CZ12

Elizabeth Kerr started her review by saying, “The latest globetrotting romp by martial arts action star Jackie Chan, opening Dec. 20 in Hong Kong, is the kind of mindless, silly romp the multi-hyphenate has become known for. CZ12 (sometimes Chinese Zodiac) couldn’t be a more inauspicious swan song if he tried, if such rumors are to be believed.” As a mercenary tomb raider trying to find ancient Chinese sculptures Chan is starting to show his age. With the exception of one main fight sequence he leaves the larger load to his younger costars and depends on either green screen for his large moments – or does them from a standing position. That isn’t what we wanted to see when we watch a Chan film.

Kerr noted, “Clocking in at just over two hours and with a remarkable dearth of the martial acrobatics Chan is known for, there’s little to recommend the film for anyone other than Chan completists.” The film was released in 2012 in Hong Kong the same week as the better family films of “Wreck-It Ralph,” popular box office disaster of the last “Twilight” film, and only days before “Les Misérables.” Kerr said, “It’s going to be an uphill battle for this vehicle, particularly in light of recent comments in the press (“taken out of context” naturally) where Chan whined about Hongkongers being too quick to exert their right to free speech. It hasn’t endeared him to the public and a backlash wouldn’t be at all surprising.”

Still, it’s a Jackie Chan movie and his fans all over are legion. Kerr mentioned, “CZ12 is aggressively multi-national and designed for maximum market appeal: the cast hails form South Korea, China, the USA and France, is spoken in four languages and was shot in Paris, Taiwan and the South Pacific among others. Chan is still a brand even if it is a diminished one, and he broadened his reach when he went down the slapstick road with 1995’s Rumble in the Bronx (complete with Canada Post mailboxes visible in the background). The kids in the audience rarely stopped giggling, and so reasonably healthy box office returns should be expected in Asia where slapstick plays well, and the content will make it an enormous hit in China.” Overseas the film is going to have to depend on viewer concern and brand loyalty. “CZ12” should just go away from Chan’s work sooner rather than later.

As the leader of a clever group of Indiana Jones-type archeological crooks, JC, played by Chan, has a good living stealing rare antiquities from abandoned areas of the planet and giving them to auction houses. When the evil president of the MP Corporation (Oliver Pratt) hires him to find the last of the missing bronze zodiac animal heads from the old Summer Palace in Beijing, he meets the annoying, self-righteous Coco (Yao Xingtong), a member of an annoying, self-righteous activist group wanting to return national treasures to their rightful owners – which is mostly China. They end up on an island where a French woman that’s really going through a bad moment, Katherine, played by Laura Weissbecker, says her grandfather’s ship became stranded coming back from China. Kerr mentioned, “Great, more stolen treasure for Coco to get indignant about! After about five minutes of introspection JC finds his soul and decides to steal for the right reasons.”

Whatever someone believes about historical modesty and national rights, “CZ12” is not the place to debate that, and after the third lecture on the foreign raiders and auction houses that come from the 19^th century loots, the subject just becomes tiresome. Kerr said, “No matter how valid the argument, it’s cocooned inside some truly awful paint-by-numbers filmmaking with dull characters, wooden acting and at least two moments of dreadful compositing.” No one thinks Chan will come out with the next “Citizen Kane,” but we do look for a certain level of enjoyment. This is mostly lazy, with a lot of lapses in logic and continuity. A final warehouse fight with Lawrence’s henchman Vulture (Alaa Safi) in and around a sofa set and then a group of thugs is the creative highlight, however JC’s right hand Bonnie (Zhang Lanxin) and her opponent (Caitlin Dechelle) is far more enjoyment. Kerr noted, “If Chan were half the patriot he claims he is, he’d put his considerable resources as a producer into finding the next Jackie Chan; Jet Li is only slightly younger, leaving Donnie Yen as Hong Kong’s sole marital star.” If this ended up being Chan’s last movie it would have been easy to see why. Even the end credit outtakes were not enjoyable as the previous ones.

As you can see, I wasn’t really impressed with this film. As with a lot of other trilogies, this one is the black sheep of the trilogy. It is definitely one that I would not recommend, sadly, especially if you were fans of the last two movies. Sorry, but this is one that you can give a past, even though I think they are planning a sequel.

