Rumble In The Bronx

Rumble in the Bronx (Hung Fan Kui) (1995)

Runtime: I saw the United States edit, which is 89 minutes long

Directed by: Stanley Tong

Starring: Jackie Chan, Francoise Yip, Anita Mui, Marc Akerstream, Bill Tung

From: New Line Cinema/Golden Harvest

As typical, a messageboard discussion sparked my viewing choice for last night. A thread has mentioned Jackie Chan more than once as of late and this time, the late Cantonese singer Anita Mui was also mentioned; she was in a few Chan films but this had been the only one I had ever seen, the last viewing more than 20 years ago. Thus, it made sense to choose this film, the one that finally allowed Chan to become a star in North America. It is the truncated version put out by New Line Cinema; the official Hong Kong cut may be impossible for me to find streaming so I had no choice here. Indeed, it won’t exclusively be creepy, crawly films for me during the month of October.

The plot is simple: Jackie visits his uncle in New York City. Uncle marries a local in the Bronx so they go off on honeymoon while Jackie stays in town and runs into nefarious characters, stolen diamonds, a boy in a wheelchair, and Mui as a lady who purchases uncle’s Chinese market. To be frank, the movie is better than my faint memories suggested it was. Just why I felt this way is unclear; the action is pretty rad between the martial arts scenes that blew my mind in the mid-90’s, all the carnage that transpires throughout and the uniquely destructive finale.

The story itself is not revolutionary although at least there are laughs that coincide with the A-hole heels & a surprisingly genuine optimistic viewpoint on humanity—friendship & forgiveness is actually a plot point. It’s not the best Chan I’ve ever seen yet it was still a lot of fun, even w/ dubbing that wasn’t the best nor most convincing. Mui’s role-albeit small-at least brought the biggest laughs, especially the final few minutes she was on screen.

She is someone I hardly know anything about, except that she died from cancer way too young. There is a recent biographical film about her… which is not legally available for streaming in the United States. Perhaps one day, but regardless, Rumble in the Bronx was a journey I was happy to have made.