Hi friends,
Have been a little busy with a couple of courses and seminars, so haven’t really had time to think and write up reviews for MS. Anyways, had seen this movie last night, and I found it pretty entertaining. Chan fans (and I count myself among the legions) will love this howlarious odyssey starring the Hong Kong action star who’s made waves in Hollywood with his blonde, innocent looking sidekick, Wilson. To the hopelessly young filmographically-challenged filmgoer, I should like to explain that Shanghai Knights is the follow-up to the very successful Shanghai Noon, a comic Western originating the characters of Chon Wang (Jackie) - an Oriental John Wayne, and the train robber, Roy O’Bannon (Wilson).
In the sequel, the narrative’s bang-up structure inducts pivotal characters motivated by angst and other deep compulsions. Wang, his kid sister Lin (Fann Wong) and O’Bannon travel to England via Carson City, New York and Shanghai to avenge the death, of Wang’s father. In London, they unravel an Anglo-Chinese gunpowder plot to instal Lord Rathbone, an evil man twentieth in line to the House of Windsor. The truth is, it’s a quid pro quo situation ; the base Chinaman, who has conspired with the perfidious Rathbone, will get an ornate talisman enabling him to destabilize China and gain his own wicked ascendancy.
With little money, but their wits about them and help from some unexpected quarters - a Dickensian street urchin straight out of Oliver Twist and a Scotland Yard detective named, ha ha, Artie Conan Doyle - the trio, or should that read quartet ? Quintet ? Never mind .... Let’s just say, the good guys succeed in unearthing the truth (Veritas Vincit), and save the Royal Family (God save the Queen) in a spectacular finale which concludes with the bestowal of knighthoods on Chon, O’Bannon and Artie Conan Doyle.
Betwixt and between, oh my dear viewers, you will be regaled with our cowboys’ escapades at the Ritz, at Madame Tussaud’s, the Changing of the Guard outside Buckingham Palace and astride Big Ben’s hands. Bharatvasis will chuckle at the sight of Chan gatecrashing a Victorian gala in full Maharaja regalia. For me, a well-tempered scene occurs in the London marketplace, where Chon outwits his pursuers with choreographed moves invoking Gene Kelly’s ’’Singing In The Rain.’’
In sum then, this globe-straddling saga of our star pair, the many literary illusions, and, above all, Wilson’s windy verbalism and Chan’s ripostes with near-quicksilver feet and tongue, are guaranteed to sweep you off your feet as it did me. Ah .... age may have deepened the lines on his face and slowed his pace, but custom has not staled Chan’s infinite attraction. (Confession : Was tempted to append the rhyming ’’grace’’, but desisted). Gillen plays the vampirish-modelled villain to the hilt, while the canny Fischer, agile Wong and street-smart Johnson put in notable performances. As for our cowboys, they’re as endearing as ever ; Chan with his strict mores of acceptable behaviour, and the womanising Wilson with his yearning for an enduring love. Sigh .... !! :)