I'd be surprised if anyone really knows of The Shinjuku Incident, a new picture produced by and starring Jackie Chan. I only found out about it by noticing a poster linked on a few obscure cinema blogs, and I always figured its stateside release was years away. Interestingly enough, it's come to American theaters much earlier than I expected, albeit in an extremely limited release, on the shoulders of maverick distributor Barking Cow. It's currently playing at Loews Village 7 here in New York, and a few other places around the country.
The Shinjuku Incident is a hybrid of historical epic and crime saga, and like many Hong Kong classics, it's emotionally heavy and at times mercilessly violent. It starts with a shipwreck off the shores of Japan in the '90s, and the scattering of a hundred or so Chinese immigrants away form the authorities. Steelhead (Chan) is one of these illegal immigrants, and he manages to find his way onto the mainland, and through a bit of desperate resourcefulness, to find his young relative, Jie (Daniel Wu), who is already living there and working illegally. Like many Chinese at the time, Steelhead has been driven to Japan by economic hardship, but more so, he is following the call of lost love.
Steelhead is a proud, self-sufficient worker with a strong sense of loyalty and altruism, so he gains contacts and status within his community quickly. He learns the menial labor and petty crime that sustains the Chinese within Japan, but he isn't happy with this marginal space. In an attempt to improve both his and his community's status on the island, he reluctantly involves himself with the yakuza. The bulk of the film revolves around Steelhead's rise to power, and on his community's rise and fall within a marginal niche of Japanese society.
To get the obvious angle out of the way: The Shinjuku Incident is definitely a vehicle for Chan, both as a star and as a producer, and it does its job. His character, Steelhead, proves Chan's ability as a dramatic actor... although there isn't a great deal of range to the part, he's convincing as a conflicted blue-collar worker and a reluctant father figure to his adopted community. It's vastly different from his other roles, and I assure you, this is a good thing.
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Article comments
1 - Debi Younce
I cannot tell you how refreshing it is to read a real review of a movie that Jackie Chan has streched his acting wings on. I shared this blog on our Jackie Chan Friendship forum and look forward to seeing the response.