Emperor Classic Films, Emperor Dragon Movies, Emperor Motion Pictures,
Jackie Chan, Sang-woo Kwon, Xingtong Yao, Laura Weissbecker, Zhang Lanxin, Fan Liao, Oliver Platt, Vincent
Asian Hawk (Jackie Chan) is some kind of ringleader of a gang of treasure hunters, but he’s really focused on recovering 12 bronze statues representing the signs of the Chinese Zodiak animal heads. Globally, there’s a huge market for stolen artwork from many different countries on the black market, but Asian Hawk wants to return them to China where they belong. He travels all over the world tracking down leads and putting the slip on the bad guys as he tries his best to recover them one by one.
This is a Jackie Chan movie from start to finish. Sometimes he’s just not satisfied with the roles he gets in Hollywood and the battles over the stunts that he loves to do, but give the hot shot investors who risk millions on Hollywood Blockbusters and can’t bear the risk of Jackie Chan hurting himself seriously. So Chan is the producer, director, and star in this film. He has lots of help, but his head is in the amazing stunts, and there are dozens and dozens of unreal scenes that match all the stuff he has ever done. The story is a bit weak, but nobody cares in the least about the story in a Jackie Chan movie. It’s a simple enough plot, find the statues and recover them one by one. But he runs across some unusual people and a lot of bad guys who don’t want to give them up. There are so many really highly choreographed fights in this film that it’s unbelievable. This is also a small budget film, made in Hong Kong, and barely available in the US, so you may have to look for this. But it’s certainly worth the effort to track this down to see Jackie Chan at his best with no restrictions. It’s no wonder there have been so many false rumors about his death in Cyberspace. He has hurt himself, sometimes badly, doing these stunts, but he still is a swift and nimble as ever. If you go for the DVD version, there are the usual perks of funny outtakes and failed stunts at the end of the film, but also an interview where he talks about some of the times he has really hurt himself. All in all this was a fun evening of great gymnastic stunts and tricks and choreographed fights that made it really fun to watch.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