Well everyone, thank you for joining in on “Jackie Chan Month.” I hope everyone enjoyed it and stay tuned next month where I will look at a famous franchise that Jackie Chan starred in. Now I know I said this is the end of “Jackie Chan Month,” but that’s only because I want to review the franchise that he starred in. Stay tuned next month to find out which one I’m referring to.

Operation Condor

The fact that Jackie Chan does every single one of his own stunts shows a type of intensity to the ability of watching his movies: An actual person in actual time is performing something dangerous. Roger Ebert said, “There's an element of Evel Knievel to it. And also an element of Buster Keaton, because Chan is above all a silent comedian, who depends on broad humor and timing to make action comedies in which the violence is secondary ("No guns!'' he likes to shout).”

Even though Chan does his own stunts, obviously they are stunts – safety precautions are taken, and camera angles are chosen to make things look more difficult than they are. Sometimes there is even a type of awkwardness which makes the realism even more helpful.

For example, early in “Operation Condor,” released in 1991, Jackie puts on a hang-gliding uniform powered by an airplane engine, starts it up, and runs with increasing anxiety across a field, trying to get airborne. Eventually, he does. Ebert noted, “In a slicker action picture, the flight would have been effortless. It's more fun to watch Chan sweating a little. And that's really him in the air.”

Ebert admitted, “There are a couple of other stunts in the film that had me seriously impressed. In one of them, Chan is hanging from a beam near the roof of a warehouse. A car catapults through the air, straight at him. He swings up out of the way and the car misses him. It looked to me as if trick photography wasn't involved; there was a real car, and perfect timing. In another stunt, he leaps from a motorcycle speeding off a pier, and grabs a safe hold on a fisherman's net. And there's a wonderfully choreographed fight above odd flat moving steel platforms high above a hangar floor.”

Even the little moments are a type of excellence. Chan jumps against a wall, pushes off to the similar wall, and leaps over a gate in the wall. The stunt joins an acrobat’s skill with a dancer’s style. Then there are scenes where he jokes himself, like when he rescues a baby carriage in the middle of a fast chase, or when he makes a quick escape by bouncing down a hill inside what looks like a giant inflated volleyball.

“Operation Condor” was originally released in Asia in 1991 with the prefix “Armour of God II.” Chan is the writer, director and star. The plot is about as hilarious as most of his movies. A European count tasks him on behalf of the United Nations to find Nazi loot – a fortune in gold buried in the North African desert near the end of World War II. Chan is given a sidekick, an agent named Ada (Carol Cheng) and eventually collects two more beautiful women: Elsa (Eva Cobo De Garcia), who is the granddaughter of the Nazi who hid the gold, and Momoko (Shoko Ikeda), an innocent soul they encounter in the desert, who is searching for the meaning of life and death, and keeps a pet scorpion.

Ebert noted, “It's a little dizzying, the way the movie switches locations from the desert to Arab bazaars to fleabag hotels to a really elaborate set representing some kind of long-lost Nazi headquarters with a built-in wind tunnel that stars in the final action scene. (There is a bomb in the buried headquarters, and in a nod to period detail, it has a countdown timer that uses analog hands instead of a digital readout.)” The screenplay takes a little break for as minimal dialogue as possible (“Look out behind you!” “Take this!”) and gives a couple of teams of bad guys who motivations are barely told – but then what do we really need to know, except that they want the gold and are enemies of Jackie? Ebert noted, “Most action pictures are, at some level, a little mean-spirited: They depend upon macho brutes getting their way. Jackie Chan is self-effacing, a guy who grimaces when he's hurt, who dusts himself off after close calls, who goes for a gag instead of a gun. He brings that light-hearted persona to the fact that he is also a superb athlete and does amazing things in every film.” There’s a type of innocence to everything, and an enjoyment of performance. Half of the time, you see yourself putting on a silly grin.

If you liked “Armour of God,” then you should see this movie. Remember; make sure to see “Armour of God” first since that technically came before. “Operation Condor” is the sequel, even though it was released in the USA first. Despite that, if you’re a Jackie Chan fan, this is the one for you, especially if you’re a fan of older, classic Chan films.

Look out next week for the latest in this trilogy in the finale of “Jackie Chan Month.”

