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Who Am I?
Hong Kong 1998
Reviewed by Jamie Graham
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
South Africa, 1996. A team of CIA operatives unearth a rare stone that contains vast potential as a power source. They're ambushed by corrupt CIA agents and forced into a helicopter which crashes. Agent Jackie survives and awakens, suffering from amnesia, in a tribal village. He discovers the wrecked helicopter. A matchbox lying nearby has the cryptic clue "eleven down, one too many" scrawled upon it. Jackie returns to Johannesburg where he is approached by newspaper reporter Christine. Her published story on Jackie alerts the corrupt CIA operatives; they kidnap Jackie and take him to Morgan, their superior. Morgan orders Jackie's death but he escapes.
Jackie again meets up with Christine, who has worked out that "eleven down, one too many" is a code. Its meaning leads them to Morgan's headquarters in Rotterdam. Jackie sneaks into the building while Christine, who has revealed herself as a CIA agent, orchestrates 24-hour surveillance. Jackie steals a computer disc, which contains details of Morgan's attempt to sell the stone to arms dealers, and escapes. Morgan, meanwhile, absconds, only to be captured by the military forces who have surrounded the building. Jackie is told that the CIA will help him to rediscover his identity.
Review
Jackie Chan films, like Russ Meyer movies, have a tendency to synthesise with time. Even ardent fans would have trouble recalling the finer details of each of his 70-odd works, or distinguishing the often throwaway plots which provide the thinnest of links between each signature skirmish.
In lieu of sophisticated, individual deconstructions, Chan's loyal following rely on broader criteria to personalise his movies. The most unwieldy of these consist of simply cleaving the Chinese-dialect pictures from the English-speaking ones, or disentangling the 'straight' action flicks from those tinged with slapstick. A slightly more refined - and by far the most popular - method is through the recollection of superlative moments, often in the form of pub conversations which begin with the refrain "Oh, that's the one where...". And just as Operation Condor will always be tagged through its wind-tunnel climax, Who Am I? is destined to be remembered for its stunningly choreographed rooftop finale, a three-way fight sequence that rivals anything in the history of the martial-arts movie.
Beyond the denouement, and perhaps a clownish street scuffle in which Chan fights in clogs, however, Who Am I? contains little to brand the memory. The narrative is instantly forgettable, as befits a plot about a CIA operative suffering from amnesia, and the direction - by Benny Chan (no relation) and Jackie Chan himself - is often stagnant, making the kinetic, adrenaline-pumping conclusion all the more remarkable.
Who Am I?'s structure - as crudely divided into two parts as Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket - is also problematic. The first, in which Chan acts the fool in a South African tribal village, gives free rein to his Keatonesque persona, but much of the undisciplined humour veers uncomfortably close to the patronising 'look at the natives' variety found in, say, The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980). The second sees Chan chasing around Johannesburg and Rotterdam as he tries to bring a corrupt band of CIA agents to justice. Featuring James Bond-style set pieces and with Chan's hero as baffled and ensnared as any of Hitchcock's protagonists, this section is most likely to appeal to Western audiences, at whom Who Am I? is now being targeted after the success of Rush Hour (although it was actually made before Chan's lucrative US excursion).
Credits
- Producer
- Leonard Ho Koon-Cheung
- Screenplay
- Jackie Chan
- [Sing Lung]
- Susan Chan Shu-Yan
- Lee Reynolds
- Director of Photography
- Poon Hang-Sang
- Editors
- Peter Cheung Yiu-Chung
- Yau Chi-Wai
- Production Designer
- Oliver Wong Yui-Man
- Music
- Nathan Wang Zongxiang
- ©Golden Harvest Pictures Limited
- Production Company
- A Golden Harvest presentation
- A Leonard Ho production
- Executive Producer
- Barbie Tung Wan-Shut
- Production Supervisor
- Lee Man-Yiu
- South African Production Services
- Fevertree Productions
- Production Co-ordinators
- South African Unit:
- Daniele Vernon
- Rotterdam Unit:
- Pieter Witte
- Malaysian Unit:
- William Ting (Sibu)
- Production Managers
- Lau Chin-Ching
- Sue Woo Siu-Ling
- Cheng Siu-San
- South African Unit:
- Barry Saint Clair
- Rotterdam Unit:
- Simon Jansen
- Malaysian Unit:
- Alan Chan
- Unit Managers
- South African Unit:
