01-08-2010, 03:05 PM
A Jackie Chan flick with no kung fu? Yep. And it's pretty damn engaging.
This came out in early 2009 in Asia, but hasn't been released in the U.S. Jackie is an illegal Chinese immigrant in Japan's Shinjuku ghetto. He becomes a cold blooded murderer, a mob leader, bangs prostitutes and drinks a lot. It's gritty, with some visceral violence - although Jackie does fight, he doesn't bust out any kung fu moves at all. There are two semi-signature moments when Jackie blocks someone with a table and when he jumps off a ladder, but that's so subtle in compared to his typical choreography. SI echoes Scarface except instead of Latinos in Miami, it's Chinese in Japan. Instead of a drug cartel, it's traditional yakuza grappling with modern times. Instead of guns, it's mostly machete, tanto and a few katana (guns are illegal in Japan). It's got a small time feel, like Infernal Affairs (inspiration for the Departed and a far better film, sans Jack of course) They start with petty phone card and pachinko scams, then escalate to some crazy gang wars. Good stuff. Daniel Wu turns it a great performance. Jackie still plays the underdog with the heart of gold, but in a totally different setting, and makes it strangely convincing. The only part that was incredulous was his romances with Fan Bingbing and Xu Jinglei, two hot Asian starlets who's combined ages are just a little more than Jackie's age.
It's an amazing artistic leap for Jackie. According to IMDB, this was Jackie's 100th film. As I was watching, Jackie was on Conan hawking Spy Next Door. So I stopped in the middle of this ultravi groundbreaking Jackie flick to see him doing his kung fu clown schtick with Conan. In Asia, Jackie is still edgy, still exploring new frontiers as an actor. Here in America, he's pigeon-holed so bad, but he obviously doesn't care, and will don the ol' kung fu Chinaman act for Hollywood. Why should he care? He's conquered Hollywood in his own weird way. He's still a force in Asia, and he's even conquered Bollywood. At 55, Jackie still rocks.
BTW, this is prep work for my Spy Next Door review. ;-)
This came out in early 2009 in Asia, but hasn't been released in the U.S. Jackie is an illegal Chinese immigrant in Japan's Shinjuku ghetto. He becomes a cold blooded murderer, a mob leader, bangs prostitutes and drinks a lot. It's gritty, with some visceral violence - although Jackie does fight, he doesn't bust out any kung fu moves at all. There are two semi-signature moments when Jackie blocks someone with a table and when he jumps off a ladder, but that's so subtle in compared to his typical choreography. SI echoes Scarface except instead of Latinos in Miami, it's Chinese in Japan. Instead of a drug cartel, it's traditional yakuza grappling with modern times. Instead of guns, it's mostly machete, tanto and a few katana (guns are illegal in Japan). It's got a small time feel, like Infernal Affairs (inspiration for the Departed and a far better film, sans Jack of course) They start with petty phone card and pachinko scams, then escalate to some crazy gang wars. Good stuff. Daniel Wu turns it a great performance. Jackie still plays the underdog with the heart of gold, but in a totally different setting, and makes it strangely convincing. The only part that was incredulous was his romances with Fan Bingbing and Xu Jinglei, two hot Asian starlets who's combined ages are just a little more than Jackie's age.
It's an amazing artistic leap for Jackie. According to IMDB, this was Jackie's 100th film. As I was watching, Jackie was on Conan hawking Spy Next Door. So I stopped in the middle of this ultravi groundbreaking Jackie flick to see him doing his kung fu clown schtick with Conan. In Asia, Jackie is still edgy, still exploring new frontiers as an actor. Here in America, he's pigeon-holed so bad, but he obviously doesn't care, and will don the ol' kung fu Chinaman act for Hollywood. Why should he care? He's conquered Hollywood in his own weird way. He's still a force in Asia, and he's even conquered Bollywood. At 55, Jackie still rocks.
BTW, this is prep work for my Spy Next Door review. ;-)
Shadow boxing the apocalypse