Armour of God

Originally titled “Armour of God,” Jackie Chan’s 1986 expensive, enjoying version of the “Indian Jones” series was so popular in Asia that it led to a slightly related sequel, “Operation Condor.” After the latter was released in America, the earlier film had gone through a title change to make it look like the sequel, and went straight to US video in 1998 as “Operation Condor: The Armour of God” (with a completely different title on the video box art, “Operation Condor 2: The Armour of the Gods!”).

Stealing an ancient sword from an African tribe, adventurer Jackie, played by Jackie Chan, known as the Asian Hawk, uses martial arts and amazing stuntwork to effect his escape. After auctioning the sword, he is reunited with his old friend, pop-singer Alan (Alan Tam), to help rescue Alan’s girlfriend Laura (Rosamund Kwan), the girl that came between them when they all played in a band together. TV Guide said in their review, “Demanded as ransom is the legendary Armour of God, of which the sword is part.” Borrowing the Armour from an affluent Count – on condition that they take his daughter May, played by Lola Forner, along on the journey – they fight with the kidnappers, a group of monks who live in a mountain monastery. Sneaking inside the iron grip, they easily rescue Laura, not knowing that she has been drugged and tasked to retrieve the Armour.

That’s what she does, bring a drugged Alan with her. TV Guide noted, “Jackie breaks back into the monastery and rescues them both, along the way fighting battalions of monks and a group of wickedly acrobatic leather-clad women.” In the end, he rather accidentally dynamites the monastery, escaping by diving off the mountain onto a hot-air balloon controlled by Alan, Laura and May.

TV Guide mentioned, “In 1982, Eric Tsang had directed pop singer Sam Hui in the first of the immensely popular ACES GO PLACES films--a globe-hopping, stunt-filled, action comedy series featuring a suave, international rogue/jewel thief and his inept comic rival. For ARMOUR OF GOD, Tsang was enlisted as director and traveled to Yugoslavia along with numerous of Hong Kong's filmmaking elite.” Filming stopped when on the second take of a small stunt, Chan fell from a tree and cracked his skull open, needing an emergency surgery where he needed a permanent plug. (The accident and its result are shown during the end credits). When filmmaking continued, Chan was director.

Playing a pop singer was barely difficult for Alan Tam, who is one in real life. Several of his songs (one a duet with Chan) and footage from an actual concert are thrown into the film. TV Guide mentioned, “With filming taking place in France and Austria, they naturally turned to Lola Forner, who had previously appeared with Chan in WHEELS ON MEALS (1983) and was, according to Chan, "the only European actress we knew."” Her character completely is absent about two-thirds of the way in, when the serious fighting is about to start. Not long afterwards, with Jackie entering the fortress for the second time, the film starts escape velocity, moving straight from one amazing set piece to another, with no moment between to take a break. TV Guide ended their review by saying, “The opening scene, recognizable as Eric Tsang's original footage by Chan's uncommonly short haircut, is another gem of wild, sustained action.”

Another classic of Jackie Chan’s that everyone needs to see. If you haven’t seen it, don’t read this review. Go out and see this right now because it’s a must for every Jackie Chan fan.

Look out next week when I look at the sequel, “Operation Condor,” in “Jackie Chan Month.”

Rumble in the Bronx

Here’s how Roger Ebert started his review of “Rumble in the Bronx,” released in 1996, “The movie uses the flimsiest of plots as an excuse to string together astonishing action sequences in which Chan exhibits the physical grace and athletic control of a Buster Keaton.”

The flow of the movie becomes predictable. There’s mechanical dialogue (involving the throwaway story), villains show up, and Jackie Chan starts to fight. He uses the martial arts to beat up the entire gang, yes, but he also uses whatever tools and props are nearby. In “Rumble in the Bronx,” there’s a part where he uses refrigerators, another one where he improvises with furniture, one where there’s a perfect timing with a knife and another fight – in a grocery store – where he does something amazing with a grocery cart.

Jackie Chan is famous for always doing his own stunts and his fans really wait for the end of his films, because they know that while the closing credits roll they’ll see outtakes of the stunts that went wrong. “Rumble in the Bronx” has that at the end. There’s one scene where Jackie Chan jumps off the top of a building and lands on a fire escape landing across an alley and two or three floors below. He broke his ankle there. In the outtakes, we can see ambulances arriving, blood all over, and lots of laughs as Chan hides a cast under his blue jeans for the next day’s shooting.

