Shanghai Knights
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| Shanghai Knights | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | David Dobkin |
| Produced by | Jackie Chan Gary Barber Roger Birnbaum |
| Written by | Alfred Gough Miles Millar |
| Starring | Jackie Chan Owen Wilson |
| Music by | Randy Edelman |
| Cinematography | Adrian Biddle |
| Editing by | Malcolm Campbell |
| Distributed by | Touchstone Pictures Spyglass Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | February 7, 2003 |
| Running time | 114 min. |
| Country |  |
| Language | English Mandarin |
| Budget | $50 million |
| Gross revenue | $88,323,487 |
| Preceded by | Shanghai Noon |
| Official website | |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Shanghai Knights is a 2003 action-comedy film. It is the sequel to Shanghai Noon. It was directed by David Dobkin and written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar.
Contents |
[edit] 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 he no longer has a son. 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 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 "Shanghai Kid" 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 the driver, 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 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 didn't 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. 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.
In London, Chon 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, Insp. Artie Doyle (Thomas Fisher) thanks the two for defeating the street gang. 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 O'Bannon. Roy tries to use this to get Lin released, but it doesn't work. He and Wang wander through London, seeing Buckingham 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 after 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 bloody dagger that killed Wang and Lin's father to Wu Chow (Donnie Yen), the bastard younger 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.
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 doesn't flinch, but Roy is devastated at the betrayal. The two reconcile over a pillow fight.
Lin goes for a walk and encounters Jack the Ripper, who tries to kill her, but she kicks him off a bridge and swears at him. Wang and Roy catch up, and the three are captured by Wu Chow and his Boxers. Wu Chow gags Lin and ties her hands and barefeet to try to locate the Seal, but they don't 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.
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 at Madame Tussauds wax museum. They reclaim the Seal, but it is taken by Boxers, and the three are arrested for trespassing. Charlie 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's gagged with her hands and feet tied up tightly with rope on the fireworks barge, he unties Lin, and dismantles Wu's plan. However, Wu proves himself to be an accomplished martial artist, 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, but Wang's rage over his dead father and fallen comrade leads him to suicidally grapple with Rathbone, and the two go out the 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!"
[edit] Cast
- Chon Wang
Jackie Chan - Roy O'Bannon
Owen Wilson - Chon Lin
Fann Wong - Lord Nelson Rathbone
Aidan Gillen - Wu Chow
Donnie Yen - Charlie Chaplin
Aaron Johnson - Insp. Artie Doyle / Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Thomas Fisher - Jack the Ripper
Oliver Cotton - Chon Wang's Father
Kim Chan - Queen Victoria
Gemma Jones - Prostitute
Alison King
[edit] Sequel rumors
In February 2003, not long after the film's release, a third film, rumored to be titled Shanghai Dawn, was reported to be in consideration. Apparently during an interview with Jackie Chan on 102.7 KIIS FM radio station in Los Angeles, he shouted "Shanghai Dawn" a couple of times, but due to his accent, the hosts of the show thought he had said "Shanghai done" and moved onto another subject. In August 2005, Owen Wilson said of Dawn and of a potential sequel to his Starsky & Hutch, "Doesn't look like they're happening, but you never know."[1]
[edit] Box office
According to Box Office Mojo, Shanghai Knights, although not as big of a success as Shanghai Noon, managed to gross $88,323,487.
[edit] Anachronisms
While Shanghai Knights contains many anachronisms and historical inaccuracies, the writers say they were intentionally put in to make the movie more fun. This is consistent with the choices of music in the film, mostly early classic rock hits from the 1960s. Classic rock is so ingrained in the film, that when Owen Wilson's character dreams of his future grand-children, he calls them "Vera, Chuck, and Dave," as in the song "When I'm Sixty-Four" by The Beatles.
- Wu Chow (Donnie Yen) is introduced as the Emperor of China's younger bastard brother. The historical Emperor at this time was the fifteen year old Guangxu. The Chinese emperor was correctly described as a minor in the previous movie, so this mention to Wu being younger makes conflict with the own film continuum.
- The Grenadier Guard who strikes Roy does so with an Enfield No. 4 Rifle, which were not developed until the 1930s, and not introduced until the 1940s. The Martini-Henry, Martini-Enfield, and Lee-Metford rifles were in use in the 1880s, when the film is set.
- Historically the tenth in line of succession to the British throne in 1887 was Queen Victoria's granddaughter, Princess Victoria of Edinburgh (the third child of The Duke of Edinburgh) not Lord Rathbone as fictionally said.
- Arthur Conan Doyle was not knighted until much later in his life. Also, he was a physician, not a police officer, before becoming a writer, and he had already started writing Sherlock Holmes before the date portrayed in the movie.
