Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Movie Talk - Jackie Chan

Next up, I’m looking at someone I’ve barely talked about here: Chan Kong-sang. For those who don’t know, his professional name is Jackie Chan. I think it’s safe to say that Chan’s one of the best actors to come from China. The guy’s done a lot in 50 years, so I obviously haven’t seen all of his filmography. The first I ever heard of him was a trailer for Rumble in The Bronx. Since then, I seen a lot more of his American-made and Chinese-made films.

I think one reason I’ve barely talked about him here is because there are so many movies. I’ve only mentioned him in a post and talked about his Bruceploitation movie, New Fist of Fury. So, I might as well continue from there since it did get better… I think. Today, I got five movies. I was planning on doing a movie from each decade, but it looks like I’m only making it to the 90’s today. Someone had gotten my dad a DVD set with some of Chan’s movies there. I also own The Legend of Drunken Master, so I tried to watch some over the last few days.


Magnificent Bodyguards
Magnificent Bodyguards was released in 1978. It also stars James Tien, an actor who co-starred with Bruce Lee in The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, and the original Game of Death. We even get the Lee clone, Leung Siu-lung, from The Dragon Lives Again. Here, Chan plays as Ting Chung, a powerful fighter. He and other fighters are hired to escort a woman’s sick brother to the doctor. If you think that sounds easy, just know that she is rich and the area (Stormy Hills) they’re going through is full of danger. During their journey, they run into bandits, evil monks, a criminal kingpin, and Darth Vader… wait, I think it was Jeff Vader. Thanks, Eddie Izzard!

So, this movie was pretty decent in the end. It’s a straight-up, old-school kung fu flick. It’s not too much in the style that Jackie Chan’s known for, but it’s kind of there. The story is a pretty simple one but it one that had an interesting twist toward the end. I liked Chan’s character, Tsang (James Tien), and Chang (Leung Siu-lung). The fight scenes here range from fine to pretty cool. One of my favorite ones was this where the three fighters fought a bunch of monks. The final fight was also pretty cool but then I get to the weirdness.

While I do like it, it’s not that good in spots. It could get kind of dull here and there. We got a really abrupt ending. Some shots during the fights were also really in your face. Apparently, this was one of the first Chinese movies to use 3D technology and it painfully shows. There were also a couple of places where the production got really cheap. Finally, there’s the Star Wars music to mention. Towards the end, we start getting a lot of reused music from A New Hope and it was hilarious in how it barely fit this movie. While Jackie Chan himself said that he doesn’t like this movie, I can’t call it a total loss.


Project A
Project A was released in 1983 and it also stars Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. It also takes place in the 19th century. IN the movie, Chan plays as Dragon Ma, an officer in the Hong Kong Coast Guard. They’re trying to stop pirate activity in the area but constantly get thwarted by gangs and corruption. The group even gets dismantled after another sabotage incident. Dragon decides to go rogue and team up with another associate in order to stop the pirates. It takes him a while, but he’s able to get more folk on his side to deal with the pirates.

I thought this movie was a blast. While the story was a simple one, it was a good one. The thing that made it all work for me was the characters, the comedy, and (of course) the action. I thought Chan’s character was cool and pretty funny. The same goes for pretty much every person in the movie. While it’s full of slapstick humor, it’s good humor. The movie also knows when to get serious too.

The action in the movie awesome. It’s fast-paced, fun, and well-done. Chan, Hung, and Biao made for a great trinity especially in that final fight. By the way, that is probably the best villain death I’ve seen in a movie. There really isn’t anything bad about the movie. Even the dub I saw wasn’t too bad. The story is a bit on the light side, though. Overall, Project A is one fun movie.


The Protector
Next up is The Protector and it was released in 1985. Just don’t get it confused with Tony Jaa’s movie nor a failed 2011 crime drama. This was actually Chan’s second attempt to make it in American markets when an earlier movie, Battle Creek Brawl, failed to do well over here. In the movie, Chan is Billy Wong, an NYPD officer. After his partner is killed, he’s placed with a new one, Danny Garoni (Danny Alielo). When the daughter of a wealthy man is kidnapped, Wong and Garoni get sent to Hong Kong since she was kidnapped by a Chinese drug kingpin. When they get over there, they constantly get into trouble.
Eh, I'd take Crockett and Tubbs, please.

