Shanghai Noon

USA/Hong Kong 2000

Reviewed by Andy Richards

Synopsis

Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.

1881, China's Forbidden City. Attempting to escape an arranged marriage, Princess Pei Pei is unwittingly sold by her unscrupulous English tutor to Lo Fong, a renegade ex-Imperial guard running a mining operation outside Carson City, Nevada. The Emperor dispatches his three best guards to deliver her ransom of 100,000 gold pieces, accompanied by an interpreter and his nephew, guard Chon Wang.

Crossing the Nevada desert by train, the Imperial entourage is hijacked by robbers led by Roy O'Bannon. Chon's uncle is killed by one of the robbers. Chon sabotages the robbery. Separated from the other guards, Chon finds Roy, abandoned by his gang and buried up to his neck in sand. Chon leaves him some chopsticks to dig himself out.

Continuing his quest to find the princess, Chon rescues a young Sioux boy from a party of Crow warriors. He is treated as a hero, and given the Sioux chief's daughter, Falling Leaves, as a wife. Chon chances on Roy in a saloon and a brawl develops. They are both thrown in jail, where Chon tells Roy about the kidnapped princess. They escape with the help of Falling Leaves and head to Carson City, where posters reveal that they are now both wanted men. They have a run-in with Van Cleef, the town's corrupt sheriff, and narrowly escape his posse. Chon and Roy bond in a bath house. They rescue the princess and defeat Lo Fong and Van Cleef. The princess falls in love with Chon, while Roy and Falling Leaves become a couple.

Review

Shanghai Noon is an accomplished follow-up to Jackie Chan's first big-budget US film Rush Hour. Admittedly, the film (directed by Tom Dey whose past credits include episodes of the television horror series The Hunger) plays it safe by transplanting the fish-out-of-water scenario of Rush Hour to the Old West - here, Chan takes the role of a Chinese Imperial guard sent to Nevada to rescue a young princess. But this time the gags are sharper, the stunts slicker and, crucially, the dynamic between Chan and his co-star is much more effectively developed. While in Rush Hour Chan played straight man to Chris Tucker's motor-mouth LA cop (occasionally creating the impression that they were acting in different films), in Shanghai Noon he is given strong comic moments (his introduction to the narcotic joys of the peace-pipe, for instance) and some fine duets with Owen Wilson, who plays cowboy Roy. Their infectiously amusing drunken scene in a bordello bath house, where they thrash out a Chinese drinking song in between bouts of melancholic ponderings and bubble-blowing, is a particular stand out. Perhaps best known for co-writing the excellent Rushmore, Wilson's partly improvised contribution is Shanghai Noon's real trump card: cowardly and laconic, he's more laid-back Californian surfer than weather-beaten cowpoke.

As in the majority of Chan's films, the plotting here is somewhat slapdash: it's less a coherent narrative than a series of well-staged but loosely connected set pieces, including Roy's showdown with sheriff Van Cleef and a bar-room brawl between Roy and Chon. The lack of narrative polish can be frustrating - Chon's bride Falling Leaves disappears for great tracts of the film, appearing only to rescue the heroes from jail. Lucy Liu, whose comic talents are on show in television's Ally McBeal, is also underused as a conventional embattled damsel, while the film's ending, in which Chon abruptly partners up with Liu's character while Roy is palmed off with Chon's Sioux 'wife' Falling Leaves, is bafflingly throwaway and curiously distasteful. The dialogue, though, is consistently witty, not only having fun with genre conventions (Chon Wang is a phonetic muddling of John Wayne), but also demonstrating a wry awareness of the racial issues thrown up by the film's scenario (unlike Barry Sonnenfeld's Wild Wild West, in which Will Smith's racial identity went largely unexamined). In one scene, a homesteader reassures his wife that the trio of Imperial guards are not Indians but Jews, and bids them shalom. Mystified, they shalom back.