- Duncan Douglas
- Rotterdam Unit:
- Paul van Esch
- Location Managers
- South African Unit:
- Graham Grant
- Gavin McJannet
- Rotterdam Unit:
- Bas van der Ree
- Production Consultant
- South African Unit:
- Johan Heyns
- Assistant Directors
- Hui An
- Kwan Shun-Fai
- Cheng Kan-Fung
- Leung Ha-Wai
- Lam Chi-Hung
- South African Unit: Costas Gavriel
- Rotterdam Unit:
- Arnout André dela La Porte
- 2nd Unit:
- Cheng Wai-Ming
- Script Supervisor
- Fang Ho-Yuan
- Rotterdam Casting
- FTV
- 2nd Unit Directors of Photography
- Yan Wai-Lung
- Wong Chi-Wai
- Lighting
- Wan Kam-Wang
- Wong Yan-Chang
- Tang Chun-Keung
- Steadicam Operator
- Rotterdam Unit:
- Floris Slijbesma
- Visual Effects
- Fantasy Film Computer Graphics
- Ting Cho-Chuen
- Tang Wai-Yuk
- Digital Effects Services
- Asia Cine Digital Limited (Hong Kong)
- Digital Effects Services
- Photon Stockman
- Visual Effects Designer:
- Dale Duguid
- Visual Effects Director:
- Trevor Hawkins
- Visual Effects Producer:
- Daniel Harvey
- Digital Artists:
- Simon Dye
- Jason Selfe
- Derek Wentworth
- Sean Heuston
- Niamh Lines
- Robin Cave
- Visual Effects Co-ordinator:
- Laraine Phillips
- Special Effects
- South African Unit:
- Jannie Wienand
- Rotterdam Unit Pyro Effects Co-ordinator
- Harry Wiessenhaan
- Production Designer
- 2nd Unit:
- Wong Ka-Leng
- Set Decorators
- Chan Sze-Kan
- Liu Yee-Man
- Storyboard Artist
- Rotterdam Unit:
- Richard Raaphorst
- Costume Designer
- Thomas Chong Chi-Leung
- Wardrobe Mistress
- South African Unit:
- Kate Abramovitz
- Make-up
- Connie Lai Ka-Bi
- Hair
- Lee Tze-Din
- South African Unit, Key:
- Bobby van der Westhuizen
- Music Producers
- Ella Fairbairn
- Malcolm Smith
- Soundtrack
- "Ya Kuo Hu Di Ren [A Man in the Past]" by Lam Si, performed by Emil Chow Wah-Kin; "Wo Shi Shui [Who Am I?]" by Chan Mo, performed by Emil Chow Wah-Kin; "Friendship" by Nathan Wang Zongxiang
- Choreography
- South African Unit:
- Jacky Semela
- Soweto Dance Theatre
- Sound Design
- Liam Egan
- Danielle Wiessner
- Sound Recordists
- Gretchen Thornburn
- Rotterdam Unit:
- Jan-Wouter Stam
- Re-recording Mixers
- Roger Savage
- Ian McLoughlin
- Paul Pirola
- Steve Burgess
- Re-recording
- Soundfirm Australia
- Ka-Ho Recording Studio
- Sound Effects Editors
- James Harvey
- Gavin Myers
- Glenn Newnham
- John Penders
- Maureen Rodbard-Bean
- ADR
- Cantonese Dialogue Supervisor:
- Ting Yu
- Mandarin Dialogue Supervisor:
- Doris Wong Wei-Kun
- Foley
- Steve Burgess
- Ng Kwok-Wah
- Gerard Long
- Mario Vaccaro
- Stunt Co-ordinators
- Jackie Chan
- [Sing Lung]
- Action Vehicle Co-ordinator
- South African Unit:
- Philip Henn
- Stunt Driver Co-ordinator
- Rotterdam Unit:
- Willem de Beukelaar
- Weapons Specialist/Armourer
- Leung Yui-Nun
- Armourers
- Brent Houghton
- Chi-Hung Lee
- Hung Ming
- South African Aerial Unit
- Executive Helicopters
- Bill Olmstead
- Cast
- Jackie Chan
- [Sing Lung]
- Jackie, 'Who Am I'
- Michelle Ferre
- Christine
- Mirai Yamamoto
- Yuki
- Ron Smerczak
- Morgan
- Ed Nelson
- General Sharman
- Ton Pompert
- CIA chairman
- Gloria Simon
- CIA secretary
- Johan Van Ditmarsch
- airforce
- Frits Krommenhoek
- navy
- Dick Rienstra
- army
- Rinaldo van Ommeren
- army assistant
- Pim Daane
- marine
- Jeremiah Fleming
- marine assistant
- Neil Berger
- secretary
- Dik Brinksma
- Frank van Velsen
- national security officers
- David Leong Fie
- Dehan Wiebenberg
- CIA
- Yanick Mbali
- BaBa
- Washington Sixolo
- village chief
- Jerry Pnele
- village witch doctor
- Patrick Mofokeng
- village hunter
- Al Karaki
- Aiji
- Gavin Genlloud
- Rob Mathews
- poachers
- C.J. Enterprises
- rally drivers
- Grant Nale
- booking officer
- Norman Anstey
- desk sergeant
- Frank Opperman
- internal security
- Leonard Niketsi
- Ross Preller
- Jerry Tsie
- secret police
- Dale Abrahams
- laboratory assistant
- Lambert Millar
- hospital doctor
- Hannes Muller
- medical tent doctor
- David Vlok
- head thug
- Carl Abrahams
- Rafi Anteby
- Leen Duchene
- Marco Maas
- Robin Mes
- Ral Sitaropoulos
- thugs
- Michael Lambert
- Peter
- Chip Bray
- middleman
- Richard van Drempt
- Piet Hoogstraten
- Russ Price
- Michael Roben
- Ronald Schuurbier
- Michael Struik
- middleman bodyguards
- Hans Cornelissen
- Simon Jansen
- Michiel Kerbosch
- scientists
- Boris Aribaut
- Steve Brettingham
- Yutphichai Chanlekha
- Michael Lambert
- Luo Wei-Kwan
- Ted John Mikael Lundell
- Nicolas Ng
- David John Saunders
- Mohd Shukri Shabbudin
- Kosugi Kane Takeshi
- commandos
- Ron Smoorenburg
- Kwan Rong
- Morgan's henchmen
- Certificate
- 12
- Distributor
- Columbia Tristar Films (UK)
- 9,711 feet
- 107 minutes 54 seconds
- Dolby digital/Digital DTS sound
- In Colour
- Anamorphic [Panavision]