In this entertaining sequel to SHANGHAI NOON, Chon Wang (Jackie Chan) and Roy O’Bannon (Owen Wilson) are reunited on an adventure that leads them from their home in the USA to England. Upon hearing of his father’s murder in China at the hands of the English Lord Rathbone (Aidan Gillen), Wang leaves his law-enforcing life in Nevada and heads east. In New York City, he tracks down Roy, who now works as a waiter/gigolo. After a close encounter with New York’s finest, Wang and Roy travel to London, where they team up with Wang’s sister, Lin (Fann Wong), also out to avenge their father’s death. Their search uncovers a plot to assassinate the royal family and brings them into contact with many touchstones of turn-of-the-20th-century British culture.
A fitting follow-up to Chan and Wilson’s first pairing, SHANGHAI KNIGHTS takes the fish-out-of-water element of the original and doubles it, as both Wang and Roy navigate the highs and lows of Victorian London. Chan, as always, astounds with a series of acrobatic fight sequences that involves unusual accessories such as revolving doors, fruit stands, and Chinese vases. And Wilson once again aptly fills the role of the wisecracking opportunist with a conscience who has a wry quip for every occasion. Meanwhile, Fann Wong is luminous as Wang’s high-kicking sister; Aidan Gillen sneers superbly as the scheming Rathbone, and Hong Kong legend Donnie Yen makes the most of his small role as Rathbone’s co-conspirator. In addition to incorporating Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Charlie Chaplin, and Jack the Ripper into the story, David Dobkin’s amusing film also features knowing nods to SINGING IN THE RAIN and the Harold Lloyd classic SAFETY LAST.
| Starring |
Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson, Fann Wong, Fan Man-Fong, Aidan Gillen |
| Director |
David Dobkin |
| Studio |
TOUCHSTONE HOME VIDEO |
| Run time |
DVD: 1 hr 50 mins
|
Cast
- Chon Wang - Jackie Chan
- Roy O’Bannon - Owen Wilson
- Chon Lin/Looney Lin - Fann Wong
- Lord Nelson Rathbone - Aidan Gillen
- Wu Chow - Donnie Yen
- Charlie Chaplin - Aaron Johnson
- Inspector Artie Doyle/Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Thomas Fisher
- Jack the Ripper - Oliver Cotton
- Chon Wang’s Father - Kim Chan
- Queen Victoria - Gemma Jones
- Liu-Tom Wu
Plot
The film opens in the Forbidden City in 1887, where Chon Lin (Fann Wong) is drinking tea with her father, the Keeper of the Imperial Seal of China. She tells him her brother, Chon Wang (Jackie Chan), is doing well as a sheriff in Carson City, Nevada, United States, but her father replies that her brother is dead to him. At that moment, Lord Nelson Rathbone (Aidan Gillen), leads a band of Boxers into the city, who attack the Keeper. Lin defends her father, but is knocked unconscious. Rathbone kills him with a snake-handled dagger, and leaves with the seal. As he lies dying, he gives Chon Lin a puzzle box and a letter to Chon.
Back in the Wild West, Chon Wang is doing well as sheriff, having captured an impressive array of fugitives. His deputy is relaxing with a book called “Roy O’Bannon Vs. The Mummy”, a highly fictionalized account of the events of the first film that now portrays Wang’s “ShanghaiKid” as a cowardly sidekick.
Wang checks the coach from California, but his lover, Princess Pei Pei (portrayed by Lucy Liu in the first film), is, yet again, not there. She is busy, he explains to his deputy, as a social activist in San Francisco on behalf of Chinese immigrants. Wang does receive a parcel, though, which contains the puzzle box and Lin’s letter, telling him his father is dead and that she has tracked the murderer to London.
Chon Wang travels to New York City to find his old partner Roy O’Bannon (Owen Wilson), needing his share of the gold left over from the first film to buy his ticket. Roy has left his brief stint in law enforcement, broken off his romance with Falling Leaves (due to the language barrier, according to a deleted scene on the DVD), spent most of the gold investing in the Zeppelin (”You’re lucky I did not invest in that ridiculous automobile idea”), and is now a hotel waiter and part-time gigolo. After they attempt prostitution to pay for a trip to England, the Mayor of New York arrives in search of his daughters, Roy’s latest clients. Chon Wang fights off a number of New York police officers, and he and Roy ship themselves to London in a crate. On the way, Wang tells Roy about his father, and Roy swears an oath to help reclaim the seal.
During a meeting with the British Parliament, Rathbone gives word of trouble going on in China and even presents a gift to the Queen from the Emperor as a Bengal Tiger. The Parliament find this action appalling and insulting.
In London, Wang and O’Bannon have their duster and watch stolen, respectively, by a number of street thugs including a young boy named Charlie. After an extensive battle to reclaim these items, they are arrested by the police. In Scotland Yard, Inspector Artie Doyle (Thomas Fisher) thanks the two for defeating the Fleet Street gang and gives Roy his watch that Charlie stole. He tells Wang that Lin is also in Scotland Yard, having attempted to kill Lord Rathbone and been dubbed “Looney Lin”. Doyle is a reader of the Roy O’Bannon novels, and is enthralled to meet the actual Roy O’Bannon. Roy tries to use this to get Lin released, but it does not work. Meanwhile, Rathbone finds himself not alone in his carriage as Wu Chow (Donnie Yen) sneaks his way on and the two exchange a quick conversation and Rathbone slips him the blood-encrusted dagger that killed the Keeper of the Imperial Seal. Sometime later, Roy and Wang wander through London, seeingBuckingham Palace and harassing one of the guards. They encounter Charlie again, who lets them into the empty house of a nobleman. Roy relaxes and draws up a childish plan to catapult themselves into Rathbone’s castle. Wang throws it in the fire, and then Charlie brings it to their attention that the nobleman whose house they have commandeered has an invitation to a gala at the castle.
