CRIME STORY

Rating: *** (out of ****)

Cast: Jackie Chan, Kent Cheng, Law Kar-Ying, Blacky Ko, Ken Lo, Mars

Director: Kirk Wong

ROBIN-B-HOOD

Rating: ** (out of ****)

Cast: Jackie Chan, Louis Koo, Michael Hui, Matthew Medvedev, Charlene Choi, Yuen Biao, Gao Yuanyuan, Ken Lo, Daniel Wu, Nicholas Tse

Director: Benny Chan

 Dragon Dynasty, part of the Weinstein Company, is becoming the best label for Asian action movies, releasing old chop sockies (The 36^th Chamber of Shaolin, King Boxer) and newer movies (SPL, The Protector) in good-looking, extras-packed editions, most featuring commentary by Bey Logan (author of the excellent book Hong Kong Action Cinema) and some featuring Quentin Tarantino’

s fanboy-friendly stamp of approval.  The Weinsteins took a lot of flack at Miramax for the way they treated their foreign acquisitions, often editing films or, worse, keeping them on the shelf.  Asian genre films suffered particularly.  The Promise and Shaolin Soccer, for example, were both shorn of over twenty-five minutes.

And what would an Asian action film distribution label be without some Jackie Chan?  Recently released on Dragon Dynasty editions were Crime Story (1994) and Robin-B-Hood (2006).

Robin-B-Hood (Hong Kong title: Rob-B-Hood.  The ‘B’ is a reference to ‘baby,’ but I think something got lost in the translation) is Chan’s most recent Hong Kong production, released throughout Asia in September 2006.  In Hong Kong, its infant star, Matthew Medvedev, was central to its marketing campaign, dwarfing even Chan on most of the posters.  Thanks in part to this hook, Robin-B-Hood ended up as Hong Kong’s second biggest domestically produced box office earner for 2006…and little Medvedev received a Hong Kong Oscar nomination for best newcomer!

Chan plays Thongs, one third of a merry band of robbers also comprised of Octopus (Louis Koo) and Landlord (Michael Hui).  When a job goes wrong, Landlord finds himself in prison and Thongs and Octopus find themselves with…a kidnapped baby!  It’s taking extraordinary strength of will on my part not to crack a joke involving the title Three Black Belts and a Baby.

Robin-B-Hood panders to every demographic, with young heartthrobs, overcooked drama, action set pieces, and a whole lot of poop jokes.  Chan’s character is a gambling addict with daddy issues, and the melodrama that results is pretty queasy.   Also less than satisfying is the underdeveloped subplot between Koo and his pregnant, neglected wife (Charlene Choi), which grinds the movie to a halt every time it rears its head.  (Incidentally, if you don’t think raising a baby will make these flawed men change their wicked ways…well, you’ve never seen a movie before).

The film was obviously intended to reach a broad, family audience in Hong Kong, but baby-related highjinks aside, Western audiences looking for kiddie entertainment might be surprised by the violence, crude humour and language, which would surely earn this at least a PG-13 rating (the original version even contains an abortion reference, though I wouldn’t be surprised if the Weinsteins cut this).

But then there are the action scenes, which are spectacular.  At the midpoint, there’s a real doozy involving a car chase and a baby carriage.  The climactic scene is about fifteen minutes of wall-to-wall action, and it’s surprisingly exciting.  [SPOILER WARNING] Goodwill is quickly dashed by a scene in which Chan and Koo try desperately to save the baby’s life with a hotwired defibrillator, a scene which is unprecedented in the annals of Jackie Chan cinema in its melodrama; Chan, normally a surprisingly good dramatic actor, overacts intensely.  And in the condescending final scene, everything works out implausibly perfectly.  Look, I’m expecting anything bleak from a Jackie Chan family movie, but this ending is over-the-top sunny.  [END SPOILERS]  By the time this dreary conclusion passes, Robin-B-Hood has run an inexcusable 125 minutes.  That’s a lot of padding

Crime Story is a much better film.  It was made in 1994, near the end of the Jackie Chan golden age, and, bluntly, it’s awesomeness.  Interestingly, it’s based on a true story of the kidnapping of a Hong Kong diplomat.  Jackie plays Eddie Chan, a dedicated cop who slowly begins to realize that his corrupt partner (Kent Cheng) may be involved in the kidnapping.

Crime Story was Chan’s first attempt at a serious action film in many years.  Most of his films released after 1978 had him playing a variation on the same character: cocky, mischievous, and pretty darn silly.  Here Chan gives an effective dramatic performance.  Crime Story is gritty, intense and violent in a way that calls to mind the work of John Woo.  It’s often very exciting stuff: there are gunfights a plenty, a great car chase, and several of Jackie’s signature martial arts battles.  The final scene, in which he saves a small boy from a burning building, is all the more thrilling because Chan actually was running from a real burning building.  God, I love these movies.

I saw Crime Story a few years ago and was disappointed by its seriousness.  Watching it again, I found it a genuinely thrilling potboiler, one that should rank near the top of the Jackie Chan filmography.