I differnt kind of Jackie Chan - "Gorgeous"

[Fearless Freep]

A few years ago, Jackie Chan took time off from breaking into the US market to go aback to Hong Kong to film Gorgeous

In many ways, this is not a typical Jackie Chan movie.  It's really sorta two stories in one movie.  One, a romantic comedy about a romantic dreamer of a girl from Taiwan who follows a message in a bottle to come to Hong Kong and ends up falling in love with Chan, who is a ricj but lonely man with no interest in romance.  The second story is of Chan and his boyhood friend,Lo, who have grown up still competng.  Chan always seems to get the upper hand and sa such is not as obssessed about the rivalry as his friend, who will do anything to 'beat' him.  However, Chan has an ulterior, albeit maybe noble, goal for wanting to take over his friend's company.

There are a few action scenes, although only one, involving Lo's henchmen attacking Chan that has an artful use of a motorcycle and four baseball bats, is really in the classic Chan style.  The other two action scenes involve a man, Alan, whom Lo has hired to beat Chan in a fight.  Chan and Alan fight twice and the two fights are probably more proto-typicl martia alrts movie fights, though the second has some funny moments.  Through it all, you can tell that Low wants to beat Chan, but not really hurt him.  Both have a sense of honor and an understanding of the childhood rivalry that keeps Lo from realling being the bad guy.   If Alan comes across as a fighter who wants toprove his skill, but not really a bad person.

An enjoyable movie with a few well done action scenes and some nice handling of both the romantic angle and the rivalry angle.

[Scott]

I remember watching GORGEOUS. It was ok, but I don't think the girl fought.  I like the old style Kung Fu time period films with traditional outfits. Don't like martial art films set in modern times that much, unless it's really strange like THE STORY OF RICKY or BLACK MASK.

Always liked Michelle Yeoh doing that motorcycle stunt on the train in one of those films Jackie Chan made in the mid-90's.

[Lee]

The Michelle Yeoh stunt you mentioned is in Supercop: Police Story 3. When I first heard of Gorgeous I was like,"What were they thinking?" But being a big fan of Jackie I checked it out anyway. I really got swept up in it. I've nerver had much of a liking for romance movies or romantic commedies but I really enjoyed this movie. And really liked the fights. Scott I understand your liking of old school kung fu movies(everybody loves those) but there are alot of great modern kung fu movies to. Dragons Forever(tons of great fights and totally hilarious)  and Pedicab Driver(possibly the best Sammo Hung movie ever) are a good place to start. Also try to get your hands on Righting Wrongs. It's one of the best movies Corey Yuen has ever directed and has my favorite catfight.

[Fearless Freep]

I picked up Gorgeous on my instructor's recommendation, mostly for that multiple jump front kick by Alan in the second big fight.  I did enjoy the story, though

[Scott]

Thanks Lee for the recomendations I'll keep them in mind.

[Archivist]

I was quite impressed with Gorgeous.  While it reflects the trend towards 'softer' movies from Hong Kong, the plot was funny and the action scenes weren't too bad either.  In the making-of section you see an absolutely freezing Hsu Chi shivering in blankets during the shooting of the pool sequence.

~Archivist~

[Lee]

Always willing to help out Scott.