SHANGHAI NOON
Shanghai Noon is a 2000 martial arts Western comedy film starring Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson and Lucy Liu. The first in the Shanghai film series and marking the directorial debut of Tom Dey, Shanghai Noon was written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. The film was a commercial success.
The film, set in Nevada and other parts of the American West in the 19th century, is a juxtaposition of a Western with a kung fu action film with extended martial arts sequences, as reflected by its title, which is a wordplay on the notable western High Noon. It also has elements of slapstick comedy and the "buddy film" genre, featuring two vastly different heroes (a Chinese Imperial Guard and an American Western outlaw) who team up to stop a crime.
The film premiered in Malaysia in May 19, 2000 and was released in the United States on May 26, 2000. It received generally positive reviews from critics. A sequel, Shanghai Knights, was released in 2003, with Chan and Wilson reprising their roles.
Cast
Jackie Chan as Chon Wang
Owen Wilson as Roy O'Bannon
Lucy Liu as Princess Pei-Pei
Roger Yuan as Lo Fong
Walton Goggins as Wallace
Xander Berkeley as Marshal Nathan Van Cleef
Jason Connery as Calvin Andrews the agent of Lo Fong
Brandon Merrill as Indian Wife / Falling Leaves[a]
Rafael Baez as Vasquez
P. Adrien Dorval as Blue
Yu Rongguang as Captain Yu of the Imperial Guards
Kate Luyben as Fifi
Russell Badger as Sioux Chief
Sam Simon as Chief's Sidekick
Simon R. Baker as Little Feather
Henry O as the Royal Interpreter
Tseng Chang as Pei-Pei's Father
Yuen Biao as Saloon Fighter (uncredited)
Production
In August 1998, it was announced Spyglass Entertainment had begun development on an untitled feature set to star Jackie Chan written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. With the success of Rush Hour, Spyglass formally greenlit the film under its new title of Shanghai Noon.
Filming took place in the Canadian Badlands, near Drumheller, Alberta, Canada, near Exshaw, Alberta, and also near Cochrane, Alberta. The opening sequence was shot on-location at the Forbidden City in Beijing.
Curtis Armstrong had a role in the film, playing Bulldog Drummond, but these scenes were deleted.
Box office
Produced at a budget of $55 million, the film grossed $99,274,467 worldwide. The film opened in third place at the US box office grossing $19.6 million in its opening weekend behind Dinosaur and Mission: Impossible 2 and went on to gross $56.9 million. It opened at number one in Hong Kong with an opening week gross of $1.2 million.
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 80% of 130 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "Although the plot is really nothing to brag about, Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson work well together. The cinematography looks great, and Jackie delivers a hilarious performance. This is an old-fashioned crowd-pleaser.” Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 77 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+-to-F scale.
Joe Leydon of Variety gave Shanghai Noon a favorable review, characterizing it as "Fast, furious and, quite often, very, very funny." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, writing: "If you see only one martial arts Western this year (and there is probably an excellent chance of that), this is the one."
Detailed Plot
In 1881, Chon Wang – a homophone for John Wayne – is a Chinese Imperial Guard in the Forbidden City. After Princess Pei-Pei, aided by her foreign tutor, runs away to the United States, the Emperor of China sends three of his guards and the Royal Interpreter to retrieve her. Having failed to stop her escape, Wang insists on joining the mission. The Royal Interpreter, Wang's uncle, allows him to accompany the party, and the Captain of the Imperial Guards hopes the "foreign devils" will get rid of Wang. The party arrives in Nevada, where outlaw Roy O'Bannon and his gang hijack their train. Wallace, a new member of Roy's gang, kills Wang's uncle, and Wang, a skilled martial artist, fights off the gang before uncoupling the train cars and escaping on the engine. Wallace takes over the gang, leaving Roy buried up to his chin in the desert. Meanwhile, Pei-Pei, tricked into believing she was freely escaping her arranged marriage in China, learns she has been kidnapped by an agent of Lo Fong, a rebel who fled the Forbidden City. Fong later kills his agent after he demands an increased pay from him.
Wang finds Roy and demands to know the direction to Carson City. Roy tells him the city is on the other side of a mountain, and Wang leaves two chopsticks in Roy's mouth to dig himself out. Reaching the other side of the mountain, Wang saves a Sioux boy from the Crow tribe and half-consciously marries the Sioux chief's daughter, Falling Leaves,[a] during the wild celebrations. Wang finds a small town and encounters Roy in a tavern, inciting a barroom brawl. The two are sent to jail, and share each other's stories. Tempted by mention of the gold ransom, Roy offers to help Wang find the princess. After Falling Leaves helps them escape, Roy trains Wang in the ways of the cowboy, assisted by Falling Leaves.
