The Accidental Spy (2001)

At a Hong Kong shopping center, Buck Yuen's (Jackie Chan's) intuition warns him. He saves a robbery's loot and gets on television, ends up in Istanbul via South Korea, and accidentally becomes a spy. Fortunately, he knows Kung Fu.

Director:

Teddy Chan

Writers:

Rod Dean (English adaptation), Ivy Ho

Stars:

Jackie Chan, Min Kim, Eric Tsang

2 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jackie Chan	...	Buck Yuen
Eric Tsang	...	Many Liu
Vivian Hsu	...	Yong
Min Kim	...	Carmen Wong (as Kim Min Jeong)
Hsing-Kuo Wu	...	Lee Sang-Zen (as Wu Hsing Kuo)
Murat Yilmaz	...	Celik
Alfred Cheung	...	Cheung the Lawyer
Lillian Ho	...	Candice
Tat-Ming Cheung	...	Tsui / Stan
Vincent Kok	...	Moving Worker
Hang-Sang Poon	...	Rich Man
Paulyn Sun	...	Rich Man's Wife
Ping Ha	...	Cleaning Lady (as Ha Ping)
Ken Chang	...	Cop at Mall
Glory Simon	...	TCN Field Reporter

Storyline

This action movie unfolds with the story of Bei, a salesman at a workout equipment store, who harbors dreams of adventures. It all starts when on one normal dull day, Bei follows his instincts to trail two suspicious looking men into an alley. When he realizes that these men are robbing a jewelry store, he jumps into action to foil their plans. Soon after Bei meets Liu, a private investigator who convinces Bei that he may be the long-lost son of a rich Korean businessman. In no time, Bei is on his way to fulfill his dreams of adventure and fortune traveling to Korea and even exotic Turkey. As Bei is drawn deeper into the game of cat and mouse, he realizes he has become the key to locating a new, highly addictive narcotic. With an assortment of characters fighting him along the way, will Bei succeed in finding the drug himself?

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Plot Keywords:

slender legs | standing on a roof | chick | thin attractive girl | slim attractive girl | 

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Taglines:

Ordinary guy. Extraordinary spy

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Crime | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for strong action violence, some drug content and nudity

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jacky Cheung sings the theme song in the end credits.

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Goofs

After the escape from the shed where Buck saves Yong, the masked assailants open the door, where a dead person lies in the shot. When the door opens, the dead person twitches and blinks.

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Crazy Credits

Outtakes are shown during the end credits.

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Alternate Versions

The US version is cut by 20+ minutes.

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Connections

Referenced in Film Geek (2005)

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Soundtracks

Gong Don Ci
(uncredited)
Written by Liu Xue An and Cao Xue Qin
Performed by Vivian Hsu

User Reviews

I know I'll be hated, but...

Except for one glaring error, I think Dimension Films did an excellent job in recutting/redubbing The Accidental Spy for the American Market. They didn't cut any major action sequences, the editing in general was better in the US version, and the actors who did the dubbing in the US version were 500% better than the ones who spoke English in the original (especially the woman who played Carmen--she had a gorgeous face, but her English was less convincing than Jackie's and she was a horrible actress to boot). Also, the new English dialog is MUCH better in Dimension's version, easily beating out the original's English dialoge as well as the subtitle translations of it's Cantonese and Turkish dialoge.

For instance, in an early scene where shop-clerk Jackie is demonstrating exercise equipment to a middle aged man and his hot young wife, the man becomes indignant over that attention Chan pays to his trophy spouse. In the original version, the translation of his complaint about Chan to the shop manager is "Is he a circus clown?" In the US version, he says, "Is he hitting on my wife?" which makes MUCH more sense (to americans anyway).

Of course, the most unusual thing about this re-edit is that Dimension gave the film an entirely different story! The original was about the chase for an ultra-lethal, weaponized pathogen called Anthrax II. Spy was set to come out right in the middle of our nation's big Anthrax scare, however, so that was out. In Dimension's remake, everyone is chasing after vials of a prototype drug 100 times more addictive than heroin. I say "six of one, half a dozen of the other." The chase is the important part in a Jackie Chan movie, not what everyone's running after. In fact, the drug plot works much better in many ways.

The only thing they messed up was the very end of the film--a common problem for Dimension (see the awkward end of the US version of Legend of Drunken Master). Spy's original ending was both bittersweet and comic. The US version's chopped up ending is just jarringly abrupt and the explanation of the plot is even more nonsensical than the HK version (oddly enough, the "simple" US-version explanation is more unbelievable than the convoluted version in the original.).

The Accidental Spy is Chan's best HK film in years--great cinematography, slick set design, great action! A class act, as these things go.

Details

Official Sites:

Golden Harvest Official site

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese Mandarin English Korean French Turkish

Release Date:

18 January 2001 (Hong Kong)

Also Known As:

Te wu mi cheng

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Box Office

Budget:

HKD200,000,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$790,144

Company Credits

Production Co:

GH Pictures, Golden Harvest Company, Golden Harvest Pictures (China)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

DTS (English version) SDDS (English version) Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1