A.K.A.: ‘A’ Gai Wak
Juk Jap
Country: Hong Kong
Genre(s): Action
Director: Jackie
Chan
Cast: Jackie Chan /
Maggie Cheung / David Lam
Plot
Dragon Mao of nineteenth
century Hong Kong’s Navy is given the assignment of ridding the Hong Kong
streets of piracy and police corruption.
What I Liked
That Jackie Chan is a
stunt man extraordinaire goes without saying and this film features some
thrilling set pieces that allow Chan’s athleticism, timing, and daring to shine
brilliantly. What’s even more
impressive, though, is Chan’s fight choreography. Though I’m no expert on martial arts films or
fight choreography, I can’t think of anyone who has consistently put out fight
sequences that hit all the necessary marks for both thrills and creativity. In a lot of martial arts fight scenes, the
combatants seem to exist in a vacuum, in much the same way duelists in an
American Western do. The scenes become
about the rivalry between the primary characters; they fight in an open area,
with minimal obstacles between them and others acting only as spectators. Chan’s characters are almost always crammed
together in a confined space like a cluttered room or an alley, which adds to
the intensity of the combat (the proverbial fight in a phone booth). Chan is known for using ladders, furniture, doors,
and others familiar surroundings as instruments in the violence. Their use demands precision timing and
physical accuracy yet the action is delivered with convincing fluidity and
stunning speed.
Chan is also
brilliant in his integration of comedy into the on-screen violence. He is often compared to silent star Buster
Keaton for the death-defying comedy he brings to the screen. However, as a man who is clearly a master of
the human body and its capabilities and one who was raised in the Chinese
Opera, he has innate physical timing and bodily control that more resembles
Keaton’s silent contemporary, Charlie Chaplin.
He uses the same props that generate great action sequences to spice the
suspense with chuckles, a rare sort of savvy that could be found in both Keaton
and Chaplin.
What I Didn’t Like
Nobody watches a
Jackie Chan movie for social commentary, psychological complexity, or
intricacies of plot, so I won’t even go there. Let’s get down to what matters
in his movies, the action sequences. Those
in this film are terrific. There are
some truly unforgettable stunts and gags.
It’s been awhile since I watched a Jackie Chan movie and seeing this one
was refreshing. But I still was left
wondering why, of the multitude of exciting Jackie Chan movies, the editors for
my source book chose this one. Honestly,
I hadn’t even heard of it until I read about it in the book, and I’ve seen a
fair number of Jackie’s movies. The book’s
reasoning for picking this one was that it featured the hero in his prime,
before age and injuries slowed him down.
I would argue that part of the fun of his nineties movies is that he was
so old and yet still doing such amazing things (Like the window jump in “Rumble
in the Bronx”) and also that those later movies featured bigger budgets that
made for more eye-popping moments (I’m thinking the hovercraft in “Rumble in
the Bronx” and the wind tunnel in… “Operation Condor,” I believe it was). And if you’re going for his earlier films,
why not the earlier and more iconic “Drunken Master”?
Most Memorable Scene
Though Jackie’s run
down the wall of a collapsing building is probably the most famous moment of
the movie and deserving of inclusion on any highlight reel of Chan’s career
stunts, the most unbelievable stunt to me is when he falls a couple of floors
through some sort of bamboo scaffolding, bouncing between the shattering rods
like a pinball until he smacks the ground with a thud. I can’t imagine Jackie walked away from that
one unscathed or at least without the wind thoroughly knocked out of him.
My Rating: 3.5 out of 5
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