San wa (2005)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Stanley Tong

Writers:

Hai-shu Li (writer)
Stanley Tong (writer)

Release Date:

23 September 2005 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Drama | Fantasy

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Scientist | Concubine | Coffin | General | Waterfall

Awards:

4 nominations

Cast

Jackie Chan	...	General Meng Yi / Dr Jack Chan
Hee-seon Kim	...	Ok-soo
Tony Leung Ka Fai	...	William
Mallika Sherawat	...	Samantha
Ken Lo	...	Dragon
Rongguang Yu	...	Zhao Kuang
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ram Gopal Bajaj	...	The Guru
Min-su Choi	...	General Choi (as Choi Min Soo)
Jason Chong	...	Jack / General Meng-Yi (English Revoice)
Hayama Go	...	Tiger
Kumman Gopakumar	...	Dasar Policeman
Leon Head	...	Dr. Smith
Sasidharan Nair Sajith Kumar	...	Dasar Guard A
Biju Kumman	...	Dasar Policeman
Sunil Kumar Kumman	...	Dasar Guard B
Maggie Lau	...	Maggie
Jing-kei Liang	...	Governess (as Liang Jingke)
Xuetong Li	...	Curator
Karimbil Nidheesh	...	Dasar Policeman
Sudhanshu Pandey
Bing Shao	...	Nangong Yan
Qiao Shun	...	Eunuch
Zhou Sun	...	Mr. Koo
Patrick Tam	...	General Xu Gui
Ken Wong	...	Rebel General Meng Jie
Wei Xing Yao	...	General Shen
Tak Yuen	...	Dasar Monk (as Richard Hung)
Jianzhong Zhang	...	Official

Also Known As:

Shen hua (Hong Kong: Mandarin title)
The Myth (International: English title)
Time Breaker (Hong Kong: English title) (working title)
Titanium Rain (Hong Kong: English title) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action and violence, and some sensuality. (edited version; previously rated R for some violence)

Runtime:

Philippines:117 min | Hong Kong:122 min | Canada:118 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

China | Hong Kong

Language:

Mandarin | Hindi | Korean | Cantonese | English | Malayalam

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

Taiwan:PG-12 | Indonesia:Dewasa | Singapore:NC-16 (DVD rating) | Singapore:PG (theatrical) | Philippines:PG-13 | Hong Kong:IIB | Malaysia:U | Germany:16 | Australia:M | USA:PG-13 | South Korea:12 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Anjanadri Hill, Hampi, Karnataka, India

Company:

China Film Group

Trivia:

Hee-seon Kim, one of the female leads, is from Korea. She learned her Chinese lines by memorizing the sounds. Sometimes production would change the script a little, but had to keep Hee-seon's lines about the same because of her limited Chinese.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): While playing with the elephant "Lakshmi", apparently a female elephant, Mallika Sherawat says to it "Good boy, Good boy".

Soundtrack:

Endless Love

Entertaining Jackie Chan flick

Ever since Jackie Chan's rendezvous with Hollywood in Cannonball Run (1981) (which incidentally was advertised in Hong Kong as Jackie "co-starring with Bert Reynolds"), he has been true to his unique brand of action – part comedy, part choreography, part acrobat – but never true martial arts such as what Jet Li delivers. (A remote analogy of the Sphinx – part woman, part beast, part god - but nothing of a man in it). And this went on for what seem like an eternity, both in local and Hollywood productions. Then, approaching mid-life, Chan started to try new things – e.g. pure romance in "Bo lei jun" (or "Glass bottle") (1999) and pathos in "New Police story" (2004).

In "The Myth", he takes things even further, by giving us both an old clowning around Jackie Chan and a new all serious Jackie Chan, in two parallel stories, present and ancient. Good intentions and efforts notwithstanding, Chan's portrayal of a general of woeful countenance in the ancient Qin dynasty is just not convincing, maybe because of things as a simple as his stature or that his face is too familiar. As a result, the love story on which obvious emphasis has been placed never quite gets off the ground. What we are left with then is pretty much the old Jackie Chan flick. Still, with the multi billion dollar (HK$) budget, an international cast and some pretty clever ideas (as the "rat glue factory scene" everybody mentioned), this movie IS entertaining. As well, although the "historical" portion is not exactly a resounding success, it does add another dimension to the movie.

One final note – at half-century point, Jackie Chan finally yields a bit on his resistance to wire work and CGI. While we are all proud of his steadfast determination to do all the dangerous stunts himself, the laws of nature dictate that there are things that you just can't go on doing forever.