However, it’s not the stunts themselves that make “Rumble in the Bronx” great. It’s Jackie Chan’s high spirits and catching personality. Ebert noted, “Here's a Chinese man, about 40, who resembles nobody so much as Tom Hayden, and whose nose looks as if it is broken regularly.” He’s enjoyable but not handsome, athletic but not tall, and his acting in this movie is obligatory. He’s waiting for the action like everyone else.

He doesn’t see himself with great seriousness. He gets the joke and he looks to really enjoy himself. Ebert said, “George C. Scott said a sign of a good actor is his ability to project "the joy of performance." Chan breathes that joy. There's a lighthearted air about "Rumble in the Bronx" that's infectious, if you open yourself up to it.”

This is not a masterpiece. The movie is just simply silly. It takes place in the Bronx but was filmed in Vancouver. Ebert said, “Its Bronx has a golf course with mountains in the background. After scenes that are obviously not set anywhere near New York, it throws in a canned shot of the Manhattan skyline, as reassurance.” The story is about Jackie visiting his uncle (Bill Tang), helps him sell his grocery store, and then makes friends with the young woman (Anita Mui) who has bought it. This is simply a clothesline for the stunts and action.

There’s accidental humor in the motorcycle gang that are the villains for the first half of the movie (before becoming Jackie’s friends against the real villains). Ebert noted, “They look and talk like "Baywatch" rejects.” In one scene, they fake an attack on a young woman, played by Francise Yip, simply to get Jackie in their trap. They give him a real beating. Later, after Jackie has become friend’s with Yip’s little brother, played by Morgan Lam, who is wheelchair bound, she admits, “Sometimes we go too far.” Elsewhere, the other villains think stolen diamonds are hidden in the cushion of the wheelchair, etc.

Ebert said, “Any attempt to defend this movie on rational grounds is futile. Don't tell me about the plot and the dialogue. Don't dwellon the acting. The whole point is Jackie Chan - and, like Astaire and Rogers, he does what he does better than anybody. There is a physical confidence, a grace, an elegance to the way he moves.” There is humor to the choreography of the fights (which are never too violent).

He’s having fun. If we allow ourselves to enjoy the movie in the correct way, so are we.

This is the movie that brought Jackie Chan into international stardom. Because of this, Jackie Chan is popular in the USA. If you haven’t seen this movie and want to see Jackie Chan in another hilarious movie, this is the one you don’t want to miss. It’s one of the funniest movies that Jackie Chan has been in. See it for yourself and get a good laugh.

Stay tuned next week when I start looking at a trilogy that Jackie Chan stared in the continuation of “Jackie Chan Month.”

Shanghai Knights

Roger Ebert started his review of “Shanghai Knights,” released in 2003, "Shanghai Knights" has a nice mix of calculation and relaxed goofiness, and in Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson, once again teams up two playful actors who manifestly enjoy playing their ridiculous roles. The world of the action comedy is fraught with failure, still more so the period-Western-kung fu comedy, but here is a movie, like its predecessor "Shanghai Noon" (2000), that bounds from one gag to another like an eager puppy.”

The movie starts with the necessary action prologue that is needed in the Screenwriter’s Code: The Great Seal of China is stolen by evil villains, and its guardian killed. The guardian is obviously the father (Kim Chan) of Chon Wang (Jackie Chan), who, as we see him after the opening credits, is sheriff of Carson City, Nevada, and busy ticking off the names of the villains he has apprehended. Hearing of the murder from his beautiful sister Chon Lin (Fann Wong), Wang rushes to New York to see his old friend Roy O’Bannon (Owen Wilson).

The movie’s plot is completely random. Ebert said, “Nothing has to happen in Nevada, New York or its ultimate location, London, although I suppose the setup does need to be in China.” Every new scene is just there to set up the comedy, martial arts, or both. Because the comedy is fun in a wide, friendly way, and because Chan and his co-stars (including Fann Wong) are martial-arts experts, and because the director, David Dobkin, keeps the movie filled with energy and support, the movie is just the type of mindless entertainment we would like to see after every one of December’s famous and important Oscar finalists.

Ebert said, “The plot moves to London because, I think, that's where the Great Seal and the evil plotters are, and even more because it needs fresh locations to distinguish the movie from its predecessor. The filmmakers click off locations like Sheriff Chan checking off the bad guys: The House of Lords, Buckingham Palace (fun with the poker-faced guards), Whitechapel and an encounter with Jack the Ripper, Big Ben (homage to Harold Lloyd), Madame Tussaud's. Charlie Chaplin and Arthur Conan Doyle make surprise appearances, surprises I will not spoil.”

