Jackie Chan brings two main comedy influences to his 2003 film Shanghai Knights, that are a much bigger deal than they appear. Following on 2000’s Shanghai Midday, Shanghai Knights sees Chon Wang (Jackie Chan) and Roy O’Bannon (Owen Wilson) be a part of forces once more to cease a plot in opposition to the throne in Victorian London. They’re additionally joined of their mission by Chon’s sister Chon Lin (Fann Wong), who Roy develops a romance with.
In relation to Jackie Chan’s Hollywood filmography, Shanghai Knights is one among his most beloved action-comedies, and one purpose for that lies in simply how a lot of Jackie Chan’s Hong Kong model of comedy and motion are prevalent within the movie. Furthermore, Chan additionally brings two key influences from his profession into Shanghai Knights. Contemplating how occasionally they’ve been seen in the remainder of his Hollywood profession, that makes their use a a lot greater deal in Shanghai Knights.
Shanghai Knights Makes use of Chan’s Gene Kelly & Silent Comedy Influences
Gene Kelly is one among quite a few actors who influenced Jackie Chan’s comedy model, and Shanghai Knights prominently brings him into play within the film’s market battle scene. With Chon Wang wielding an umbrella in opposition to his opponents and the dance-like battle choreography of the scene, it’s clearly an homage to Kelly’s Singin’ within the Rain, proper all the way down to the soundtrack. Jackie Chan was additionally vastly impressed by silent comedy and the works of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, which influences the battle scenes of Shanghai Knights.
In Shanghai Knights, battle scenes like Chon’s library battle with a gaggle of Royal Guards are carried out with the sort of slapstick commonplace to silent comedy, with exaggerated methods like books and ladders getting used as combating instruments and the guards attempting to not harm priceless heirlooms. Moreover, none aside from Charlie Chaplin himself (Aaron Taylor Johnson) seems within the film as a younger pickpocket. Whereas these would possibly seem to be entertaining however incidental components to Shanghai Knights, Chan’s Gene Kelly and silent comedy influences have numerous significance to it.
Why Jackie Chan’s Influences Are Such A Large Deal In Shanghai Knights
Jackie Chan’s harmful stunt work and very elongated battle scenes have seldom gone as far in his Hollywood profession as they’ve in his Hong Kong work, with Shanghai Knights being the primary one to actual faucet into each. Chan’s battle scenes in Shanghai Knights are lengthy and fairly elaborate, and convey the famed Jackie Chan model of comedy into the combo at each flip. That is most evident in homages Chan pays to Gene Kelly and silent comedy in Shanghai Knights.
That’s not to say that the Rush Hour films usually are not vastly entertaining buddy-comedies, and Chan’s long-awaited battle scene with Jet Li in 2008’s The Forbidden Kingdom absolutely lives as much as the hype previous it. Nonetheless, with such overt silent comedy nods as Chon and Wang dangling from the minute hand of Large Ben, Shanghai Knights is arguably essentially the most “Jackie Chan” a Jackie Chan Hollywood film has ever been. Coupled with the film’s main Gene Kelly tribute, Shanghai Knights marks the one time Jackie Chan actually received to make use of his largest influences in a Hollywood film.