Shinjuku Incident

[silenthunterstudios]

I have been a fan of Jackie Chan since Rumble in the Bronx, one of the first Jackie Chan movies that made it into the mainstream American audience. I was hooked after seeing both Drunken Master movies, and with the help of a buddy who was a big martial arts fan, got a lot of different Chan movies. There were some flops, some so bad you just had to laugh, some where the dubbing was so bad that you didn't know what was going on. Both Rush Hour movies (never saw the third). After Rush Hour 2, I didn't see many more.

I saw Shinjuku Incident advertised in several trade magazines, saw it on IMDB, a couple trailers on some DVDs. It looked interesting, Jackie Chan as a bad guy.

SPOILERS AHEAD!







I was surprised at how good it was, and how quickly it turned to crap. The movie started out pretty good, if you could believe Jackie Chan was a guy in his late 30's, early 40's (he's in his mid 50's). Basically, he's an illegal immigrant from China, looking for work in Japan. Working crappy, literally, jobs that most Japanese won't do, he and his "family" are abused. It's almost a little like Scarface, as he starts building his criminal empire, with the help of the Yakuza. It was surprising and neat to see Jackie Chan as a bad guy, albeit with a heart of gold. He justifies his assassinations of Yakuza heads as being beneficial to all Chinese immigrants to Japan. The beginning was well done, the middle was really neat, basically because audiences have never seen Jackie Chan as a bad guy, let alone kill anyone before, in cold blood no less. I think Jackie Chan is just as surprised as his character when he shoots his first target. He tries to get the feel of Don Corleone from the Godfather, knowing he built a business based on crime, but not wanting that life for his kids, Jackie's brother and family in this movie. Jackie Chan tried to convey that through his character, but doesn't get the job done. The ending basically falls on its face, but is still entertaining.

There is a lot more to the movie, but you have to see it if you are a fan of Hong Kong action movies, or Jackie Chan. It was a surprising turn for Jackie, and I really enjoyed it.

 

[James Y]

Jackie Chan was at his peak in the late '70s to late '80s. I saw my first JC film back in 1980 when The Big Brawl (Battlecreek Brawl) was first released. At the time I was impressed, but when I saw some of his better stuff (in original language), I realized what all the talk about this guy was about. My fave JC films were (in no particular order):
Meals on Wheels.
Fearless Hyena.
The Young Master.
Drunken Master.
Dragons Forever.
Drunken Master II (the original version of Legend of Drunken Master).

I hate English dubbing, esp. when the English dubbing itself has been redone again, with American surfer-boy voices. Many of his (and Jet Li's) movies that were re-released in the U.S. by Dimension were redubbed and re-scored, which messed up the movies compared to the originals. I haven't liked any of JC's post-Big Brawl American films, except for the new Karate Kid movie.

Shinjuku Incident was pretty good, IMO. Though I also can't believe his character is a younger man like the movie's character. Later in the film, it shows a flashback with him and his sweetheart back in China as kids. The youngsters in the scene look the same age. But in the movie's realtime, Jackie looks 50-something, and his "childhood sweetheart" looks barely 30. I was glad to see JC trying a new angle in his career; he has no other choice now. However, I'll always consider him a greater performer than he is a pure actor. Because he's been around too long (started in movies in the 1960s) to become something completely different. Maybe he'll surprise, though.

Lots of Americans who know about JC see current stunt guys like Tony Jaa, the guys in District B13, etc., and say compared to them Jackie's not so good. Then I've shown them scenes from some of his older stuff, like the end scenes in Dragons Forever, Wheels on Meals, Police Story 1, etc., and most can't believe it. In the area of stunts and dangerous complex sequences onscreen, no one has equalled, much less surpassed the difficulty of his earlier stuff. JC also appeared in a bunch of really bad films throughout the years, mostly in the '80s, to fulfill contractual obligations, and a couple awful ones to "repay a favor" to a certain powerful director/star I won't name with reputed underworld ties. It was an offer he couldn't refuse, so to speak.

There's actually a lot of other guys in martial arts/action films I liked better than JC (Sammo Hung, Fu Sheng, Ti Lung, etc.). But in stunts and complexity, JC in his prime was in a league of his own, and I really respect the difficulty, creativity and daring he had. Back in the early '90s in Taiwan, I read in a mag that when JC wakes up every day, it takes him about 20 minutes before he can stand straight up, he's done so much damage to his body over the years.
Jim