Roy and Wang don disguises: Roy masquerades as Major General ”Sherlock Holmes” (a name he derives from the face of a clock), and Wang is the “Maharaja of Nevada”. After turning down the offer to try some spotted dick, Wang and Roy follow Lord Rathbone to a private library. Once they enter, they cannot find him; he has slipped through a secret passage, which Wang discovers in a fireplace. As Roy occupies himself with a copy of the Kama Sutra, Wang enters the secret room, which contains treasures from throughout the British Empire. Rathbone’s guards attack Roy, but he is rescued by Lin, who has escaped from Scotland Yard. The three see Rathbone hand the Imperial Seal to Wu Chow (Donnie Yen), the bastardyounger brother of the Emperor of China. Rathbone sees them and sets fire to the building, young Charlie shows up and makes off with the Seal, Lin escapes through the roof, and Wang and Roy commandeer Rathbone’s primitive automobile (the very technology Roy had passed on investing in) for a wild ride, culminating in them crashing into Stonehenge.
while unconscious after the car crash, Roy has a sexual fantasy involving Lin and the Kama Sutra, and he decides to start pursuing her, much to Wang’s dismay. Lin finds them and gives them a ride to Whitechapel, where they stay in a rundown inn. Wang tells Lin about Roy’s vices and problems, which Roy overhears. Lin does not flinch, but Roy is devastated at the betrayal. Wang however quickly makes it up to him by convincing several female prostitutes (and one old male, presumably also a prostitute) to have a sexy pillow fight with Roy.
Lin, surprisingly, walks in on the fiasco and is heartbroken at the sight of Roy taking part in all the shenanigans. Upset, Lin goes for a walk and, after a brief encounter with Jack the Ripper, who is thrown into the river, Wang and Roy catch up and they all find themselves surrounded by Rathbone and a squad of boxers who apprehend the three. Taken to a covered pier, tied up and left defenseless, they finally encounter Wu Chow, his second-in-command Liu (Tom Wu) and his Boxers. Wu Chow gags Lin with a red scarf and ties her up to try to locate the Seal, but they do not know where Charlie has taken it. He tells them the grand scheme: Rathbone would kill the bearer of the Seal and return the item to Wu Chow, who would use the Seal to unite the enemies of China and claim the throne. In return, Wu Chow would use a Gatling gun to dispatch the Royal Family, leaving Rathbone, who is tenth in line to the throne, King.
Chon Wang and Roy escape and track down Artie Doyle, who has developed an investigative technique called deductive reasoning, which he uses to find that Charlie has been hiding atMadame Tussauds wax museum. They reclaim the Seal, but it is taken by Boxers, and the three are arrested for trespassing. Charlie (who reveals his name to be Chaplin) breaks them out, and they go to Queen Victoria’s Jubilee Ball, where the Royal Family will be.
Sure enough, Wang finds Wu Chow and Lin as well who is gagged with her hands tied behind her and her feet tied up tightly with rope on the fireworks barge, he kills Liu with a pulley, unties Lin, and dismantles Wu’s plan. However, Wu proves himself to be an accomplished martial artist, surpassing Wang in skill, but Lin arrives in time to kill him with a fireworks rocket and save Wang. Artie and Roy, who have found their way into the Houses of Parliament, confront Rathbone, who shoots Artie with a Derringer. Roy and Wang pursue Rathbone up into Big Ben, where they engage him in a sword fight. Rathbone pushes Roy out of the glass front of the clock, but Roy catches himself on one of the clock’s hands. Rathbone nearly defeats Wang (previously he is referred to as the best swordsman in England), but Wang’s rage over his dead father and fallen comrade leads him to suicidally grapple with Rathbone, and the two go flying out the clock window, too. Luckily, Roy catches Wang, as Rathbone plummets to his death. Roy and Wang decide to jump, slowing their fall by grabbing the enormous British flag draped over Big Ben, and land in the carriage containing Queen Victoria.
Roy and Wang are knighted, as is Artie, whose full name is now Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Artie decides to become a writer, his stories revolving around his deductive reasoning technique, and asks Roy if he can use the “Sherlock Holmes” name. Roy and Lin kiss, and Roy proposes that he and Wang go to Hollywood to get in on the ground floor with motion pictures. They roll off in a buggy, with Charlie stowed away. Wang also manages to open the box his father sent him, finding a message inside reminding him of the importance of family. Charlie wipes some soot on his face, creating the look that would later become world famous as that of Charlie Chaplin. The last shot of the film is looking up at a mechanic fixing the glass in the tower and yelling “bloody tourists!”
Jackie Chan is back in action with THE MEDALLION, yet another fast-paced martial arts action-comedy. Chan plays Eddie Yang, a Hong Kong cop who is working with Interpol officer Arthur Watson (Lee Evans) in order to protect a gifted young child. Aware that the child holds a centuries-old medallion that could give him limitless powers, Snakehead (Julian Sands) and his band of criminals kidnap the child and head for Dublin. It isn’t long before Eddie arrives in Ireland where he is teamed up with beautiful Interpol officer Nicole James (Claire Forlani), who also happens to be a former flame. Together Eddie, Nicole, and the bumbling Watson manage to track down the child, but after an accident in which Eddie appears to have died, it’s up to the gifted boy to put the trusty medallion to work and resuscitate him.
