Runtime:
101 minutes
Directed
by: Jackie Chan
Starring:
Jackie Chan, Maggie Cheung, Brigitte Lin, Bill Tung, Yuen Chor
From:
Golden Harvest
As
I said recently, on Letterboxd I decided to mainly watch foreign
films for the month of June. I decided to kick it off a night early
(and I was tied up with things so that's why this is technically
posted on Saturday the 1st of June) and watch something I
recently found on Blu-Ray; I have seen this once before but that was
at least 15 years ago from a VHS tape that may have been a cut
version. I got it from a local mom & pop store. I remember
enjoying it at the time, and thankfully I still enjoy it in 2013.
The
plot: Chan Ka-Kui is a cop in Hong Kong. Almost on his own he
captures notorious drug lord Chu Tao (but not before he and the bad
guys destroy a shantytown in an impressive scene). He is then
assigned to protect the secretary for Chu, who is being forced to
testify against him. Things go wrong via a comedy of errors and Chu
is set free. Other things happen and there is plenty of crazy action
to watch, from the destruction of a shantytown to a whole lot of
sugar glass being destroyed in a local mall... among other things
that happened at that mall.
From
what I understand, Chan said in his autobiography that this was his
favorite action film he ever did, and well, he's done dozens of them
by now. It's understandable why he thinks that way. Sure, at times
the Chan character in the movie comes off as an asstagonist
(especially when dealing with his girlfriend May) but otherwise this
is a quality action/comedy that holds up in 2013. The comedy mostly
is pretty funny, whether it be gags (accidentally recording something
with the witness which out of context sounds like Chan and the
witness were having sexual intercourse; that was one of the few
things from the movie I remembered before seeing it again tonight),
wordplay, or physical humor. And the action still hits, as a lot of
it is craziness due to Chan doing all his own stunts, and you have
shootouts, him chasing after a bus, and of course his martial arts
and death-defying stunts, where sometimes he literally does defy
death due to doing such insane things and somehow not ending up in a
wheelchair for trying such things.
So
yep, this is still a satisfying action movie that can be enjoyed in
modern times. I tend to reallly enjoy the good Jackie films (there
certainly are some bad ones out there, though.... The Tuxedo...
shudders. I don't want to watch that again even to roast it!) but
even with that, I recommend this. I'll be back on Sunday night; I'll
see a movie from a European country, but I don't know which one yet.
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