Shanghai Knights Review
by Ram Samudrala (me AT ram DOT org)February 18th, 2003
Shanghai Knights
http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies/shanghai_noon.html#sk
After the mess that is /The Tuxedo/, Jackie Chan is back in fine form again, showcasing his tongue-in-cheek sense of humour and acting ability, while Owen Wilson shows someone who talks too much in an irritating manner can still be funny.
The film is a loose sequel to the previous pairing of Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson. Set in the late 1800s, Chan plays Chon Wong, who is out to avenge the death of his father. Wong's father, who guarded the Chinese Emperor's Seal was killed by the smug Lord Rathbone (Aidan Gillen) and the Imperial Seal. Rathbone, who is 10th in line to throne of England, wants to get rid of all those above him with the aid of Wu Chan (Donnie Yen) who wishes to be the new Emperor of China. Rathbone has the Seal; Chan has a machine gun. Aiding Wong in his quest for justice is his old friend Roy O'Bannon (Wilson) and his sister Chon Lin (Fann Wong).
Wong and O'Bannon travel from Nevada to London to find Lin and set things right. They run across Arthur Conan Doyle (Tom Fisher), a young street urchin named Charlie Chaplin (Aaron Johnson), and Jack the Ripper (Oliver Cotton). Notwithstanding the factual errors and the anachronisms, these encounters are amusing. Together, they manage to get into fights involving nice martial arts sequences, sword fights, and comedic action scenes.
Chan and Wilson work quite well together, though I'd say the chemistry between Wilson and Eddie Murphy in /I-Spy/ was better. The film does justice to Chan's physical acting ability; there's a scene where Chan is dancing to /Singing in the Rain/ while fighting a bunch of hoodlums that is classic. O'Bannon's pro-America/anti-British comments are also funny. The choreography is also very good and the supporting cast do a fine job. It's clear that here, and the /Rush Hour/ series, the film makers have clearly studied Chan's previous efforts that have endeared him to audiences worldwide.
The ending outtakes of course shouldn't be missed. In the older Chan films, these outtakes were painful (and sometimes funny) reminders of how much effort it required to get the stunts right. In most of the Hollywood Chan movies, these outtakes mostly contain goofs and flubbed dialogue. Here, there is a mix of both which I think strikes a nice balance. /Shanghai Knights/ is worth watching on the big screen.
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