Winner Oct '00

Other Winners & How to Win!

• • •

Jackie Chan's Miracle

Posted by: Mara

• • •

(Or "Miracles." It has some other titles too.)
Now that baseball season is over, I have to start watching more movies at home (it's either that or TV, and I'm pretty much tired of TV shows), and last night we had "Miracle", a Jackie Chan movie from 1989.

This is relatively good movie, considering the low budget and rather strange overall feel that Hong Kong movies tend to have (you know, the not-so-great dialog, the acting, the background music -- the background music in this one is truly awful, in fact). In fact, DH and I decided it may be our favorite Jackie movie now, because it has a real plot (you'll find out why later), some great fight sequences, and some good humor. Even the acting is better in this one than the normal Jackie film -- who knew that "Uncle Bill" could actually act!

In this one, Jackie becomes a gang leader by mistake, sort of, but he has little choice because he's broke and the rival gang think he's involved anyway and they'll kill him if his own gang doesn't protect him. So he's goes along with it -- plus, every day he gets a lucky rose from a street vendor, a very sweet and kind lady who's called Rose, just to make it easy on us.

Jackie's first task as a gangster (and within the confines of the low budget, producer/director/star Jackie does a pretty good job of making this look like a gangster movie with some period clothes, cars, sets, and even machine guns) is to put the big hotel/night club back into the black, and with that end in mind he hires a singer and starts a major renovation. The singer becomes his girlfriend, of course.

What's amazing about this movie is that it's a remake of Pocketful of Miracles, which of course was a remake of Lady for a Day, which of course was based on a Damon Runyon story. I haven't see either of those films, but am enough of a film buff to recognize the plot halfway through, and it came as quite a shock, believe me. I mean, what an amazing thing for Jackie Chan to do -- take an American film and put in some fight/action sequences (and they are *fantastic*, if you like Jackie's style).

It also has a totally pointless continuous-take tracking shot that's maybe 2-3 minutes long, which I loved because I always love lengthy shots. Reportedly it took three days to film that one shot. But it really is pointless -- it's not an action sequence or anything special; it's just an interior of the nightclub during the renovation.

But anway, we both loved the movie, and I definitely recommend it to Jackie fans, and also to folks who have never seen him and want to know why we love him.

And now I have to rent Pocketful of Miracles (I think I'll prefer that to the original, since I kind of like Glenn Ford) just to see how close Jackie's version is.

- Mara

Talk Back