Rumble in the Bronx (1995)

A young man visiting and helping his uncle in New York City finds himself forced to fight a street gang and the mob with his martial art skills.

Director:

Stanley Tong

Writers:

Edward Tang, Fibe Ma

Stars:

Jackie Chan, Anita Mui, Françoise Yip

2 wins & 11 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jackie Chan	...	Keung
Anita Mui	...	Elaine
Françoise Yip	...	Nancy (as Francois Yip)
Bill Tung	...	Uncle Bill
Marc Akerstream	...	Tony
Garvin Cross	...	Angelo
Morgan Lam	...	Danny
Ailen Sit	...	Tony's Gang Member
Man-Ching Chan	...	Tony's Gang Member (as Chan Man Ching)
Fred Andrucci	...	Tony's Gang Member
Mark Antoniuk	...	Tony's Gang Member
Lauro David Chartrand-DelValle	...	Tony's Gang Member (as Lauro Chartrand)
Chris Franco	...	Tony's Gang Member
Lance Gibson	...	Tony's Gang Member
David Hooper	...	Tony's Gang Member

Storyline

Keong comes from Hong Kong to visit New York for his uncle's wedding. His uncle runs a market in the Bronx and Keong offers to help out while Uncle is on his honeymoon. During his stay in the Bronx, Keong befriends a neighbor kid and beats up some neighborhood thugs who cause problems at the market. Meanwhile, one of those petty thugs in the local gang stumbles into a criminal situation way over his head. Blinded by greed, his involvement draws his gang, the kid, Keong, and the whole neighborhood into a deadly crossfire. When the lazy cops fail to successfully resolve matters, Keong takes things into his own hands. Needless to say, much spectacular kung-fu and outrageous action sequences follow....

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Plot Keywords:

one way mirror | baseball bat used as a weapon | backhand slap | briefcase of money | pipe wrench | 

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Taglines:

No Fear. No Stuntman. No Equal

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Crime | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some language and violent sequences

Details

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese English

Release Date:

23 February 1996 (USA)

Also Known As:

Rumble in the Bronx

Filming Locations:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$7,500,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$74,907, 19 July 1996

Gross USA:

$32,392,047

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$39,748,899

Company Credits

Production Co:

Golden Harvest Company, Golden Way Films Ltd., Maple Ridge Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min 89 min (DVD)

Sound Mix:

Dolby (original release) Dolby SR (US version) SDDS (US version)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Marc Akerstream, who played the role of Tony, was also one of the stunt drivers, plus was engaged in the production of "auto-moto" action in the film.

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Goofs

The soda pop display that gets knocked down in the supermarket is obviously made from empty cans.

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Quotes

Tony: Angelo? This is the guy that busted your frigging nose?
Angelo: Yeah. That's him.
Tony: He don't look so tough.
Angelo: Yo, shithead! You're gonna die!
Tony: Easy, Angelo. Not yet. Let's have some fun.

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Crazy Credits

Outtakes of the stunts performed, the stunts that went wrong, the injuries and funny scenes.

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Alternate Versions

The Australian DVD was taken from the censored European master. A majority of the brutal impact hits of the bottles being hit into Jackie have been removed and cause several continuity errors.

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Connections

References Woodchipper Massacre (1988)

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Soundtracks

You Are The One
Written by Tim Dang and Nathan Wang
Performed by Carrie Cain-Sparks

User Reviews

Hollywood bound

Jackie Chan had never had a box office hit in America despite starring in Hollywood films such as 'Battle Creek Brawl' and 'The Protector' in the 1980s. 'Rumble in the Bronx' was a Hong Kong made film, but they wanted it to have international appeal and achieved this through its New York setting and American background characters. The film intended to introduce Jackie Chan to the West, and that's exactly what it did - but they didn't expect it to be a number one box office hit.

The story involves Keung (Jackie Chan) coming over to America to visit his Uncle who owns a grocery store in the Bronx. Soon enough a biker gang turns up and causes havoc at the store, so it's up to Keung to fend off the bad guys, uncover police corruption, and generally save the day in style.

This is a high energy film and the pace never lets up, there isn't one big set piece in this film there are many big set pieces, but the most impressive stunt has to be the one where Jackie jumps from the top of a multi-storey car park onto a small balcony across the road. The multiple camera set up shows us that there is no safety netting or use of wires - just Jackie entrusting his own life in his own abilities.

Naturally there are countless fight scenes where Jackie shows us his own brand of kung fu comedy, including the process of making inanimate objects become very animated indeed. Only he can turn pinball machines, trolleys and fridge doors into weapons! The only slight criticism I would have is that the fights are over edited, people like Jean Claude Van-Damme and Steven Segal might need a lot of cuts to put a fight scene together, but Jackie doesn't - he's an expert choreographer, and the cuts are needless. I'm not saying that the fight sequences are under par, because they're not, they are still very impressive - especially to people who haven't seen the man in action.

When the American audiences saw 'Rumble in the Bronx', they saw the real Jackie Chan not the shadow of a man struggling to gain artistic input under a Hollywood studios control. They were wowed by the death-defying stunts, frenetic fight sequences, and the sheer energy of the film from start to finish got word-of-mouth working overtime.

'Rumble in the Bronx' was the surprise box office hit of 1996, it made the West sit up and take notice of an exceptional talent they had long overlooked. The next time Jackie Chan would star in a Hollywood film he would be given the respect he had always deserved - and another box office hit.