This movie is a little slow in parts but the fight scenes make it one of the most extraordinary movies that I have seen. This is one of the reasons that I generally like Hong Kong movies - not only do they have great fight scenes, but they also like to delve into human struggles, which is what American movies rarely do (at least on more than a superficial level).
The focus of this movie is a deep undercover cop in China. He has a family and he tries to be a good father, but his work forces him to be very secretive. At first we think that he is a criminal, but the back cover of the video tells us that he is not. We soon learn that he is a Chinese cop, but nobody else really knows that.
The problem arises when his wife dies of some disease and his son must go to Hong Kong with a Hong Kong police officer to try and find him. As such his son, who happens to be a martial arts expert, must brave the underlife of Hong Kong, and the police, to find his father. Not only that, but back at home he has to handle to taunts of his peers who all believe his father to be a criminal.
The child is the real star of this movie as it focuses on his struggles in not only finding out the truth about his father, but also trying to find him. He is lost in a world were strangers claim to be relatives and where his father at times must deny him to protect himself. Yet deep down the child knows that his father loves him, and the struggle to show his love to his child is one of the most tortuous parts of this movie.
There are two great fight scenes in this movie. The first is the shootup in the restaurant. I will not go into deep detail, without saying that it is phenomenal, and is what one should expect from the action capital of the world. If there is one thing the Chinese know how to do, that is to make a really good action movie that leaves its Hollywood counterparts for dead.
The second cool action sequence is the end sequence where the father uses his kid as a weapon against the bad guys. We have seen previously how this kid is a really good martial artist, but we also know that together both of them make an almost unbeatable team. In fact, not only is the kid good at martial arts, be is also very cunning.
I guess the title tells us everything - the kid learns that his father is a hero. This is not clear at the beginning, and everything seems to tell us that his father is a crook. The truth is that he is not. His father is out there to destroy the power of the cartels and he is willing to put himself into danger to stop the criminals.
It is surprising that so much comes out of this movie, where as a typical Jackie Chan movie is generally quite shallow. But then we really don't watch a Jackie Chan movie for in-depth character development - we watch them to see Jackie Chan do absolutely stupid stunts so that he can maintain his fan base. Hey, he enjoys it so who am I to critise him.
The focus of this movie is a deep undercover cop in China. He has a family and he tries to be a good father, but his work forces him to be very secretive. At first we think that he is a criminal, but the back cover of the video tells us that he is not. We soon learn that he is a Chinese cop, but nobody else really knows that.
The problem arises when his wife dies of some disease and his son must go to Hong Kong with a Hong Kong police officer to try and find him. As such his son, who happens to be a martial arts expert, must brave the underlife of Hong Kong, and the police, to find his father. Not only that, but back at home he has to handle to taunts of his peers who all believe his father to be a criminal.
The child is the real star of this movie as it focuses on his struggles in not only finding out the truth about his father, but also trying to find him. He is lost in a world were strangers claim to be relatives and where his father at times must deny him to protect himself. Yet deep down the child knows that his father loves him, and the struggle to show his love to his child is one of the most tortuous parts of this movie.
There are two great fight scenes in this movie. The first is the shootup in the restaurant. I will not go into deep detail, without saying that it is phenomenal, and is what one should expect from the action capital of the world. If there is one thing the Chinese know how to do, that is to make a really good action movie that leaves its Hollywood counterparts for dead.
The second cool action sequence is the end sequence where the father uses his kid as a weapon against the bad guys. We have seen previously how this kid is a really good martial artist, but we also know that together both of them make an almost unbeatable team. In fact, not only is the kid good at martial arts, be is also very cunning.
I guess the title tells us everything - the kid learns that his father is a hero. This is not clear at the beginning, and everything seems to tell us that his father is a crook. The truth is that he is not. His father is out there to destroy the power of the cartels and he is willing to put himself into danger to stop the criminals.
It is surprising that so much comes out of this movie, where as a typical Jackie Chan movie is generally quite shallow. But then we really don't watch a Jackie Chan movie for in-depth character development - we watch them to see Jackie Chan do absolutely stupid stunts so that he can maintain his fan base. Hey, he enjoys it so who am I to critise him.