If you ever wondered how Jackie Chan would look on Miami Vice, this is your cue. This movie was okay as a whole. It’s pretty much a dark buddy cop movie taking place in Hong Kong. Just throw in a lot of violence, swearing, and some unnecessary nudity for good measure. The action scenes were quite nice. You could tell that someone was trying to sell folk on Chan with all the okay stunts he does here. He doesn’t do anything too ballsy.

Other than the good action, that’s about all I can say that’s good about it. This was far from what Chan’s usual style and while that tends not to be a bad thing, it kind of is here. The story is not that great. It’s like they’re trying too hard with the cussing and the nudity. I can see why Chan later re-edited the movie for Chinese audiences. The raunchy stuff was removed and new stuff was added in. I kind of wonder if that version was better than the US version I saw. Chan’s next movie, Police Story, was done in reaction to this and most of you probably know how that went. Overall, it was alright but far from good.


Crime Story
Next up is Crime Story from 1993. It’s actually based around the true events surrounding the kidnapping of a Chinese businessman. In the movie, Chan plays as Inspector Eddie Chan of the Hong Kong Police Force. He’s assigned to watch over Wong Yat-fei, a businessman who believes he’s being followed. When Wong gets kidnapped by a group with a vendetta, Chan has to do all he can in order to get him back. It’s not helped that one of the kidnappers is also part of the police force. Inspector Hung Ting-bong (Kent Cheng) does what he can to get Chan off their trail.

I’m kind of shocked that I haven’t seen this movie until now. I thought this was a pretty good one. It’s not as flashy nor comedic like most of Chan’s movies. It’s a serious drama and it works. The story is pretty good for the most part. Chan plays this burnt-out officer who takes things really personally. Hung Ting-bong, the corrupt officer, was also a nice villain. The movie followed him as much as it did Chan. It was interesting to see those two go against each other.   

You only get a few action scenes and the kung-fu action doesn’t even come into until much later in the movie. What action we get is really good. The final action sequence was so well done.  There really isn’t nothing bad about the movie. The story can drag at times. Also, the dubbing wasn’t all that good at times. I think I remember why I try to watch foreign movies undubbed these days. Overall, it’s a good one. It may not be heavy on the action, but it still works well.


The Legend of Drunken Master
Finally, here is Drunken Master 2, aka The Legend of Drunken Master. It was originally released in 1994 but it was later released (and redubbed) in the U.S. in 2000. While it says it’s a sequel to 1978’s Drunken Master, it’s more of a reboot. In the movie, Chan reprises the role of folk hero, Wong Fei-hung. Wong gets caught up in a struggle between foreigners who are stealing Chinese artifacts and locals who want to keep their heritage in-country. While he is a gifted fighter, Wong’s father doesn’t want him using his style of drunken boxing. Things go downhill as he gets into some fights. Wong’s first experience with alcohol also doesn’t help things.

A couple of years ago, I said that this was one of my favorite movies from Jackie Chan. Now that I’ve seen it again, I can still can say that. Pretty much everything works in this movie. The story is a pretty good one and one that has some meat to it. Chan’s character is a little rebellious but pretty likable. I also liked Ting (Anita Mai), Wong’s stepmother. She was a hoot throughout the movie. The comedy was on point throughout the movie. It also knew when to get pretty serious too and it did that well.
Sweet.

Of course, the fight scenes are excellent. There’s no other word I can use. All of them are intricate, well-shot, fun, pretty risky, and straight-up cool. While the warehouse fight is awesome, my favorite one is Wong’s and Fu Wen-Chi’s fight against the Ax Gang. The dubbing (Chan actually dubbed himself) and music is also on point.

There really isn’t anything wrong with the movie. Yeah, you could say that Chan is too old for the character since he was pushing 40 by this time. It still works since he originally played Fei-hung and did all of those crazy stunts. It also ends pretty weird. It turns out that there was more to that ending. It got removed from the 2000 release and after seeing it on YouTube, I can see why. Other than those things and a couple of small nitpicks, this was pretty awesome.

……………………………………………………

Well, I gotta end this somewhere. Chan has done and is still doing good movies. I may make this a thing since there is a lot of his stuff out there. I’ve been wanting to touch on the Rush Hour movies but haven’t found the time to do that yet. All I know is that I really need to watch more Jackie Chan movies.

So, I’m at the end of another Martial Arts Month. Even though I started late again, it’s been good. There were some stuff I wanted to get to, but I’ll leave them for later. I may even get to some of that stuff later this year. For now, I think I’m really going to get back on the exercise train again. Peace, God Bless, and just know that Jackie Chan would make a good Jedi. 

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