Shinjuku Incident (2009)

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.

Tietou/Steelhead/Nick (Jackie Chan) leaves his rural Chinese village to search for his love Xiu Xiu who had disappeared in Japan. He travels illegally on a freighter but he cannot return home after an incident. With his friend Jie/Joe, they try to survive on the fringe. He saves Detective Kitano's life in a raid. He discovers that Xiu Xiu/Yuko Eguchi had married Yakuza leader Eguchi who is more open-minded than other Yakuza. He starts to build a Chinese pretty crime family but Jie would rather have a roasted chestnut cart. Taiwanese triad leader Gao discovers tampering in his pachinko machine and savagely cuts up Jie. He sneaks in to avenge Jie but overhears a plot to kill Eguchi. He saves Eguchi's life and he is given territories to control. He tries to govern within the law and puts Jie in charge of new people. The years pass by and the gang becomes corrupt. He tries to give himself up to Kitano. Jie becomes more brutal and Yakuza boss authorizes the overthrow of Eguchi.Jackie Chan's character is way too moral. His desperate goodness feels clunky. It's nowhere near the silliness of 'Rumble in the Bronx' but the attempted grittiness is betrayed at almost every point in the story. The violence gets a little bloody but feels limited. The big action scene is the bad guys throwing rocks. I do want Jackie Chan to branch out into more gritty and less kung fu fighting action. This is not quite there although I like the attempt.

Jackie Chan's darkest film yet is a quality piece of drama exploring life within Japan's Yakuza gangs. It's a very atypical film for the star, better known these days for his kid-friendly fare in American family films. For fans of Asian thrillers, the gangster elements will be largely familiar, but they're introduced in a novel and interesting way; it's the first film I've seen detailing the plight of Chinese refugee immigrants in Japan.The twisty-turny plot offers up many twists that are difficult to predict, and the on-screen action is never less than interesting. Jackie gets the opportunity to focus on his acting rather than his martial arts for a change, and he shines as the conflicted farmhand-turned-gangster. Although this isn't an action film per se, there are many memorable set-pieces, not least a large-scale climax that makes for riveting entertainment.The film's well-shot, if a little dark, and features decent turns from actors in supporting roles (Japanese actors Naoto Takenaka and Masaya Kato are both excellent). Daniel Wu's character in the film undergoes a particularly frightening and believable transformation. The scenes of violence and torture may not be for every viewer's taste, but THE SHINJUKU INCIDENT is a rewarding experience for those viewers exploring Jackie's progression as an actor.

The Shinjuku Incident wants to be an epic film. In certain ways it is. It's overlong. It's full of morphing characters. The time-line is stretched and the production values are very good. It, perhaps, tries a bit too hard to be epic.That being said, the strongest asset of the movie is the believable character development of 'Jie/Joe' played by Daniel Wu. His character transforms from the most innocent member of the Chinese illegals to the most dangerous and psychologically damaged of the group. Unlike the other characters, Wu's metamorphisis has substance - we know why he is changing. Naoto Takenaka also deserves recognition for his portrayal of Inspector Kitano; a down-to-earth cop who repays a debt to Nick/Jackie.This is a pretty big departure from the usual light-hearted action fare for Jackie Chan. "San suk si gin" is a serious film with serious characters, and it's worth watching, but it's not a great film by any means. Some of the characters(in particular Jingli Xu and BingBing Fan) just don't finish their development, and the male leads all come to harrowing ends.In the end we have a good movie that fails to be great. WHile I understand that the film is about Jackie and his friends rising to the top of the gang-food-chain - I still got the feeling in the end that I couldn't distinguish whether any(save one) of the characters were actually good or bad. I guess all of them were a bit of both which left me with a little bit of a 'who cares' feeling. IF the story would have really let Daniel Wu take off and become more of a villain(specifically to Jackie) - I think the ending would have had more impact. I don't need happy endings, but killing off every significant character save the cop is a bit much, and leaves the film with no real closure.I think the film needed more positive interaction between some of the characters - that way I would have cared more for them when the time came that they changed. Maybe the film tried to develop too many characters, and suffered from it by not really developing any of them. We see the journey that all the characters make, but we just don't care about any of them except Daniel Wu. Epic for epic's sake.64/100Marginally recommendedYou'll like it if you liked: Sonatine, A Better Tomorrow 2, American Gangster, The Departed, and Blood In Blood Out - but this film hovers around the bottom of this strong list in terms of quality/viewer enjoyment.