Ebert continued, “For Jackie Chan, "Shanghai Knights" is a comeback after the dismal "The Tuxedo" (2002), a movie that made the incalculable error of depriving him of his martial-arts skills and making him the captive of a cybernetic suit. Chan's character flip-flopped across the screen in computer-generated action, which is exactly what we don't want in a Jackie Chan movie.” What we like to see is him doing his own stunts, and the audience knows it.

They know it, along with other reasons, because over the closing credits there are always outtakes where Chan and his co-stars miss signs, fall wrong, get hurt and hop on different body parts, and burst out laughing. Ebert said, “he outtakes are particularly good this time, even though I cannot help suspecting (unfairly, maybe) that some of them are just as staged as the rest of the movie.”

Believe it or not, I saw this movie before I saw the first movie. I understand everything just fine and later went back to see the first one. I thought this was either just as funny, or better than the first one. If you loved the first one, then you should see the sequel. Don’t miss your chance to see this one.

Even though this is the last Friday of March, we’re not done with “Jackie Chan Month.” Stay tuned next week when we talk about more films that this great actor has been in.

Shanghai Noon

Jean-Luc Godard was famous for saying that the best way to criticize a movie is to make another movie. Roger Ebert said in his review, “In that spirit, "Shanghai Noon" is the answer to "Wild Wild West," although I am not sure these are the kinds of movies Godard had in mind.” Jackie Chan’s 2000 action comedy is a combination of a Western, martial arts and buddy movie – enhanced by a hilarious performance by Owen Wilson, who would dominate the movie if Chan were not as smart at sharing it with him.

The basic story is that it takes place in China, the Forbidden City in 1881. The princess, played by Lucy Liu, hates her destiny and hates her arranged husband. Her teacher, played by Henry O, offers to help her escape to the United States. She is kidnapped and held for money in Nevada. The three best imperial guards (Rongguang Yu, Cui Ya Hui and Eric Chen) are selected to rescue her. Chan goes along as a baggage for his uncle, who is their interpreter. In Nevada, Chan joins with a train robber named Roy O’Bannon (Wilson), and they rescue the princess with a lot of help from an Indian maiden (Brandon Merrill).

Ebert noted, “The plot, of course, is only a clothesline for Chan's martial arts sequences, Wilson's funny verbal riffs and a lot of low humor. Material like this can be very bad. Here it is sort of wonderful, because of a light touch by director Tom Dey, who finds room both for Chan's effortless charm and for a droll performance by Wilson, who, if this were a musical, would be a Beach Boy.”

Wilson had reached a point where people started to like him. Most movie fans didn’t know who he was. Ebert said, “If you see everything, you'll remember him from "Bottle Rocket," where he was engaging, and "Minus Man," where he was profoundly disturbing.” This movie made him into a star. He is really smart and flexible to be casted in a small role (his career also had him writing for “Bottle Rocket” and “Rushmore”), but seeing what he did in “Shanghai Noon,” he could play the same roles as Adam Sandler.

Chan’s character is named Chon Wang (yes, we all know what it really sounds like). Just like in “Rush Hour,” he plays a man of small words and a lot of fist. Chris Tucker in “Rush Hour” and Wilson in this one are fast talkers who make up for Chan’s poor English, which is nothing because his martial arts scenes are the best. Ebert said, “He's famous for using the props that come to hand in every fight, and here there is a sequence involving several things we didn't know could be done with evergreen trees.”

Liu, as the princess, is not a pretty girl that needs to be saved, but brave and spirited, and motivated by the troubles of her Chinese country men who have been made indentured servants in a Nevada gold town. Ebert said, “She doesn't want to return to China, but to stay in the United States--as a social worker or union organizer, I guess.” Not so greatly played is Merrill’s Indian woman, who is married to Chon Wang in a ceremony that nobody really takes seriously and that the movie itself has evidently forgotten all about the time that last scene was done.

Ebert noted, “Her pairing with Jackie Chan does however create a funny echo of "A Man Called Horse," and on the way out of the theater I was challenged by my fellow critic Sergio Mims to name all the other movie references. He claimed to have spotted, I think, 24. My mind boggled.”

