7/10
Just add a lot of scotch with your martial arts
7 January 2012
This is a Jackie Chan movie made by his Hong Kong producers. Jackie Chan directed this movie himself (as he seems to do a lot) so all the bizarre stunts that he does, he does because he chooses to do them. This movie is not a movie sponsored by American money, as was Rumble in the Bronx, and thus has all of the typical quirks of Hong Kong Cinema.

Jackie Chan, his brother, and his father go into China to get hold of some ginseng. As they come to the border post they realise they must declare the goods so they smuggle it on board through a British ambassador. They then must get it back so they sneak into first class and take the package. Unfortunately there are two similar packages and they take the wrong one. They also confront another martial artist who wants the other package. Through this they uncover a plot by the British to overthrow the Chinese Emperor (or so it seems).

As with typical movies of this sort, there is little in the way of deep, in-depth thought. Jackie Chan is about stuns and martial arts, and you get plenty of that here. The interesting thing in this movie is the portrayal of the British. They have their guns while the Chinese have their martial arts. Even with their skill, they are under the yoke of the gun. But when the Chinese get the guns, they discard them in favour of the martial arts.

The specific martial art that Jackie Chan uses here is what is called Drunken Boxing. He is reasonable, but very beatable sober, but when he gets drunk he becomes invincible. Thus, when he finds that he is fighting a fight that he probably will not win, he seeks as much alcohol as possible and becomes blind drunk.

This is a reasonably good movie, and as typical for Jackie Chan, quite funny as well. When you watch it though, make sure that the version you have has reasonable subtitles, because it is really annoying watching a movie when you don't know what is going on because you cannot understand the dialogue.
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