Jackie Chan Movie:

Shinjuku Incident [Blu-ray] Reviews:
A very violent and bloody departure from his light-hearted martial arts antics
2009-11-24 - Fans of Jackie Chan's American body of work need to know that this film is quite different from his usual lighthearted and comedy-filled jaunts like Rush Hour/Rush Hour 2, Shanghai Noon / Shanghai Knights, and Forbidden Kingdom. Don't expect comic kung-fu mischief, bus-top acrobatics, or any kind of comedy. This is a dark and violent crime drama like New Police Story, except here, Chan is the bad guy instead of a cop.

At the start of the film, a ship smuggling illegal Chinese immigrants has run aground somewhere off the coast of Japan. Next, we see Jackie Chan's character, Steelhead, wandering the streets of Tokyo, avoiding police as they round up prostitutes and other vagrants. He has left his village and entered Japan illegally in search of his fiancee, Xiu Xiu, meanwhile finding shelter among other illegal Chinese immigrants and doing menial labor to support himself.

He soon discovers that she now goes by the name Yuko and is married to a high-level Yakuza figure, Eguchi. Unlike other Yakuza, he is sympathetic to the situation of Chinese immigrants in Japan, and offers Steelhead employment as his bodyguard. Steelhead refuses, saying he prefers to make an honest living no matter how arduous. However, survival in Tokyo is difficult and he is quickly sucked into a downward spiral of violence and criminal activity as his clan clashes with Chinese and Japanese gangs.

Through a series of improbable events, Steelhead rises through the ranks of the criminal underworld, becoming Eguichi's right hand. What follows is one orgy of violence after another, with turf wars, Yakuza in-fighting, and other viscous acts. Be warned. There are some very graphic depictions of violence, torture, and gore. The second half of the movie just degenerates into one bloody mess of incoherent and senseless violence, leading up to a final (and preposterous) confrontation reminiscent of the showdown at the end of Black Rain. There is a half-baked and abortive romance between Steelhead and a hostess with a heart of gold named Lily (played by the beautiful Fan Bingbing), and another thread of friendship, alliances, and loyalty, but all that got chucked out the window once the blood started flying. My reaction is not against the level of violence in it, as violence is a part of the crime genre. It's against the level stupidity and gratuity of the violence. Yakuza do not travel in large packs with samurai swords! Clumsy gang wars happen in broad daylight, in full crowds. Important bosses are assassinated without so much as a guard in sight. All very hard to accept.

The story of rags to kingpin riches is possibly patterned after Once Upon a Time in America. Not well-written and full of mind-numbing violence, this film is hard to recommend, except maybe as an example of schlock or to see Naoto Takenaka try to speak comically-bad Chinese.

Don't expect a martial arts movie..
2009-08-06 - I already bought this Blu-ray from HKflix.com before it was even for sale on Amazon. The story line is somewhat predictable, a rag-to-riches plot with the usual backstabbing going on, while Jackie looks for his girlfriend. The video quality was very good. The acting is good also, and Jackie doesn't seem to have many lines to speak, mostly his character makes a few speeches and almost no martial arts scenes, just good old fashioned acting from Jackie from beginning to end.