Posted 13 June 2023 - 12:50 PM
Added to my Jackie Chan Special Edition Blu-Ray collection yesterday with the latest Special Edition of GORGEOUS from 88Films...a really nice disc and the transfer is (for lack of a better word) gorgeous. For a film from 1999 it looks like it was shot yesterday.
What's funny about this one is that it's one of the only ones I can think of where it's attempting to be a RomCom as much as it's being the typical Jackie brand of Action Comedy. Director (and actor and producer) Vincent Kok's milieu of film is very much this, and I know that this film started as a straight romance but lead actress Shu Qi would only do it if Chan wrote himself a role in the film and brought in action elements. And I like that the film has no "enemy" that Jackie must defeat....the big fight is a sparring match between Jackie and his IRL protege Brad Allen (RIP; COVID) that's agreed upon before and they use boxing gloves...and the only other guy who antagonizes Chan is a childhood friend who is upset that Chan's character sold shares in his company...so you can tell that this was a straight up romance before the action was added. But it's fun nonetheless, and Shu Qi delivers a cutesy (if at times gratingly annoying) performance....but the real stars other than Chan are the cameos and supporting roles, like Tony Leung as the gay best friend, Richie Chen as the lovesick local fisherman who can't seem to let go of Qi's character Bu, and a veritable who's who of HK cinema in the 90's with cameos from Stephen Chow, Stephen Fung (Qi's real life husband these days), Sam Lee, Maggies Cheung, Daniel Wu (Fung, Lee, Cheung, and Wu all starred in Chan's other 1999 produced movie GEN-X COPS), and Emil Chau as the grandstanding childhood friend who keeps throwing trouble Chan's way for daring to drop his stock.
Is it as good as Chan's POLICE STORY movies, or his more action-comedy fare of the age? Certainly not. Hell, it's not even as good as his earlier Shaw-Brothers-like work or his Drunken Master work...but it's super unique and really funny, and a lot of fun to watch throughout.
"When the last tree has fallen, and the rivers are poisoned, you cannot eat money, oh no." ~Aurora
"Someone will always try to sell you despair, just so they don't feel alone." ~Ursula Vernon