Very Jackie Chan, from ‘dance’ sequence to bloopers

Film review: Shanghai Knights

There’s something about Jackie Chan that makes his fellow-Asians, this one included, happy that he has made it to the top of the heap of Hollywood’s box-office draws. That something is exhibited in all its delighful glory in one particular scene in Jackie’s latest action-comedy caper, Shanghai Knights (co-starring Owen Wilson) where Jackie does his own version of Gene Kelly’s Singing in the Rain in a busy Victorian-era London marketplace. Here, while brandishing an umbrella, Jackie nimbly hops from one wooden crate to another as he fends off hooligans. Jackie is clearly in his element, performing his martial arts as if in a dance, spicing his movements with his trademark comic timing. And unlike the action sequences of action heroes along the mold of Steven Segal or Wesley Snipes, Jackie’s action scenes somehow don‘t convey a streak of meanness.

"Choreographing an action scene is very difficult," Jackie was recently quoted as saying. "You have to get the rhythm just right, or the audience will be bored. You design it just as if you were designing a musical sequence."

That he equates an action scene with "a musical sequence" reveals a lot about Jackie, his Hollywood success, and inevitably, Shanghai Knights. Apparently, Jackie doesn’t mean the presence of music per se but a carefully choreographed, rhythmic orchestration of action and movements which speaks a language as universal as the comedy of Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton (who, coincidentally, Jackie emulates). Living up to his operatic training at the Peking Opera School from the age of seven to 17, Jackie wisened up to the fact that if were to keep his audience rivetted, it would have to be through what he does best–through fluid, dance-like, graceful martial arts.

Fortunately for him, time has proven him right.

There are more of these "musical scenes" in Shanghai Knights to sate Jackie’s die-hard fans and win new ones over, and this time, because he had no restraints, Jackie pulled out all stops. Add to those the martial-arts derring-do of Singaporean actress Fann Wong who plays Jackie’s sister and Owen Wilson’s love interest in the movie. Filipinos in particular can easily relate to Jackie Chan’s protectiveness of his sister in the movie.

That the story is set in the Victorian era (Jackie and Owen’s characters sail to London to avenge the death of Jackie’s father, the keeper of China’s imperial seal), makes for many "photogenic" shots which are more pleasing to the eyes than the previous Shanghai Noon’s. And of course, what would a stay in good old England be like without an honest to goodness sword duel between the hero and the main protagonist Rathbone (Aidan Gillen)? And because it features Jackie Chan, expect this duel in the Big Ben tower to be unlike anything you’ve seen before. (The characters Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Queen Victoria have been playfully woven into the story, too. Now how they made it there, see for yourself in the movie.)

While it is still a Jackie Chan movie, Shanghai Knights would not be what it is – a successful buddy movie –without Owen Wilson. With his wry humor and nonchalant ways, Owen in a way balances Jackie’s "hyper" persona. Jackie has said that he and Owen were not as close in Shanghai Noon as they became in Shanghai Knights. True enough, their camaraderie and rapport are more visible this time. The undercurrent of playfulness and mirth in their exchanges is validated by the fun they had together as shown by the out-takes.

In his one-on-one interview with The STAR’s Ricky Lo, Jackie revealed that he considers Shanghai Knights much better than the Rush Hour movies, Shanghai Noon and The Tuxedo.

Watch the movie and you’re bound to agree.