In my opinion, Jackie Chan has stopped making good movies after the Super-Cop series. From Drunken Master II and on, and that was like six to seven years ago, his movies have had zero plot, and have been action sequences strung together on the flimsiest pretense of a story. This movie proved to be no exception.
To sum it up, this movie is a tool for exploiting the ignorance of westerners of the East, and vice versa, to make money. Raised Chinese, I can spot the errors in the film miles away. Since when was the huge courtyard of the Forbidden City used for regular martial exercises? It is a palace, for crying out loud. And did the film makers think no Chinese in those days were smart enough to know "When in Rome, do as the Romans do"? Going around the West in imperial Chinese uniform is, to say the least, conspicuous. And how far would one get in the States dressed that way in the late 1800's? Not very far, I suspect.
But if I were able to suspend my disbelief for so long as to believe all that happened in the film were possible, there is still the matter of the following: the entire film is based on racial/ethnic stereotypes, and most of the humour derived from that. What age do we live in, people? Those were funny back in the 50's and 60's. But in Year 2000? The fact that the film is doing not so badly makes me shake my head at the implications on societies, both Western and Asian, at large.
My advice to Chan is this: either do like John Woo, and make Hollywood style films better than the Hollywood people and wow them, or stay at home like many other Chinese film makers, and make Chinese/Hong Kong films that are authentic and true to oneself. Not this sell-out "let's make a total fool of myself and sell tickets" garbage.
To sum it up, this movie is a tool for exploiting the ignorance of westerners of the East, and vice versa, to make money. Raised Chinese, I can spot the errors in the film miles away. Since when was the huge courtyard of the Forbidden City used for regular martial exercises? It is a palace, for crying out loud. And did the film makers think no Chinese in those days were smart enough to know "When in Rome, do as the Romans do"? Going around the West in imperial Chinese uniform is, to say the least, conspicuous. And how far would one get in the States dressed that way in the late 1800's? Not very far, I suspect.
But if I were able to suspend my disbelief for so long as to believe all that happened in the film were possible, there is still the matter of the following: the entire film is based on racial/ethnic stereotypes, and most of the humour derived from that. What age do we live in, people? Those were funny back in the 50's and 60's. But in Year 2000? The fact that the film is doing not so badly makes me shake my head at the implications on societies, both Western and Asian, at large.
My advice to Chan is this: either do like John Woo, and make Hollywood style films better than the Hollywood people and wow them, or stay at home like many other Chinese film makers, and make Chinese/Hong Kong films that are authentic and true to oneself. Not this sell-out "let's make a total fool of myself and sell tickets" garbage.