In Carson City, Roy discovers that both he and Wang are wanted by Lo Fong's ally Marshal Nathan Van Cleef, narrowly escaping capture. They reach Roy's "hideout" (a bordello), and bond with each other while recuperating there. They are arrested by Van Cleef after a drunken encounter with Wang, and discover that Lo Fong is behind the princess' abduction. As they are about to be hanged, Wang frees himself, Falling Leaves shoots Roy loose, and they escape. Wang, upset at overhearing Roy tell a prostitute he is not Wang's friend, rides off alone. He finds Pei-Pei in Lo Fong's labor camp, but she wishes to stay and help the enslaved Chinese laborers. Lo Fong discovers Wang and attacks him, but Roy appears, saving Wang and the two reconcile.
The next day, the Imperial Guards bring gold to the Carson City Mission church to ransom Pei-Pei from Lo Fong, but the exchange is complicated by the appearance of Wang and Roy. Wang tells his fellow guards he will not allow them to take the princess against her wishes. As the guards and Lo Fong fight, Van Cleef arrives and engages Roy in a gunfight. Roy survives unscathed, and shoots Van Cleef through his sheriff's star, killing him. Wang fights the Imperial Guards as Lo Fong chases Pei-Pei through the rafters of the church, but Wang convinces his guards to let him go to Pei-Pei's aid instead. Wang and Lo Fong reach the bell tower, and Pei-Pei is wounded. Wang dismantles the bell, causing the ropes to strangle Lo Fong to death. The Imperial Guards agree to let Pei-Pei remain in Nevada, and reward Wang and Roy with the ransom gold.
Wallace and his gang arrive at the church, and demand that Roy and Wang come out and fight, but find themselves surrounded by the Sioux. At a Chinese cultural celebration, Roy shares a passionate kiss with Falling Leaves while Pei-Pei embraces Wang. Wang and Roy, who reveals his real name to be Wyatt Earp, become sheriffs and ride off after a new band of train robbers.
SHANGHAI KNIGHTS
Shanghai Knights is a 2003 martial arts western action comedy film. It is the sequel to Shanghai Noon, and the second installment of the Shanghai film series. Directed by David Dobkin and written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, it stars Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson, Fann Wong, Donnie Yen and Aidan Gillen.
It was released in the United States on February 7, 2003. The film received mixed reviews but it performed well at the box office.
Cast
Jackie Chan as Chon Wang (AKA:Benny Hana/The Maharaja Of Nevada)
Owen Wilson as Roy O'Bannon (AKA:Roy O'Baloney/Smokey Desperado/Sage McCallister/Major General Sherlock Holmes in Disguise)
Donnie Yen as Wu Chow
Aidan Gillen as Lord Nelson Rathbone
Fann Wong as Chon Lin (AKA:Loony Lin)
Tom Fisher as Arthur "Artie" Doyle
Kim Chan as Chon Wang and Chon Lin's Father
Gemma Jones as Queen Victoria
Aaron Johnson as Charlie Chaplin
Oliver Cotton as Jack the Ripper
Tom Wu as "Lead Boxer" Liu
Kelly-Marie Kerr as Clara
Constantine Gregory as the Mayor of New York City
Ray Donn as Chinese villager (uncredited)
Barbara Nedeljáková as Debutante
Anna-Louise Plowman as Debutante
Georgina Chapman as Debutante
Daisy Beaumont as Cigarette girl
Alison King as Prostitute
Matt Hill as Deputy
Barry Stanton as Lord Chancellor
Jackie Chan Stunt Team
Brad Allan as Street thug / Library thug (uncredited)
Paul Andreovski as Library thug with sword (double) / English policeman (uncredited)
Nicky Li
He Jun
Wu Gang
Park Hyun Jin
Lee In Seob
Han Guan Hua
Production
Production
Director David Dobkin was personally chosen by Jackie Chan. Dobkin had a difficult time choosing a suitable Asian actress who could do movement work, emote well and speak excellent English. He then saw clips of Fann Wong's videos "Wo lai ye" (2001) and "Qing she yu bai she" (2001) and asked to audition her in London, which she did. She got the role and the number of scenes with her in was increased by thirty percent. According to Jackie Chan's memoir Never Grow Up, Faye Wong from his native city Hong Kong was his first choice, but Fann Wong was incorrectly hired instead
Aside from establishing shots of iconic English landmarks, including The Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace and Madame Tussaud's, the scenes in London were largely filmed in Prague, Czech Republic from February 4 to June 21, 2007
Critical response
Shanghai Knights received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for the chemistry between Chan and Wilson, the action sequences, and the fun nature of the film, but strong criticism for the plot.
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 66% based on 149 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The site's consensus states: "A silly, anachronistic mess, but the pairing of Chan and Wilson makes the movie fun.”
On Metacritic, the film has a score of 58 out of 100, based on reviews from 33 critics.[8] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B+" on scale of A to F.
