Miracles - Mr. Canton and Lady Rose
(1989)
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Miracles - Mr. Canton and Lady Rose
(1989)
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| Credited cast: | |||
| Jackie Chan | ... | ||
| Anita Mui | ... |
Luming Yang
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Ya-lei Kuei | ... |
Madam Kao
(as Yah-Leh Gui)
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Chun Hsiung Ko | ... |
Tiger
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Ma Wu | ... |
Uncle Hai
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Bill Tung | ... |
Tung
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| Vincent Lyn |
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| Rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
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Kenny Bee | ... |
Reporter #1
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Anthony Carpio | ... |
One of Tiger Lo's men
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Anthony Chan | ... |
Reporter #2
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Ching-Wan Chan |
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Joanna Chan |
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Kwok Kuen Chan |
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Sai-Tang Chan |
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Tat-kwong Chan | ... | |
Jackie Chan's Hong Kong variation of Frank Capra's "A Pocketful of Miracles" set in the 1930s. Jackie plays a country boy who rescues a gang boss. Jackie becomes the head of a gang through the purchase of some lucky roses from an old lady. Jackie and a singer at the gang's nightclub try to do a good deed for the old rose-seller when her daughter comes to visit, all this while battling a rival gang. Written by Ronald Strong <rs080455@pacbell.net>
1987's Miracles was one of Jackie Chan's biggest flops, and it's not that difficult to see why. A lavish Hong Kong reworking of the Frank Capra-Damon Runyon classic Lady For a Day set in a lovingly recreated Twenties Hong Kong, you can see where the money's been spent, but too often the film feels like it's all window dressing. Director-star Chan is so enamoured of the project that he loses sight of the story and the audience and it constantly tips over into drawn-out self-indulgence even in the two hour version, so it's hard to imagine how slow Chan's original unreleased and reportedly lost three-hour cut must have been. Chan's a down-on-his-luck chancer who, after buying a lucky rose from an old woman, finds his luck changing, quickly working his way to the top as a gangster-cum-gambler-cum-club owner (of the kind who never kills anyone, naturally) and repays the favor by roping in his gang and various IOUs to masquerade as the cream of high society when the flower seller's daughter - who believes her mother to be a rich socialite - comes to visit. Action is thin on the ground until the elaborate ladder-fight finale, but that's less of a problem than the fact that neither the film nor the characters really engage your sympathy or much of your interest along the way. There are some good sequences, including a virtuoso single-take shot of making over a gambling den into a fancy restaurant with several nods to Buster Keaton along the way, but there just aren't enough of them.