| Armour of God | |
|---|---|
Hong Kong film poster |
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| Traditional | 龍兄虎弟 |
| Simplified | 龙兄虎弟 |
| Mandarin | Lóng Xiōng Hǔ Dì |
| Cantonese | Lung4 Hing1 Fu2 Dai6 |
| Directed by | Jackie Chan Eric Tsang |
| Produced by | Leonard Ho Chua Lam |
| Written by | Jackie Chan John Sheppard Eric Tsang |
| Starring | Jackie Chan Alan Tam Lola Forner Rosamund Kwan |
| Music by | Michael Lai Tang Siu Lam |
| Cinematography | Peter Ngor Cheung Yiu Cho Bob Thompson Stephen Poon Au Kam Hung Arthur Wong Raymond Lam Fai Tai Andrew Lau Jimmy Leung Cho Wai Kei Lam Lai Hung Poon Hang Sang Chan Lok Yee Danny Lee Yau Tong |
| Editing by | Peter Cheung |
| Distributed by | Golden Harvest |
| Release date(s) | Hong Kong: 21 January 1987 |
| Running time | 97 minutes , 88 minutes (U.S version) |
| Country | Hong Kong |
| Language | Cantonese |
| Gross revenue | HK $35,469,408 |
Armour of God (Chinese: 龍兄虎弟, Long xiong hu di) is a 1987 Hong Kong martial arts action film co-directed by, and starring Jackie Chan. The film features Chan's regular kung-fu, comedy and stunts, with an Indiana Jones-style theme. Chan came the closest he has ever been to death in this film during a relatively routine stunt; he leaped onto a tree from a ledge, but the branch he grabbed snapped, sending Chan plummeting and cracking his skull. The film was followed by the sequel. Armour of God II: Operation Condor in 1991.
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Jackie aka Asian Hawk (Jackie Chan) is an adventurer with a mercenary streak. Jackie used to perform in a band with his friends Alan (Alan Tam) and Lorelei (Rosamund Kwan) before he was kicked out of the band by Alan, who wanted Lorelei for himself. At the beginning of the film Jackie steals a sword from an African tribe that is one of the five pieces of a valuable armour known as the Armour of God. Alan is still a successful singer and Lorelei is a renowned fashion-designer. During the course of the film, Jackie is shown trying to sell the Armour of God via auction. He has a secretly placed artificial bidder whose job is to increase the bids by bidding a few hundred dollars more than the highest bidder. Although unexpected, the armour manages to get an astronomical bid by May Bannon. Happy with his grand fortune Jackie goes back to his hotel where he discovers an entire bunch of messages from Alan informing Jackie of his arrival.
When Jackie and Alan meet, Alan out of desperation (although unwillingly) tells Jackie of an evil cult which has kidnapped Lorelei and are demanding the Armour of God as ransom. Jackie at this sees the opportunity to remind Alan about their past failed friendship.
Jackie decides to aid Alan in rescuing Lorelei from the evil religious cult that has stolen her in hopes of Asian Hawk delivering the last three pieces of the Armor to them as they have the other two. With this information, Jackie is able to convince May Bannon and her father to borrow the three pieces with the promise that Jackie would return with all five to their collector.
At the Hong Kong box office, Armour of God was Chan's biggest hit up to that point and broke all records in Hong Kong, grossing HK $35,469,408 in its theatrical run. The film received positive reviews, with a rating of 75% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.[1]
In the United States, Armour of God did not get a theatrical release.[2] The film's sequel, Armour of God II: Operation Condor (1991) did receive a theatrical release under the simplified title Operation Condor. Armour of God was subsequently released direct-to-video by Miramax Films, but the title was somewhat confusingly changed to Operation Condor 2: The Armor of the Gods, despite being released before Operation Condor. A new musical score was created for this release, and English dubbing (with the participation of Chan) was also recorded.
Nine minutes of cuts were made to the Miramax version, including:
These same cuts were evident in the Spanish Region 2 release, but DVD releases in Hong Kong, Australia and the rest of Europe are uncut.
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