What “Shanghai Noon” does – and here was a problem people had with “Wild Wild West” – is that no matter how much effort is in the production values and special effects, a movie like this finally depends on dialogue and characters. “Wild Wild West,” which came out exactly a year before this, had an all-star cast (Will Smith, Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh) but what were they tasked with? Ebert answered, “Plow through dim-witted dialogue between ungainly f/x scenes. Here Wilson angles onscreen and starts riffing, and we laugh. And Chan, who does his own stunts, creates moments of physical comedy so pure, it's no wonder he has been compared with Buster Keaton.” If you see only one martial arts Western (and there is a high chance of that), this is the one.

This is another hilarious buddy movie that Chan had starred in. Owen Wilson is one of the funniest comedians ever, hands down, and he works will with Chan. If you liked the “Rush Hour” movies, like I do, then see this one just to see how Chan works with another comedian. Also, what’s good about this is that it’s just not one genre. It’s a combination of different genres, which I listed earlier. You’ll love this movie, I promise you that.

Look out next week to see how the sequel to this movie was in “Jackie Chan Month.”

The Legend of Drunken Master

Jackie Chan, like all others who come to Hollywood, wants one thing: global domination. For a period of five years or so, he was struggling to overwhelm one part of the world he has no control over, USA.

Chan tried to win American audiences by fighting on their ways, in a series of films that randomly played with the principles of the Western thriller, some of which were funny (like “Rush Hour”) and some which were really bad (some might say “Rumble in the Bronx”). However, in some way none of them really dominated, took over, stood out and destroyed everything else, as Chan preferred.

When “The Legend of Drunken Master” came out in 2000, Jackie Chan was saying, “I now return to my old ways. Old ways are better.”

Stephen Hunter said in his review, “In fact, "The Legend of Drunken Master" is itself an old way. It's a 1994 film – original title "Jui Kuen II," which translates literally into "Drunken Fists II" – that was made primarily for the Asian market without the genre-bending necessary for a big American release. It's really a Hong Kong kung fu opera, unrepentant, full out, sans apology or explanation, goofy as heck, broadly silly and . . . astonishing.”

Chan plays Wong Fei-hung, the ill-behaved son of herb doctor Wong Kei-ying, played by Ti Lung, somewhere in China in maybe the 20s, as it looks like. Traveling to Siberia to look for rare herbs, he tries to avoid paying them on a train trip home by hiding them in the English ambassador’s luggage. As you might have guessed, he picks up the wrong box, and gets an antiquity (an ancient seal) that the ambassador is exporting back to England for the British Museum.

However, someone else is trying to find the missing seal, a Manchurian officer who wants to return it to…first off, a little sidetrack. I want to mention Wong’s funny stepmother and Mah-Jong player, played by Anita Mui, and other minor characters. The dubbing may be bad and some might call (kindly) Asian plot patterns, which means mainly “anything goes at any time.”

Now time to mention the fight scenes.

These are some of the best choreographed fights. One of them has Chan and the Manchurian, played by Chi-Kwong Cheung, in a spear-and-sword fight in a small area (i.e., under a railway car). The blades and spear points are at such great speed and precision and you wouldn’t think that two crouching men could be so fast and perfect in a small area and come out not injured.

Hunter credited, “If limits define that fight, lack of limits define the next, which features the two (now partners) fighting about a hundred ninja types. I mean it: The directors (Chan himself and Chia-Liang Liu) make you believe two against a hundred in a whirling melee that careens through (and destroys) buildings left and right, as the two keep picking up and improvising weapons from broken furniture to splayed bamboo poles to fists and hands. And, oh yes, Chan is drunk (an actual kung fu style, evidently) at the time. So not only is he doing incredible things physically, he's doing them in the character of a drunk!”

However, the final fight is the best. Here, Chan fights against Ken Lo, who was actually both Chan’s real-life bodyguard and a martial arts champ, and appeared to have the fastest left food ever. Lo fights on his right foot, and his left, held before him, is faster and more swift than a fist, able to block, dodge, force and kick with such ability. Hunter admitted, “I've literally never seen anything like it.”

