As a child I grew up watching tons of Jackie Chan movies, which very much made my generation addicted to his kind of karate. We liked Bruce Lee for sure - but he was often too serious for us Western kids. His martial arts movies were really "art", whilst Jackie Chan just made fun of everything - he was the perfect entertainer for child and adult alike.
Now as an "old" man he not just plays a rather passive (compared to his former roles) main character, but also does it seriously. And honestly his work just blew my mind. I hope I won't spoiler anything, but while he may not do any funny karate moves, there are enormous amount of razor sharp blades, blood and raw violence. Yet, the story is centered around one of the biggest social problems of our days: migration. Migration brings happiness, fear, success, illegal jobs, family reunion, crime and organized crime. And Jackie Chan is no shy man to show both the bright and dark side of this topic. However, at some points the direction insterted parts of the script as rather silly sounding conversations, which might seem even more comic to those not familiar with Asian culture. In these scenes the movie wants to draw some moral or ethical conclusion out of what the characters have done so far. It is a bit pointless unless the goal was to educate the viewers about what a Chineese immigrant can do in Japan - which actually pretty much makes sense in this context. But it interrupts the movie's rhytm so heavily, that it's like an intermission cut in from some low score movie. Still, I'm quiet sure Jackie and director Tung-Shing Yee had good intentions with these scenes (as with the whole movie), so I'm just noting it for those who might think it will be 2 hours of endless killing. No, it won't - sit down, it's the perfect opportunity to learn your lesson about migration's challenges and grow some emotional intelligence if you are only in for the missing body parts.
As for the actors - I'm proud of myself that I could always differentiate between Japanese and Chineese characters. Though I probably shouldn't be - it's likely the result of good casting and costume design. So a big thanks for the film crew for this - some of us just don't have the ability to tell the differences. Character development is also a strong point, couldn't really say there were "bad" roles - even minor actors did OK with Western standards, which is actually a bit of a surprise if you know how much the Chineese movies were about overreacting some years ago. So yeah - even though it has it's strange habits, Jackie Chan did not let his fans down. He just tried something different this time - but he excels just as well in this dark criminal movie, as in his own realm.
Now as an "old" man he not just plays a rather passive (compared to his former roles) main character, but also does it seriously. And honestly his work just blew my mind. I hope I won't spoiler anything, but while he may not do any funny karate moves, there are enormous amount of razor sharp blades, blood and raw violence. Yet, the story is centered around one of the biggest social problems of our days: migration. Migration brings happiness, fear, success, illegal jobs, family reunion, crime and organized crime. And Jackie Chan is no shy man to show both the bright and dark side of this topic. However, at some points the direction insterted parts of the script as rather silly sounding conversations, which might seem even more comic to those not familiar with Asian culture. In these scenes the movie wants to draw some moral or ethical conclusion out of what the characters have done so far. It is a bit pointless unless the goal was to educate the viewers about what a Chineese immigrant can do in Japan - which actually pretty much makes sense in this context. But it interrupts the movie's rhytm so heavily, that it's like an intermission cut in from some low score movie. Still, I'm quiet sure Jackie and director Tung-Shing Yee had good intentions with these scenes (as with the whole movie), so I'm just noting it for those who might think it will be 2 hours of endless killing. No, it won't - sit down, it's the perfect opportunity to learn your lesson about migration's challenges and grow some emotional intelligence if you are only in for the missing body parts.
As for the actors - I'm proud of myself that I could always differentiate between Japanese and Chineese characters. Though I probably shouldn't be - it's likely the result of good casting and costume design. So a big thanks for the film crew for this - some of us just don't have the ability to tell the differences. Character development is also a strong point, couldn't really say there were "bad" roles - even minor actors did OK with Western standards, which is actually a bit of a surprise if you know how much the Chineese movies were about overreacting some years ago. So yeah - even though it has it's strange habits, Jackie Chan did not let his fans down. He just tried something different this time - but he excels just as well in this dark criminal movie, as in his own realm.