Credits

Director
Tom Dey
Producers
Roger Birnbaum
Gary Barber
Jonathan Glickman
Screenplay
Alfred Gough
Miles Millar
Director of Photography
Dan Mindel
Editor
Richard Chew
Production Designer
Peter J. Hampton
Music/Orchestra Conductor
Randy Edelman
©Spyglass Entertainment Group, L.P.
Production Companies
Touchstone Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment present a Birnbaum/ Barber production in association with a Jackie Chan Films Limited production
Executive Producers
Jackie Chan
Willie Chan
Solon So
Co-producers
Ned Dowd
Jules Daly
Associate Producer
Bruce Moriarty
Production Supervisor
Andrew Francis Fenady
Production Co-ordinator
Kaayla Ryane
Production Manager
Canada:
Brian Parker
Unit Production Managers
Kevin Reidy
2nd Unit:
Paul Roscorla
Location Manager
Rino Pace
2nd Unit Director
E.J. Foerster
Assistant Directors
Bruce Moriarty
Glenn Dreher
Grant Lucibello
Michelle Fitzpatrick
Canada:
Jon Lind
Howard Rothschild
2nd Unit:
Jonathan Watson
David Klohn
Katherine Ringer
Script Supervisors
Kathryn Buck
2nd Unit:
Michele Patsula
Casting
Matthew Barry
Nancy Green-Keyes
Canadian:
Lynne Carrow
British Columbia Associate:
Susan Taylor Brouse
Alberta Associate:
Deborah Green
ADR Voices:
The Background
John Pantages
Al Silverman
2nd Unit Directors of Phototography
John Clothier
Joel Ransom
Camera Operators
Paul Edwards
Armin Matter
2nd Unit:
Aaron Pazanti
Visual Effects
Secret Lab
Opticals/Digital Effects
Buena Vista Imaging
Special Effects Supervisor
Neil N. Trifunovich
Effects Office Co-ordinator
Pamela D. Poole
Set Foreman
Robert Trevino
Senior Technicians
Clive Beard
Peter Skehan
Engineer/Fabricator
Paul Deely
Fabricator/Technician
B. David Benediktson
Wire Effects Supervisor
Kevin Mathews
Model Maker
Mike Dale
Fabricator
Cameron Waldbauer
Additional Editing
Billy Weber
Associate Editor
Kevin Nolting
Supervising Art Director
Jeff Ginn
Art Director
Brandt Gordon
Set Decorator
Bryony Foster
Key Scenic Artist
Ronald Ashmore
Storyboard Artist
Gary Thomas
Costume Designer
Joseph Porro
Costume Supervisors
Jean Rosone
Gayle Franklin
On Set:
Paul J. Lavigne
Set Supervisor Costumes
2nd Unit:
Isabel Bloor
Make-up Supervisor
Rosalina Da Silva
Key Make-up Artist
2nd Unit:
Michael David Carr
Prosthetics
Tony Wohlgeniuth
Key Hairstylists
James D. Brown
2nd Unit:
Debra Planidin-Turcios
Titles Design/Production
The Picture Mill
Orchestrations
Ralph Ferraro
Music Supervisor
Kathy Nelson
Music Editor
John LaSalandra
Score Recorder/Mixer
Elton Ahi
Scoring Crew
Stephen Pelluet
Andrew Dudman
Tim Malone
Jill Tengan
Soundtrack
"A-maje-cumbe" - Simon Boswell; "La Grange" - ZZ Top; "Cowboy" - Kid Rock; "Back in the Saddle" - Aerosmith; "Yeah Yeah Yeah" - Uncle Kracker; "Blackjack Rag"
Sound Design
Tim Chau
Production Sound Mixer
David Lee
Recordist
Steve Kohler
Re-recording Mixers
Andy D'Addario
Tim Chau
Additional:
Tom Dahl
Dean A. Zupancic
Supervising Sound Editor
Tim Chau
Co-supervising Sound Editors
Donald J. Malouf
Carmen Baker
Sound Editors
Jim Brookshire
Doug Jackson
Nils C. Jensen
David Kern
Nancy MacLeod
ADR
Supervisor:
Kimberly A. Harris
Mixers:
David Horner
Scott Schmidt
Jeff Hamon
Brad Hillman
Editors:
Linda Folk
Michele Perrone
Foley
Artists:
Alicia Irwin
Dawn Fintor
John Roesch
Alyson Moore
Recordist:
Carolyn Tapp
Mixers:
David Betancourt
Mary Jo Lang
Train Co-ordinator
Mike Solecki
Gun/Whip Coach
Alex Green
Stunt Co-ordinator
Brent Woolsey
JC Group Choreographers
Yuen Bing
Nicky Li Chung-Chi
Ted Lim
Andy Chang Kai-Chung
Wu Gang
Bradley Allan
Horse Wrangler
John Scott
Horse Trainer
Claude Chausse
Wrangler Captain
Lynn Patterson
Wrangler Office Co-ordinator
Lynda Skene
2nd Unit Head Wrangler
Ross Wideman
Cast
Jackie Chan
Chon Wang, 'The Shanghai Kid'
Owen Wilson
Wyatt Earp, 'Roy O'Bannon'
Lucy Liu
Princess Pei Pei
Roger Yuan
Lo Fong
Walton Goggins
Wallace
Xander Berkeley
Marshal Nathan Van Cleef
Jason Connery
Calvin Andrews, the Princess' tutor
Brandon Merrill
Falling Leaves, Indian wife
Rafael Baez
Vasquez
P. Adrien Dorval
Blue
Rong Guang Yu
Cui Ya Hi
Eric Chi Cheng Chen
Imperial guards
Stacy Grant
hooker in distress
Kate Luyben
Fifi
Henry O
royal interpreter
Russel Badger
Sioux chief
Simon Baker
Little Feather
Cliff Solomon
medicine man
Alan C. Peterson
Saddle Rock sheriff
Rad Daly
Saddle Rock deputy
Lee Jay Bamberry
Stephen Strachan
Tim Koetting
Van Cleef deputies
Rick Ash
Jedadiah
Valerie Planche
Jedadiah's wife
Tom Heaton
saloon bartender
James Baker
Jim Sheild
Mike Mitchell
Shayne Wyler
saloon gamblers
Ben Salter
Terry King
Michele Fansett
Saddle Rock townfolk
Joyce Doolittle
Randy Birch
Andrew Krivanek
Carson City townfolk
Christopher Hunt
apothecary shopkeeper
Jody Thompson
Margie
Eliza Murbach
Kendall Saunders
Jenafor Ryane
dream sequence hookers
Andrew Bosch
Christy Greene
Brian Gromoff
Jim Finkbeiner
train passengers
Chang Tseng
Pei Pei's father
Sherman Chao
emperor's cousin
Regent Or
emperor
John Heywood
Harold Courchene
George Exelby
John Glawson
saloon cowboys
Howard Rothschild
drunken doctor
Michael Auger
Stan Isadore
Wacey Labelle
Sam Simon
chief's entourage
Tong Lung
Grace Lu
Elise Lew
Chinese workers
Melvin Skales
hangman
May Louie
Yeung Kar Kut
Ted Lim
Tik Lun Wong
Kwai Chun Leung
Henry Louie
opera performers
Jimmy Carver
bordello doorman
Dallas Dorchester
Jason Glass
blind drivers
Lisa Stafford
blonde on train
Certificate
12
Distributor
Buena Vista International (UK)
9,926 feet
110 minutes 18 seconds
Dolby Digital/DTS/SDDS
In Colour
Prints by
Technicolor
2.35:1 [Panavision]
Last Updated: 20 Dec 2011