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times gave the film three out of four stars, calling it "fun in a broad, genial way", but disapproved of the "entirely arbitrary" plot. Joe Leydon of Variety found it better than its predecessor: "A hugely entertaining and more lavishly mounted follow-up to 2000's Shanghai Noon, the high-concept East-meets-Western – that first teamed [the] top-billed duo – pic rides even taller in the saddle as a fleet and funny crowd-pleaser." Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times gave a positive review, singling out Chan's fight sequences and Wilson's performance, noting how "Wilson gets to steal a part of the movie that Chan is smart enough not to want." Mitchell also praised the "bluntly gorgeous" cinematography, and said Chan's reputation is "resuscitated in the rousing, cheerful sequel", calling it "one of his best." Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club also praised the chemistry between the two leads, writing, "Chan [...] found the perfect screen buddy in Wilson." Rabin criticized the "thin" plot, but found "there's a greatest-hits element" to Chan's fight scenes.
Planned sequel
MGM announced in May 2015 that they were moving forward with Shanghai Dawn. Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson, and Fann Wong are expected to reprise their roles as Chon Wang, Roy O'Bannon, and Chon Lin respectively. In September 2016, Jared Hess signed on as director for the film, while both Millar and Gough would develop a screen story with Theodore Riley and Aaron Buchsbaum writing the script for the film.
Gough said the third film will be set in China because Chan "wants to showcase China in the way that the first film showcased the old West". Gough added that Chan and Wilson also have a hand in the creative process: "With those films, the collaboration of Jackie and Owen comes out on screen as they get along very well. With that in mind, you want to get their input in the story phase, so that when we got to script, it's based into the DNA of the story.”
In 2024, Gough later revealed that the sequel will most likely never happen as Chan seemed to lose interest in producing it. He further revealed that the plot would have picked up from where the last film left off with Chon Wang now a Hollywood stunt man. He would receive news that Roy O'Bannon was in Mexico with revolutionaries and would team back up with him. Despite this, in 2025, Chan claimed that the script was still being worked on.
Detailed Plot
In 1887, Lord Nelson Rathbone leads a band of Boxers into the Forbidden City, stealing the Imperial Seal of China and mortally wounds its Keeper. Before dying, the Keeper gives his daughter Chon Lin a puzzle box for her brother, Chon Wang. In Carson City, Nevada, Wang is now sheriff. He receives the box and a letter from Lin, telling him of their father's death and that she has tracked his killer to London.
Wang travels to New York City to find his old partner Roy O'Bannon and collect his share of their gold so that he can buy passage to London. Roy has left law enforcement, invested all the gold, and is now a waiter and gigolo. Following a series of misunderstandings, the pair ship themselves to London in a crate.
In London, Roy's pocket is picked by a youth named Charlie, leading to a massive brawl; Roy and Wang are arrested. In Scotland Yard, the two quickly befriend Inspector Artie Doyle and are released. Artie shows them that Lin is in custody for attempting to kill Rathbone. Roy is instantly smitten with Lin. Wang and Roy reunite with Charlie and acquire an invitation to a gala at Rathbone's country estate.
Roy and Wang infiltrate the gala in disguise, and follow Rathbone to a private library, where he slips through a secret passage. Lin, having escaped prison, arrives and saves Roy from Boxer guards. The three see Rathbone give the Imperial Seal to Wu Chow, the illegitimate brother of the Emperor of China. After a brief struggle, Charlie steals the seal. Everyone escapes and Wang, Roy and Lin make their way to Whitechapel.
At a brothel, Roy is devastated when he overhears Wang try to convince Lin that Roy is an unsuitable husband. Wang, Roy, and Lin are found and captured by Rathbone, who reveals his plan: In exchange for the seal, Wu Chow will kill the British royal family with a prototype machine gun and frame Lin. Rathbone, tenth in line for the throne, will become king. Roy and Wang reconcile and manage to escape.
Wang and Roy consult Artie about Charlie's location. Artie deduces that Charlie is at Madame Tussauds. They save him from the Boxers, but are forced to hand over the seal in exchange for Charlie's life. Roy and Wang are arrested, but Charlie rescues them and reveals that his full name is Charlie Chaplin. Roy and Wang free Lin and stop the assassination, killing Wu Chow with fireworks. The three pursue Rathbone to the top of Big Ben. Wang is able to throw Rathbone through the face of the clock, killing him.
Roy, Wang, and Artie are knighted for saving the royal family. Artie decides to become a writer and creates the character Sherlock Holmes based on the disguise Roy wore at the gala. Wang opens the box his father sent him to find a message reminding him of the importance of family. Roy proposes that he and Wang go to Hollywood to join the new motion picture industry. Charlie stows away in their carriage as they drive off.