Fellow Victim: Joel Fuernsinn
The basic plot is the hero, Wong Fei Hong, trying to avoid paying customs fees, accidentally swaps a box of ginseng with a national treasure that is being stolen by the evil ambassador who's really using his position to steal many of China's national treasures. There are some subplots that are interwoven into this plot including some father-son conflicts over practicing drunken boxing, some oppressed steel workers, a possibly fictional pregnancy, and the fate of some family real estate. We only had some quibbles about the steel worker plot where the workers complained about long hours and low pay, attempted to strike, and were beaten up (by minions of the ambassador) into going back to work. Our theory was that this was the scene used to communicate how villainous the villains were. However, "Work or I'll beat you up!" is probably not a modern inspirational slogan that you'll see on a workplace poster and we thought the workers could have been a little more vigorous in applying the running-away methods of avoiding work.
But plot aside, the martial art scenes are brilliantly choreographed and executed. We not only saw the props that define Jackie Chan movies but some excellent work in "regular" hand-to-hand action as well. One thing that was very clear to us is that martial arts stunt dudes are a dime a dozen in China. Look for many stunts which looked *painful*. We saw one guy take what looked like a real fall from the second story of a building onto what probably was a breakaway table but stood on what was not breakaway ground. According to Roger Ebert's review, Jackie Chan did burn his arm badly doing a 3rd take of a certain scene where he's backing up through coals - the price of perfection, I suppose. Also, in the final fight, he's fighting his real-life bodyguard who was replacing an injured actor. Fortunately, in this kind of movie, the only things that have to talk are your feet and hands.
I give this movie a 9 out of 10 on the Good Martial Arts Movie Scale. A 5 out of 10 on the Good Movie Scale. And a 7 out of 10 on the Bad Movie
Our Drive-In Totals:
No breasts
1 dead body (verified dead, anyhow)
Many painful stunts
Evil Ambassador
Evil White guys with no kung fu
Evil Chinese guys with good kung fu
Fight that brings down the house
An anti-mahjong message
An anti-gun message
An anti-drinking message
An anti-drunken boxing message
A couple "My Kung Fu is the Best" arguments
Kung Fu
Gun Fu
Knife Fu
Hatchet Fu
Umbrella Fu
Cane Fu
Bamboo Pole Fu
Wrapped Bamboo Pole Fu
Wrapped and Splintered Bamboo Pole Fu
Spear Fu
Chain Fu
Fire Fu
Sword Fu
Snake Fu
Toy Sword Fu
Rebar Fu
White Hot Rebar fu.
Alcohol Fu
Bottle Fu
Fire Fu
Fan Fu
Jar Fu
Bench Fu
Chair Fu
Table Fu
Drunken Fu
Duck Fu
(Whew. That's a lot of "fu".)
Martial Arts Movie Scale: 9
Good Movie Scale: 5
Bad Movie Scale: 7
