Jackie Chan ist Nobody

Jackie Chan plays a "special forces" agent in this action/adventure film that is as concerned with spoofing the genre as it is with embracing it. The film starts with Chan and fellow agents descending on a convoy through the "South African jungle" to abscond a handful of scientists who have been working on exploiting unusual properties of a mineral found in the South African mines. With the aid of extensive training and sophisticated technological gadgetry, they complete their mission successfully. But someone in the "squad" is double crossing them. As the men are headed for recreational leave, they're sabotaged. Chan makes it out alive, but barely. He hits his head and acquires amnesia. The bulk of the film has him coping with his situation--he first ends up in the middle of a traditional South African community--while government agents try to track him down and kill him.

There are some details I could not fill in above, because the primary flaw with the film, and this is what brought my score down to an 8, or a "B", rather than a 9 or 10, is that the story is almost absurdly convoluted and difficult to glean (there was also a fair amount of ridiculous English dubbing in the version I saw--it was difficult to tell how intentional the "problems" with the dubbing may have been). But the story isn't really the point; and to the extent that it is, the point may be to make it absurdly convoluted and difficult to glean--this is to a large extent a spoof, after all. More important, the story propels the film from one jaw dropping, action-filled set piece to the next. On a surface level, at least, those set pieces are the raison d'etre of Who Am I. But surprisingly perhaps, Chan, who co-directed and co-wrote the film in addition to starring in it, also has a lot of interesting subtextual things to say.

Most viewers will come to this film as Chan fans. As such, they'll be hoping to see his "trademark" martial arts abilities, impressive stunt work and notorious sense of humor; they will not leave disappointed. During the climax, Who Am I has one of the longer extended martial arts sequences in any Chan film, and it unexpectedly gets back to the basics. For at least ten minutes, Chan fights just two "big baddies" who are close matches in skill. He uses relatively few props and relies very little on moving about his environment in fancy ways.

Of course, there are plenty of props and a lot of well-choreographed, complicated blocking elsewhere. A few of these more ostentatious scenes are intentionally hilarious in their absurdity. One of the most memorable spoof scenes involves an extended car chase. Chan imports physics from an alternate universe for about half of this sequence.

As an adventure film, Who Am I presents a kind of James Bond-like travelogue. We go from the jungles of Malaysia (doubling as South Africa) to the South African plains (where Chan disguises himself as a tribesman) to Namibia for a cross-country 4 x 4 race (partially across what looks like the Etosha Pan) to the Netherlands. Those familiar with South Africa will find it amusing that during one sequence, Chan and the cohorts he picks up along the way travel from the Sun City's Lost City to downtown Johannesburg to Pretoria in a matter of minutes. But this is the movies, after all, and a fantastical work of fiction at that. The varied environments were very well chosen, providing a lot of eye candy while also providing great fodder for comic and action scenes.

While it's funny that Chan's character (who is referred to as "Jackie Chan" at one point) comes to be known as "Whoami" once amnesia sets in, there is much more intended than a silly comic device. It's significant that the film is set in South Africa, a nation with a complicated multicultural history and not a little turmoil over the same. The title isn't just a reference to amnesia or Chan's character; it's a rhetorical question about cultural and ethnic identity. The members of Chan's special forces squadron were all loaded with different passports from different countries. They were told to forget their identities. It's never clear who they were, where they came from or who they were working for--a point is made to not let the audience know, and to not even let us know whether they were "good guys" or not.

Chan has to fit into tribal culture. He becomes associated with a Chinese race team in or near Namibia, and then befriends a reporter who appears half Asian and half Caucasian. The American CIA is prominent in the film. They have their hands in every culture shown in the film. There are subtexts about globalism and how first world technology is affecting the development of non-first world countries. The ease of travel, symbolizing ethnic mobility, is a prominent theme. Chan makes sure that the film ends in the Netherlands, which has had a strong presence and influence in South Africa for hundreds of years. The villainy in the film is centered on building better weapons, which of course tend to be used to annihilate persons from opposing cultures or ethnicities. Cultural and ethnic identity has become far more complex in the last couple centuries than it ever was before, even if it was never the clear issue that many people around the world assume it to be.

That the film is able to bring up such interesting issues, all while awing us with graceful action sequences and making us laugh, makes Who Am I a very enjoyable experience. Chan fans shouldn't miss this one.

As with Mr Nice Guy,this Jackie Chan vehicle is basically a Hong Kong production filmed in English with mostly western actors. It's actually an odd Chan film in some respects. For a start,the first third of the film hardly seems like a Chan film at all,apart from a few comic bits of business {Chan chased up a tree by a lion}which are mostly cut from the US version anyway. Even in shortened form,and with some good desert photography,the whole 'Chan finds himself among desert tribesmen' subplot seems an unnecessarily laborious way of getting into the amnesia story that becomes the main thrust of the story.

Nevertheless,after this the film becomes solid Chan fare with the same fast pacing of Mr Nice Guy. There's a great car chase and while the fights are quite short {as with most recent Chan films,he spends a lot of time running away from opponents},it's good to see Chan bashed about a bit-he looks very vulnerable in this film. Of course the acting is weak and some of the dialogue laughable {I'm not sure I agree with the reviewer here who says it was intentionally comic,but opinions differ!},while the intrigue of the amnesia/spy plot just becomes an excuse for the usual chasing around. However,one can almost forgive all this when the climax features a great fight on top of a skyscraper followed quite simply one of the most awesome and downright foolhardy stunts Chan has done. I won't describe it in detail,just see for yourself! You WILL be amazed.

