Jackie Chan, Freedom Hater

I love Jackie Chan movies, especially the old Hong Kong ones. Then he had to go and run his mouth to a bunch of Chinese businessmen in Hainan:

"I'm not sure if it's good to have freedom or not," Chan said. "I'm really confused now. If you're too free, you're like the way Hong Kong is now. It's very chaotic. Taiwan is also chaotic."

Taiwan is chaotic? What does that mean? I suppose it means Taiwan doesn't put bloggers in jail. Or was he referring to the fact the Taiwanese government doesn't have carte blanche to bulldoze businesses and homes?

The irony is Jackie's most recent movie, Shinjuku Incident, isn't being screened on the mainland because it was deemed too violent. I wonder if he figured a little brown nosing would build goodwill with the CCP for the next time he wants a movie released in China.

L.A.M.P.: Shinjuku Incident

Hong Kong movie wherein Jackie Chan plays an illegal immigrant ensnared in a web of grifting and Japanese gang violence.

It wont be screened in mainland China. The People's Republic deemed it too violent. In truth, I had to cover my eyes when gangsters cut off Jackie's friend's hand outside the guy's chestnut stand. Eeeeeeh.

My biggest problem was the movie starts with Jackie as a poor farmer in Northern China. He is engaged to a young country lass, who looks much, much younger. The girl moves to Japan. Jackie immigrates to track her down. I spent half the movie tsk, tsking 55-year-old Jackie for chasing jailbait.

During the second half of the movie, I realized there was a big time lapse between the China scenes and Jackie's arrival in Japan. The lovers are supposed to be near in age. But Jackie just looked old throughout. Lighting and makeup, folks...

Other than that, it was really fun. Japanese is a great language for gangsters. And the muscle carried machetes instead of guns. That is cool.

At the end a swarm of gangsters attacks Jackie Chan's headquarters. One of them prefaces the fight with, "Now we will use the Bushido Way." Turns out the Bushido Way is hurling sizable rocks at second-story windows. That is also cool.

Again, could not find a U.S. release date, but here's the trailer.