to once-forbidden fruit.

The tour was a risky venture as the band agreed to filming by maverick British director Lindsay Anderson. This would capture the fun of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley on stage, with behind-the-scenes trials and tribulations alongside casual ventures by the musicians into Chinese street life.  The first gig in Beijing was awkward, with neither the band nor the audience genuinely connecting. Wham! became concerned as they were seen by the UK Foreign Office as key cultural ambassadors. The pop group were also not ready for paparazzi cameras and the discomfort of merciless scrutiny by mainly English press is captured by Anderson’s filming. The suicide of one of the band’s musicians casts a dark shadow, and George Michael is filmed opening up thoughts and feelings during a naked massage.

Wham! is under pressure to capture the lucrative American market through the televising of gigs. Will they make it? There is one more gig in the city of Guangzhou, which benefits from the more liberal influence of Hong Kong. The result elevates George Michael into superstardom and is a triumph for the power of music to transform lives. There is irony attached to lyrics including “I don’t want your freedom girl …all I want right now is you”. At one stage, a euphoric young Chinese man shouts out: “He (George Michael) is the sexy one,” and the Careless Whisper performance takes on exciting new depth.

The choice of Lindsay Anderson was bold as he was known to bite the hand that fed, and his fiercely anti-establishment views included the groundbreaking student-in-revolt classic IF… (1968). Unfortunately, the clash between Anderson and the pop group became apparent. Anderson suffered a debilitating accident, and when George Michael was described as a genius, Anderson commented on the singer’s reaction as that of an “insecure egotistical 21-year-old.”

Andrew Ridgely simply says now that they just did not like Anderson, although this is undermined by general knowledge that both the 62-year-old filmmaker and George Michael were closeted gay men during the 1980’s.   Anderson’s completed documentary titled If You Were There, intended to observe curiosity between a couple of young pop musicians and feudal Chinese communities, was viewed as less WHAM! pop video, more a film about China. A new cut re-edited by Andrew Morahan titled Wham! In China: Foreign Skies had one screening in June 1986 at Wembley Stadium before 72,000 fans. This was also withdrawn and remained so with the death of George Michael in 2016.

There is irony that the loss of the original film offered a unique crossover involving film and music with Wham!10 Days in China sympathetically recognising the film that never was while celebrating the making of a superstar. The result is a subtle triumph breathing life into its subject matter. Get ready to dust down vinyl/cassette tapes and embrace one of the music world’s most charismatic singers and a batch of some of the greatest pop songs of the 80s.       

IN CINEMAS WORLDWIDE FROM JULY 28TH 2026