Crime Story - A review

As good fortune would have it (because I have wanted a copy of this movie for the longest time) I laid my hands on a copy of Crime Story recently.

If you haven't seen this particular Jackie movie I have to say it is not your usual light but action packed Jackie Chan movie from the 80's. The movie is loosely based on a true story surrounding the kidnapping of a Hong Kong businessman. Jackie plays a police dectective (yes again!) who is suffering from PTSD and who investigates the kidnapping.

The movie won and was nominated for several awards:

1993 Golden Horse Film Festival
Won: Best Actor (Jackie Chan)

1994 Hong Kong Film Awards
Won: Best Film Editing (Peter Cheung)
Nomination: Best Action Choreography (Jackie Chan)
Nomination: Best Actor (Jackie Chan)
Nomination: Best Director (Kirk Wong)
Nomination: Best Picture
Nomination: Best Supporting Actor (Kent Cheng)

An interesting factoid about the movie is that it was filmed back-to-back with City Hunter and two more different movies you cannot imagine.

Crime Story, despite winning the accolades it did, in my opinion is one of Jackie's underestimated movies by both fans and critics. It performed very poorly at the box office and put Jackie off making more serious drama for years which is a great pity because Jackie shows in this movie that he is more than capable of expressing strong emotion and handling a dramatic role more than adequately.

Unlike many of Jackie's movies his character in this film is far more well rounded and developed and Jackie handles the emotional complexity of a cop on the edge extremely well. Even in the opening scene, before you fully know what the state of mind of the character is, Jackie's expressions and posture convey the stress this character is experiencing extremely well.

The other characters are not left out in this film either. All the other characters are also well developed and their motivations for their actions are clearly shown with a few simple but very expressive scenes. Although one is left wondering if the director of the movie was trying to send a subtle message at one point about the deservedness of the kidnapping but this idea is abandoned and not taken up at a later point in the film and ultimately one becomes quite sympathetic towards the victim.

Another plot theme not quite as well developed as one would like ties in with the idea that the kidnapping was in some way brought on himself by the victim but this time through the motivations of the antagonists who commit the kidnapping. However this is also dropped in favour of the 'corrupt policeman in cahoots with bad guys' explanation and from that point on the film focuses primarily around the antagonism between Jackie and Inspector Hung Ting-Bong as they dance around each other in a 'I know you know I know you know' game before the conflict is resolved in a spectacular and explosive ending.

The film is unexpectedly violent for a Jackie Chan film of that era but the violence is in character and in keeping with the plots and themes of the movie. It never feels gratuitous or out of place and there certainly is no particular emphasis on being gruesome. The violence is of that level of realism that shows it clearly without the blood and guts.

The action is just brilliant. There is a scene on the boat that makes me shudder every time I watch it even though one can clearly see the pipes are flexible. The explosion at the end builds tension and suspense very well and very dramatic but somehow, predictable. Perhaps the very best action sequence is the one on the scaffolding in the movie theater.

All in all this is a very satisfying movie to watch. And comes highly recommended from me ... as well as being a 'must see' for any serious Jackie fan.

A Variety of Deleted Scenes

Rob-B-Hood

 

I am slowly forming the opinion that Rob-B-Hood is one of the best movies Jackie has made in recent years - and just maybe one of the best period.

Yes I know Miracles, Drunken Master 1 & 2, and a few others have to head any list of Jackie's best and in more recent years I have really liked The Myth and New Police Story but watching Rob-B-Hood last night again made me think about the film.

Rob-B-Hood may not have THE BEST action or THE BEST story or THE BEST comedy or THE BEST filmed or THE BEST choreography but it is good in ALL those things. The script hasn't got any really blatent flaws (as sadly many of Jackie's scripts do). It has a beginning, a middle and an end. The characters are well developed full characters and more importantly sympathetic characters. You even feel for the bad guys - which only happens with a good script.

As all good drama's do the story focuses around an event and how that event impacts the people it touches.  I know Rob-B-Hood is billed as an comedy but in reality as you watch the film - yes it is very funny and I just about roll on the floor laughing at some of the scenes  - underneath it presents itself as a drama. Here are an assorted collection of people, 3 petty thieves, a triad boss, his insane son, his ex-girfriend, a nurse, and their assorted families who have absolutely nothing in common except the baby. The baby is both the cause of drawing of them all into each others lives and the cause of the changes that impact them all - mostly in positive ways.

It is in the end a movie about the power of love. All the baby asks from each person is that they care. The baby in it's helpless baby way is a silent and powerless voice in the film that nonetheless speaks the loudest about love. It says "Love me", "Care for me", "Protect me" and how each character reacts to those demands and how they try (or not in a few cases) to meet those demands produces the life altering changes in them.

But to get back to why I think this is a good movie. Firstly as I said the script while not flawless is very complete and satisfying. The characters are well developed and sympathetic and also undergo a transformation that is understandable, natural and well explained both forwards as events unfold and backwards as we discover their history (which is well conveyed through a few key scenes. Oh I can't resist the comparison. The subtlety and depth with which the history of the main players in RBH is conveyed through just a few scenes have to be compared with that awful long boring and unnecessary scene explaining Golden Sparrow's history in TFK. The scenes giving the back story in RBH flow naturally as part of the movie, do not jar and add depth and powerful emotion to the characters). The two montage sequences giving the history of the main characters' crimes and spending habits are brilliant. The music matches the clips well, and the clips are both funny and informative. In just a few flashes you know all you need to know about each character's behaviour/lifestyle at the start of the film. 

The action sequences also follow naturally as part of the story - sorry Jackie but sometimes they feel a little too contrived - sort of like "it's been 5 minutes so we have to have another action sequence now". First Strike is one movie that comes to mind as an example of having that slightly forced feeling to some of the action, and Who Am I? 

Once again there are those incredible moments when you just have to say "HOW DID HE DO THAT?" like for example when Jackie gets in the back of the Mitsubishi to follow the run-away baby through the traffic. It is one of those small moments that aren't even a big deal onscreen but if you watch how he just bonelessly flows in the back hatch and over the seats you have to gasp in admiration. (One day I will do a list of my favourite such moments)

The whole movie feels like Jackie choreographed it as flawlessly as he choreographs his stunts. There is a perfect blend between highs and lows, between tension and relief, between drama and humour, between action and story telling. It carries you along with it seamlessly from beginning to end and when you get to the end you are sorry to see the people go. All in all a highly satisfying movie to watch - and that makes it, in my eyes, not just a good movie but one of Jackie's best movies.