The footage, July 27 -- LONDON - The cinema lights go down on a film that took four decades to find an audience. WHAM! 10 Days In China, directed by Mike Christie and distributed by Trafalgar Releasing, opens in theaters today, a document of the 1985 concerts that made George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley the first Western pop group to perform in the People's Republic of China.

"It did achieve its purpose, but it was a bold and risky gambit."

The gambit was not, as the mythology has long suggested, primarily about China. Simon Napier-Bell, who managed WHAM! at the time, conceived the tour as a transatlantic maneuver. Michael was reluctant to commit to the grueling schedule of American arena tours. A China debut - unprecedented, globally c...