Shanghai Knights
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Shanghai Knights is an American action-comedy movie released on February 3, 2003. It is the sequel to Shanghai Noon. It was directed by David Dobkin and written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar.
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[edit] Plot
The film opens in the Forbidden City of 1887, where Chon Lin (Fann Wong) is drinking tea with her father, the keeper of the Imperial Seal of China. She tells him her brother, Chon Wang (Jackie Chan), is doing well as a sheriff in Carson City, Nevada, United States, but her father replies that he no longer has a son. At that moment, Lord Nelson Rathbone (Aidan Gillen), leads a band of Boxers into the city, who attack the keeper of the seal. Rathbone kills him with a snake-shaped dagger, and leaves with the seal. As he lies dying, he gives Lin a puzzle box and a note.
Back in the Wild West, Chon Wang is doing well as sheriff, having captured an impressive array of fugitives. His deputy is relaxing with a book called Roy O'Bannon Vs. The Mummy, a highly fictionalized account of the events of the first film that now includes Wang's "Shanghai Kid" as a cowardly sidekick, and a Mummy with an army of Undead leading the assault on the Mission. Wang tells him "those stories are all lies," but the deputy responds that author Sage McAllister bases all of his stories on eyewitness accounts. Wang checks the coach from California, but his lover, Princess Pei Pei (portrayed by Lucy Liu in the first film), is, yet again, not there. She is busy, he explains to the driver, as a social activist in San Francisco on behalf of Chinese immigrants. Wang does receive a parcel, though, which contains the puzzle box and a note from Lin explaining what happened and that she has left to England to pursue Lord Rathbone.
He travels to New York City to find his old partner Roy O'Bannon (Owen Wilson), who has left his brief stint in law enforcement, broken off his romance with Falling Leaves (due to the language barrier, according to a deleted scene on the DVD), spent most of the Imperial gold investing in the Zeppelin, and is now a hotel waiter. After they attempt prostitution to pay for a trip to England, the Mayor of New York arrives in search of his daughters, who O'Bannon has been romancing. Wang fights off a number of New York police officers, and he and Roy simply ship themselves to London in a crate. On the way, Wang tells Roy about his father, and Roy swears an oath to help find Lin, reclaim the seal, and kill Rathbone.
In London, Chon and O'Bannon have their jacket and watch stolen, respectively, by a number of street toughs including a young boy named Charlie. After an extensive battle to reclaim these items, they are arrested by the police. In Scotland Yard, Inspector Artie Doyle thanks the two for defeating the street gang. He tells Wang that Lin is also in Scotland Yard, having attempted to kill Lord Rathbone and been dubbed "Looney Lin". Doyle is a reader of the Roy O'Bannon novels, and is enthralled to meet the actual O'Bannon. Roy tries to use this to get Lin released, but it doesn't work. He and Wang wander through London, seeing Buckingham Palace and harassing one of the guards. They encounter Charlie again, who lets them into the empty house of a nobleman. Roy relaxes and draws up a childish plan to catapult themselves into Rathbone's castle. Charlie throws it in the fire as he notices that their nobleman has an invitation to a gala at the castle.
Roy and Wang don disguises: Roy masquerades as Brigadier General "Sherlock Holmes" (a name he derives from the face of a clock), and Wang is the "Maharaja of Nevada". After eating spotted dick, Wang and Roy follow Lord Rathbone to a private library. Once they enter, they cannot find him; he has slipped through a secret passage, which Wang discovers in a fireplace. As Roy occupies himself with a copy of the Kama Sutra, Wang enters the secret room, which contains treasures from throughout the British Empire. Rathbone's guards attack Roy, but he is rescued by Lin, who has escaped from Scotland Yard. The three see Rathbone hand the bloody dagger that killed Wang and Lin's father to Wu Chow (Donnie Yen), the bastard younger brother of the Emperor of China. (The historical Emperor at this time was the fifteen-year-old Guangxu.) Rathbone sees them and sets fire to the building, young Charlie shows up and makes off with the Seal, Lin escapes through the roof, and Wang and Roy commandeer Rathbone's primitive automobile (the very technology Roy had passed on investing on) for a wild ride, culminating in them crashing into Stonehenge.
Roy has a sexual fantasy involving Lin and the Kama Sutra, and he decides to start pursuing her, much to Wang's dismay. Lin finds them and gives them a ride to Whitechapel, where they stay in a rundown inn. Wang tells Lin about Roy's vices and problems, which Roy overhears. Lin doesn't flinch, but Roy is devastated at the betrayal. The two reconcile over a pillow fight.
Lin goes for a walk and encounters Jack the Ripper, who tries to kill her, but she kicks him off a bridge. Wang and Roy catch up, and the three are captured by Wu Chow and his Boxers. Wu Chow ties them up to try to locate the Seal, but they don't know where Charlie has taken it. He tells them the grand scheme: Rathbone would kill the bearer of the Seal and return the item to Wu Chow, who would use the Seal to unite the enemies of China and claim the throne. In return, Wu Chow would use a gatling gun to dispatch the Royal Family, leaving Rathbone, who is tenth in line to the throne, King. (Historically the tenth in line to the throne in 1887 was Queen Victoria's granddaughter Princess Victoria Melita of Edinburgh.)
Wang and Roy escape and track down Artie Doyle, who has developed an investigative technique called deductive reasoning, which he uses to find that Charlie has been hiding at Madame Tussauds wax museum. They reclaim the Seal, but it is taken by Boxers, and the three are arrested for trespassing. Charlie breaks them out, and they go to Queen Victoria's Jubilee Ball, where the Royal Family will be.