There is a sense with Who Am I that the filmmakers attempted to tell a fairly complex story and then realised they were making a Jackie Chan movie and changed it accordingly,leaving a fair bit of confusion. Interestingly,Chan's original cut was around 3 hours long,and maybe that made more sense and balanced the two elements of the film better. Still,there's a lot of fun to be had here nevertherless. And just listen to Chan rap the part English,part Chinese theme song during the end credits.

Jackie Chan is a special operative, part of an elite military unit who are employed to capture a group of scientist working on a potent force that can be a power source or a weapon of mass destruction. After the job the group is betrayed and their helicopter forced to crash – Jackie is the only survivor. He comes too much later in an African village having lost his memory. When he has regained full strength he begins to try and find who he is – however his ex-employers are also keen to ensure he knows nothing and that they can complete their work.

The story here is solid – not much more can be said than that. It works quite well as a thriller plot but it wouldn't stand up by itself. Happily we have two things saving the plot. The first is the strand of physical comedy that runs through Chan's work – here we have plenty of little jokes scattered around, e.g. Chan is fighting one man and uses the man's tie against him, another man waits to fight Chan but pointedly removes his tie first! The second (and more important) aspect is the fight scenes. For much of the film the action seems to be toned down – indeed there are only 4 or 5 main scenes in the movie where Chan lets rip. However all of these are good, however the final roof top fight (in fact the whole last 20 minutes) is excellent and worth watching the film for.

As always the film doesn't worry about details rather it focuses on choreography. This means we have bad support actors….and we do! It means that things like realism and continuity go out the window…..a car slides on it's side, spins and then turns over again – however seconds later it has no scratches anywhere! And some of the early special effects are a little ropy. Although these are minor problems.

Chan is excellent in the lead and is a real wonder to watch – I wish I could move like him now…never mind when I'm his age. His ability at both martial arts and comedy helps this film immensely. It is hard to fault him for effort.

Overall this is a good Chan movie – it has the same faults as all his movies do, but it's funny, has some good action scenes and ends with a really good conclusion. Well worth watching.

This overlong Jackie vehicle looks like a DTV flick (of course it WAS a DTV flick, but that's no excuse), has an exposition-heavy script, and some of the action set-pieces (including the car chase) lack energy, but all's forgiven when we get to the last 20 minutes, where we witness one of the most exhilarating fight sequences ever filmed, followed shortly afterwards by (arguably) THE most breathtaking stunt Chan has ever attempted on-screen - and that's saying something! (**1/2)

I'm astonished that there were so many negative reviews here...

This film is OBVIOUSLY not meant to be taken seriously. It is very clearly intentionally a "joke" of a film. That people would complain about bad acting, strange dubbing, and/or a convoluted plot just leaves me flabbergasted.

From the very beginning, it should be evident that a big part of the point of the film is its own self-deprecating humor. Jackie loses his memory and is picked up by a primitive African tribe. The chief asks him, in an unintelligible language, "Where do you come from? What is your name?" to which Jackie replies (not understanding the questions) "What am I doing here? Who am I?" This is a JOKE, folks.

A few minutes later, Jackie saves a snake-bite victim with an IV he improvises from a COCONUT! When he's returned to "civilization," the doctor is impressed with that tactic, saying, "That coconut IV technique is only used by elite military units!" Is there any way to even dream of taking the plot/dialogue seriously at this point?

The acting is "bad" by design. The actors were obviously told to ham up everything they did. The meeting of the American intelligence officials is a completely ironic reference to the same sort of scene you'd expect in any James Bond movie. Dialogue is intentionally absurd, plot developments are intentionally obvious. The "Morgan" character is played perfectly (and hilariously) as a crooked CIA operative out for his own gain while feigning loyalty to the USA.

Yuki is a master stunt-driver with the naivete and wide-eyed innocence of a schoolgirl. Christine Stark is a completely laughable "reporter" who fools Jackie only as a result of his head injury; after she's "exposed," she rescues Jackie in an golf cart that can't seem to move faster than an electric wheelchair.

That the villains actually join each other in a verse of song ("Friendship, friendship!") near the end should serve as a good reminder of just how camp this picture strives to be. To criticize it for this as a "failing" seems to me to profoundly miss the point. Did the same viewers dislike that "Hot Shots: Part Deux" was absurd too?

Overall, the strengths of the film deserve the attention: it is a very funny parody of the overplotted "action/intrigue" genre, it has a terrific car chase, notable action sequences, and a terrific Jackie-Chan-Style fight scene at the beginning of the film's climax.

Perhaps I enjoyed this movie because I had grown up watching the "GI Joe" cartoon series, and had always been rather insulted by the fact that it managed to be both preachy and stupid at the same time. If you're looking for a great 100 minutes of parody and HUMOR, I'd recommend this movie. If you're more interested in believability and suspending your disbelief, this film will definitely not work for you at all. Inappropriate expectations would be the only "problem" I can imagine that would reduce one's enjoyment of this film.

If you want a more serious Jackie Chan film, you might try Drunken Master II, or Police Story. But if you're looking for an enjoyable and sardonic 100 minutes, this is truly one of Jackie's great vehicles.