- When Chon objects to taking shelter in a brothel, Roy quips, "What are we going to do? Check into the Savoy?" The Savoy Hotel was not built until 1889.
- Jack the Ripper was not active until 1888.
- The plot to eradicate the Royal Family at Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee is based on an Irish nationalist plot planned for the same time; however, the nationalist plan was to blow up the Houses of Parliament, not to assassinate the Royal Family.
- During one scene, an automobile is shown that is far more advanced than the rudimentary automobiles of the time.
- The boxers are claimed to be working with the film's antagonist, Lord Rathbone. However, in history the boxers were a group of xenophobic, nationalist Chinese, fighting for a strong China, free of foreign influences, and it is unlikely that they would have worked with any foreigner, certainty not the British.
- The story also featured a young thief Charlie Chaplin, who wasn't even born until 1889.
- Lord Rathbone wrongly addresses Queen Victoria, calling her "Your Highness", when speaking to a British monarch whether it be male or female the spoken form is always "Your Majesty", and thereafter "Ma'am" or "Sir". He says this hastily trying to get out of the line of fire of Wu Chow who is preparing to aim and kill the Royal Family on the balcony behind the Houses of Parliament overlooking the River Thames passing Westminster, he says "I wish not to impede your view, Your Highness". Victoria was Queen and so is styled "Your Majesty" when spoken to.
- When Roy is trying to come up with a false name, he glances at a clock with the inscription 'Holmes County', Ireland. He then introduces himself as Sherlock Holmes. There was not, nor is now, a Holmes County in Ireland.
- At the end of the film, Roy and Chon are knighted by Queen Victoria, becoming Sir Roy and Sir Chon. Only British and Commonwealth citizens can be knighted and be referred to as Sir. This could not be done, as Roy is American and Chon is Chinese.
[edit] Cultural References
- The story takes place during the 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria's reign in 1887.
- The film features a cameo role from Alison King who plays Carla Connor in the British soap Coronation Street. She plays a small role of a prostitute in the movie.
- The stunt sequence where Wang fought the foes while holding an open umbrella pays tribute to the well-known Singin' in the Rain scene with Gene Kelly. In the scene, the song "Singin' in the Rain" is heard also.
- In the scene where the thief takes the watch, in the scenery is a building that says "R. Sowerberry, Undertaker." (and Chon Wang is thrown into a coffin next to the building at this point) This is a reference to the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist, where the workhouse's undertaker is Mr. Sowerberry.
- In the clock tower fight scene, Roy shouts out to Lord Rathbone that he will title his next novel "Roy O'Bannon versus the Man Who Would be Queen," a possible reference to Rudyard Kipling story, The Man Who Would Be King.
- Chon Wang's actual Chinese name appears for the first time as 姜文 (pinyin: jīang wěn) in a parcel sent from Wang's sister. This rendering is different from what appeared in the Chinese subtitles of Shanghai Noon (江文), though the two names are homonyms in Mandarin. When Roy addresses Chon Wang, the Chinese translation of "John Wayne" or "John" is 陳, or "Chen," which is also a different translation from the original movie.
- The name of the villain, "the finest swordsman in England," seems to be a tribute to Basil Rathbone, who in villain roles often looked to be the better swordsman, holding back artificially to let the hero win as per the script. Also, Basil Rathbone starred as Sherlock Holmes in a series of movies throughout the late 1930s and 1940s.
- In the movie, while Roy searches frantically for Charlie at the wax museum, and finds him in a room dedicated to the Royal family, there is a wax figure of Rathbone, right next to the figure of Queen Victoria.
- The method Chon Lin escapes from Scotland Yard, as Doyle explains, is very similar to the way Wang escapes from the small jailhouse in Shanghai Noon.
- The fight scene with the guards in Rathbone's library and treasure room, where Chon used ancient Chinese vases to distract the guards, pays homage to Chan's previous film, Rush Hour. The same scene also recalls Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; both feature a fight sequence involving a rotating fireplace leading to a secret chamber.
- Shanghai Knights is the first Hollywood and English-language film of Singaporean actress Fann Wong.
- The role of Wu Chow was originally offered to Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation star Robin Shou, but he had to turn it down due to scheduling conflicts, and it eventually went to Donnie Yen.
- The climatic scene on in the Big Ben clocktower, pays homage to the 1978 film of the The Thirty Nine Steps (1978 film), which was itself inspired by a scene in the 1943 Will Hay comedy My Learned Friend.
[edit] References
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Official site
- Shanghai Knights at the Internet Movie Database
- Shanghai Knights at Allmovie
- Shanghai Knights at Box Office Mojo
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