FILM:          SHANGHAI NOON

 

Director/Cast: Tom Dey / Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson, Lucy Liu                   

Jackie Chan does the Wild West in this hugely enjoyable action comedy.

Chan plays Chon Wang, a Chinese imperial guard who is sent to America with three other guards to rescue Princess Pei Pei (Lucy Liu) who has been kidnapped and is being held for ransom.

Whilst on their way to Carson City where the ransom is to be paid, the train which they are traveling on is robbed by a gang of inept outlaws led by Roy O’Bannon (Wilson). During the train robbery Wang is separated from his fellow imperial guards and has to make his way alone to Carson City.

En route to Carson City, Wang encounters Red Indians, providing some of Chan’s best martial arts scenes yet in a US film and also the funniest scenes in the film, thanks to subtitles.

Following his encounter with the Indians, Wang invariably runs into O’Bannon again and following a spell in prison together they team up to rescue the princess.

Although the story for Shanghai Noon is not original, in fact it’s practically Rush Hour but with a different setting, the film itself is far superior.

The film is very funny, the dialogue especially for Owen Wilson is very good and the action is a very good mix of Chan’s martial arts skills and slapstick humour.

Lucy Liu is satisfactory as the Princess, however, there is not a great deal of scope for her character in the film.

Owen Wilson is fantastic and as I’ve stated above the dialogue which he has is fantastic and the manner in which he delivers it is great.

Jackie Chan, what more can you say, he is a fantastic showman and the fact that he does most of his own stunts makes the action in his films more believable.

The direction by Tom Dey is fine, I don’t know who he is or what he’s done before but he certainly delivers the goods here.

This is probably the funniest film that I’ve seen this year and it’s the funniest Jackie Chan film that I’ve seen since the Cantonese version of ‘The Armour Of God’, just don’t stop watching until the outtakes at the end have finished.

 

Shanghai Noon is released on R1 DVD on 10/10/00.