Shanghai Knights (2003)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

David Dobkin

Writers (WGA):

Alfred Gough (characters) &
Miles Millar (characters) ...

Release Date:

7 February 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Comedy

Tagline:

A Royal Kick In The Arse

Plot:

When a Chinese rebel murders Chon's estranged father and escapes to England, Chon and Roy make their way to London with revenge on their minds.

Plot Keywords:

Murder | 1880s | Stonehenge | Rescue | Jail

Awards:

4 nominations

Cast

Jackie Chan	...	Chon Wang
Owen Wilson	...	Roy O'Bannon
Fann Wong	...	Chon Lin
Aaron Johnson	...	Charlie Chaplin
Aidan Gillen	...	Lord Nelson Rathbone
Thomas Fisher	...	Insp. Artie Doyle
Donnie Yen	...	Wu Chow
Oliver Cotton	...	Jack the Ripper
Alison King	...	Prostitute
Constantine Gregory	...	The Mayor
Jonathan Harvey	...	Fagin #1
Richard Haas	...	Street Preacher
Anna-Louise Plowman	...	Debutante (as Anna Louise Plowman)
Georgina Chapman	...	Debutante
John Owens	...	Server

Also Known As:

Shanghai Noon 2 (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for action violence and sexual content.

Runtime:

114 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Mandarin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Malaysia:U | Ireland:15 | South Korea:12 | Argentina:Atp | Australia:M | Brazil:12 | Finland:K-11 | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:IIA | Netherlands:12 | New Zealand:M | Norway:11 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | Spain:T | Sweden:11 | UK:12A | USA:PG-13 | Canada:PG

Filming Locations:

Action Under Water Studios, Hertford Road, Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Company:

All Knight Productions LLC

Trivia:

This film marks the first on-screen battle between Jackie Chan and Donnie Yen, who both have had success in Hong Kong but never fought each other on screen.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The Palace guards are shown holding Lee-Enfield rifles. These were not accepted by the British military until 1895, although the movie is set in 1887.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Chon Wang's Father: You are not permitted to gaze at the Imperial Seal.

Movie Connections:

References A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Soundtrack:

Yeh, Yeh

fun sequel

The implied promise of a sequel is that it will give you what you got from the first movie, but that promise is often broken. Shanghai Knights is an exception, giving the audience that same mix of goofy dialogue and slapstick martial arts that made the first movie so much fun. This time the duo heads to England, allowing them to make a bunch of incredibly silly jokes about England and Sherlock Holmes and Charlie Chaplin. The movie is essentially one long wink, and if you like that sort of humor your likely to find much of it amusing. At times I thought they pushed the anachronistic dialogue a little too far, as when Owen asks the gorgeous Fann Wong if she works out, but overall it works pretty well. Chan supplies a number of very entertaining fight sequences along with his usual goofy charm and the end result feels like a more actiony version of a Hope/Crosby road movie.