Sure enough, Wang finds Wu Chow and Lin on the fireworks barge, frees Lin, and dismantles Wu's plan. However, Wu proves himself to be an accomplished martial artist, but Lin arrives in time to kill him with a fireworks rocket and save Wang. Artie and Roy, who have found their way into the Houses of Parliament, confront Rathbone, who shoots Artie with a Derringer. Roy and Wang pursue Rathbone up into Big Ben, where they engage him in a sword fight. Rathbone pushes Roy out of the glass front of the clock, but Roy catches himself on one of the clock's hands. Rathbone nearly defeats Wang, but Wang's rage over his dead father and fallen comrade leads him to suicidally grapple with Rathbone, and the two go out the window, too. Luckily, Roy catches Wang, as Rathbone plummets to his death. Roy and Wang decide to jump, and land in the carriage containing Queen Victoria.
Roy and Wang are knighted, as is Artie, whose full name is now Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Artie decides to become a writer, his stories revolving around his deductive reasoning technique, and asks Roy if he can use the "Sherlock Holmes" name. Roy and Lin kiss, and Roy proposes that he and Wang go to Hollywood to get in on the ground floor with motion pictures. They roll off in a buggy, with Charlie stowed away. Charlie wipes some soot on his face, creating the look that would later become world famous as that of Charlie Chaplin.
[edit] Sequel Rumors
In February 2003, soon after the film's release, a third film, rumored to be titled Shanghai Dawn, was reported to be in consideration. These rumors never came to fruition, and, in August 2005, Owen Wilson said of Dawn and of a potential sequel to his Starsky & Hutch, "Doesn't look like they're happening, but you never know." [1]
[edit] Cast & Crew
[edit] Cast
- Jackie Chan - Chon Wang
- Owen Wilson - Roy O'Bannon
- Fann Wong - Chon Lin
- Aidan Gillen - Lord Nelson Rathbone
- Donnie Yen - Wu Chow
- Tom Fisher - Artie Doyle
- Gemma Jones - Queen Victoria
- Aaron Johnson - Charlie Chaplin
- Charlie G. Hawkins - Newspaper Boy
- Kim Chan - Chon Wang's Father
[edit] Crew
- David Dobkin - Director
- Miles Millar, Alfred Gough - Writers
- Adrian Biddle - Cinematographer
[edit] Trivia
The story takes place during the 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria's reign in 1887. The story made references to Arthur Conan Doyle leaving his post at Scotland Yard (Though in reality, Doyle never worked in law enforcement) to begin writing Sherlock Holmes novels (the first of which was released in 1885). There are also anachronisms of an appearance by Jack the Ripper, who didn't begin murdering his victims until 1888; an automobile that was far more advanced than the rudimentary automobiles of the time and the story also featured a young thief Charlie Chaplin, who wasn't even born until 1889. The stunt sequence where Wang fought the foes while holding an open umbrella pays tribute to the well-known Singin' in the Rain scene with Gene Kelly. The writers have claimed they knew about the anachronisms but left them in as they made the story more fun. This is consistent with the choices of music in the film, mostly early classic rock hits from the 1960s.
One note of interest is that this is one of the few American action films in which the heroes are totally outclassed by the villains, and are instead saved by their love for one another. Donnie Yen's character Wu Chow proves himself a superior martial artist to Jackie Chan's Chon Wang and is about to kill him, when Fann Wong's Chon Lin (Wang's sister), intervenes and kills Wu Chow. Likewise, realizing that he can never defeat Aidan Gillen's Nelson Rathbone in a swordfight and is about to be killed by him, Wang chooses instead a suicide action that will kill them both and avenge Owen Wilson's Roy O'Bannon, whom is believed dead; Nelson Rathbone dies, but Wang is saved in turn by Roy.
Chon Wang's actual Chinese name appears for the first time as 姜文 (pinyin: jīang wěn) in a parcel sent from Wang's sister. This is however different from what appeared in the Chinese subtitle of Shanghai Noon. The name of Chon Wang appeared as 江文 in the subtitle of the prequel. The two names are homonyms in Mandarin. When Roy addresses Chon Wang, the Chinese translation of "John Wayne" or "John" is 陳 or "Chen" which is also a different translation from the original movie.
The name of the villain, "the finest swordsman in England," would seem to be a tribute to Basil Rathbone, who in villain roles often looked to be far the better swordsman, holding back artificially to let the hero win as per the script. Also, Basil Rathbone starred as Sherlock Holmes in a series of movies throughout the late 1930s and 1940s.
Some things that Owen Wilson does in this movie are similar to those he does in You, Me and Dupree. Examples include him saying, "Unbelievable!" and pointing/yelling frantically at another character.
This film is Singapore-based actress Fann Wong's Hollywood debut and first English-speaking role.
[edit] See also
Filmed in several locations around the world.
[edit] External link
| Body of work by Fann Wong | |
|---|---|
| Films | The Truth About Jane and Sam (1999) · When I Fall in Love... with Both (2000) · Shanghai Knights (2003) · Das Haus Der Harmonie (2005) · Dragon Eye Congee (2005) · Zodiac: The Race Begins (2006) · Just Follow Law (2007) |
| Albums | Fanntasy (1996) · I Live Alone (1997) · Shopping (1998) · Missing You (1999) · Moments of Magic (2000) · No Problem (2000) · In Love With You (2005) |