Hunter continued, “They are in a steel mill, and my goodness if that isn't an actual bed of red-hot coals there next to them (Chan rolls through it), and dad-gum it if Chan isn't actually set on fire two or three times, during which he (a) keeps on fighting and (b) keeps on pretending to be drunk.” This has to be seen to be believed.

I saw this movie before I saw the first one. Even though it may be considered a sequel, you don’t have to see the first one to understand this one. I think this has got to be one of Chan’s best works he has ever done. It’s definitely one of my favorite Chan movies ever. You just have to see this movie if you’re a Chan fan. I give this one a high recommendation.

Sorry for posting this really late, I had a really busy day. Stay tuned next week when we continue the hilarity of “Jackie Chan Month.”

Drunken Master

We’re going to have a smash-hit over the course of the next couple of months, which is something I have never done before. This time we’re going to look at one of the best martial arts actors of all time, Jackie Chan. He’s the perfect successor to Bruce Lee, who has done all of his stunts and has broken practically every bone and has survived. Let’s jump right in with the 1978 breakout film, “Drunken Master.”

Amongst the “Rush Hour” trilogy and “The Spy Next Door” of his more recent career, it’s easy to forget that Jackie Chan was once the rightful descendant to cinema’s greatest martial artist, Bruce Lee.” Christopher Machell said in his review, “Eureka’s new release of the 1978 Drunken Master, one of Chan’s earliest and best pictures, is a sure-fire reminder of his status as cinema’s prince of kung fu. Where Lee’s classic films were semi-serious affairs, typically combining crime, intrigue and philosophy, Chan’s modus operandi has always been comedy, with Drunken Master more slapstick than fist of fury.”

Chan plays the biographical 19^th Century martial artist Wong Fei-Hung, who in the film is a prankster to his kung fu master and showing off to his friends. Machell said, “On paper, there’s little to like about the feckless Fei-Hung, but Chan invests a typically guileless charm to the role, making his Fei-Hung almost sympathetic as he ducks out of huge restaurant bills, cuts corners in his training and generally acts the clown.” After humiliating the son of a rich noble, Fei-Hung’s father sends him to train with the infamous kung fu master Beggar So, played by Siu Tin Yuen, whose rough reputation slightly leads his heavy drinking. Machell mentioned, “After a fracas in a restaurant, the drunken beggar reveals himself, Yoda-style, as the Master So, who promises to train Fei-Hung for a year.” Meanwhile, the scary contract killer Yim Tit-sam, played by Jang Lee Hwang, is hired by an enemy of Fei-Hung’s father to get rid of him. However, given Fei-Hung’s prankster ability – and a humiliating early fight with Tit-sam – it’s unlikely whether he’ll ever be able to become a true kung fu master. Machell said, “Despite the high-stakes, Drunken Master is in no hurry to get to its destination, the plot languorously winding through a series of loosely connected vignettes. At nearly two hours, the film’s charm wears thin in parts, and Chan’s gurning is only funny for so long.”

Machell continued, “But the film’s longueurs are easily forgivable when set next to such captivating martial arts choreography.” “Drunken Master” was directed by Yuen Woo-Ping – who would later choreograph “The Matrix’s” fight scenes – so it’s undeniable that the action here is good, but the unmatched dance movement of Chan and his co-stars is just mind-blowing. Even Beggar So jokes that Fei-Hung’s kung fu is more like dancing than fighting, but when the steps are this beautiful, who’s to complain? The final kung fu fight is as complex and long as you would think.

Machell complimented, “As Fei-Hung fights Yim Tit-sam with the styles of the eight drunken gods, it’s a comedy-action bit that is easily as thrilling and stylish as if it were played straight. It’s true that some of the film’s comedy is a little broad, and the film’s laconic plot is baggy compared to the pacey intrigue of your typical Bruce Lee flick, but there’s no denying Chan’s charm as a performer, nor the beauty of the astonishing skill captured by Woo-Ping’s camera.” Funny, exciting, and little lengthy, “Drunken Master” is as likable as it is disturbed, but its martial arts choreography is still one of the best.

If you haven’t seen this film and you’re a Jackie Chan fan, then you should see it. If you got into Jackie Chan during the 90s and early 2000s, like I did, then you should definitely see his older movies, starting with this one. That way, you can see how he was like. This is one of the greatest films ever made and you need to see it.

Much later on, they made a sequel to this movie. If you want to know how that one is, stay tuned next week to find out in “Jackie Chan Month.”