Massacre no Bairro Chinês

In the early 1990's, a Chinese man named Steelhead illegally enters Japan by way of a cargo ship, which sinks off the coast. He is looking for his fiancé Xiu-Xiu, who disappeared in the country years before. Stranded miles from nowhere without his papers, Steelhead somehow makes it to Tokyo, where he rendezvouses with friends from back home. They teach him the tricks of the underworld, and he is soon the de-facto leader of an all-Chinese gang. Still searching for Xiu-Xiu- and incurring the wrath of the Yakuza- Steelhead comes to realize that the grass is not necessarily greener on the other side, and that life in Shinjuku may not be worth living at all.

Directed by Derek Yee, 'Shinjuku Incident' is a dark drama that makes for a refreshing change of pace for star Jackie Chan. Yee and co-writer Chun Tin-nam's screenplay focuses on the experience of illegal immigrants, examining how some are taken advantage of and left with no prospects outside a life of crime. Their version of Shinjuku is a violent, inhospitable place populated by bottom-feeding scum and insidious gangsters. Steelhead's story- of an outsider being perverted by the depravity of the city- is a sadly believable one, at times feeling reminiscent of films like 'Manila in the Claws of Light.'

This is not to say the screenplay is without fault. Secondary characters are generally ill-defined and- more often than not- sequences involving the Yakuza feels like a pale imitation of the work of Kinji Fukasaku. Additionally, the character of Steelhead is initially morally ambiguous, though paradoxically becomes more virtuous as he rises in the criminal underworld. Perhaps this was done to acquiesce to Chan's cardinal rule that he never plays a villain- or an irredeemable one, that is. Whatever the reason, it is a strange bit of characterization that feels slightly jarring and out of place within the gritty urban drama that the film is billed as.

'Shinjuku Incident' features assured cinematography from Nobuyasu Kita that highlights the grime and degeneracy of the city. Oliver Wong's impressive production design adds to locations a feeling of authenticity, which the detailed set decoration compounds. Furthermore, the costume design from Satoe Araki and Angelo Bernardo Castillo is striking, with Xiu-Xiu's kimonos and various Yakuza outfits being particularly memorable.

Jackie Chan stars as Steelhead, delivering a restrained performance that ranks alongside his very best. Chan has proven himself an adept dramatic performer before, in projects like 'Heart of Dragon' and- to some extent- the first two 'Police Story' pictures. Here he showcases a great amount of vulnerability, disappearing inside the character in a way he had not done before. Though Steelhead has a moral code and plenty of redeeming qualities, it is still the closest Chan has ever come to playing a bad guy; and he does it brilliantly.

Chan's co-stars prove themselves to be up to his standard, with a few being especially deserving of praise. Daniel Wu stars as a friend of Steelhead's named Jie, who has an interesting character arc that Wu realizes brilliantly. A multifaceted talent, Wu threatens to steal the picture at times with his remarkable ease of performance. Additionally, Fan Bingbing does excellent work as Steelhead's love interest Lily, demonstrating the boundless charisma and pure acting prowess that has endeared her to so many. Also worthy of note is Naoto Takenaka's performance as Inspector Kitano, which is- simply put- faultless.

A gritty urban drama, 'Shinjuku Incident' offers fans of Jackie Chan something a little different. Violent, exciting and nicely shot by Nobuyasu Kita, the film has many positive elements. While the story may lose steam in the latter half, and a few of the secondary characters are underwritten, it is still entertaining and suspenseful. For fans of Chan- and of Hong Kong cinema in general- 'Shinjuku Incident' is well worth a watch.

Contrary to many, at least outside the US, I was introduced to Jackie Chan through Rumble in the Bronx. It was his first big hit in the US, and it ushered in a bunch of other Chan films (i.e. Superop, First Strike) into theaters. It was invigorating to see someone with Chan's skills as a fighter, using martial arts like a dancer and doing it all (sometimes painfully) himself. Then audiences could dig in to one of two things: his previous catalog of work from Hong Kong (i.e. Police Story series, Drunken Master), or films like Rush Hour and Shanghai Noon/Knights and his stint in Hollywood. But now he's in his mid-50's, and one wonders if we might see the last of Chan as a real action-oriented star, especially considering forgettable drek like The Spy Next Door is still playing in theaters.

But there is perhaps some hope, and coming in part from Chan himself (for this film he's exec-producer). In The Shinjuku Incident, we see a step forward for Chan in being simply a dramatic actor, as opposed to doing tons of fights and martial arts. Sure, there's still a few stunts to pull in the film, but nothing more than hitting someone with a stick or chopping off a hand really "happens" in terms of the stunts (or, of course, running). Chan is at the service of the story as an actor, and maybe we'll see more of these thrillers or dramas with him as the star; whether they range from greatness to crap is left to be seen. Shinjuku Incident is a nice step in a direction quite removed from The Spy Next Door, and is worth seeing for Chan first, then as a decent Yakuza movie.

The premise has Chan, as a character nicknamed "Steelhead" for his work early on in the film as a laborer, coming to Japan to work menial jobs and find a girl he knew in his village. But he also needs to become a legal citizen (there's a lot of illegals coming into Japan, we learn, as it's the 1990's before China's economic boom), and soon becomes absorbed into a life of crime. Or rather, he does a couple of jobs- one especially for revenge for a friend whose hand was cut off- and ascends to become head of a triad. The story mechanics are a little complicated at times- you do have to pay attention to who is in charge where or who has a vendetta against someone else (in the last third it becomes clearer and more focused to understand)- and the characters are well laid out.

As far as being quite original, I'm not sure. These sorts of stories and ideas have been dealt with before, and none other than Takashi Miike has made a career in part on doing stories about Yakuzai and/or Triad gangs (his first film was even called Shinjuku Triad Society, and concerns a similar theme present in this film: China vs. Japan gangs). And by the end the drama is a bit forced, and a resolution involving a USB is a little circumspect, just as a contrivance really. But it's competently told and filmed by Tung-Shing Yee, who has a history with crime films, and he can always come back to his star when he needs a strong dramatic lead (not that some of the other actors, like the one playing the amputee with a facial scar who becomes a drug dealer, don't do their best too).

I was surprised by how moving Chan could be, if not as memorable as in his Drunken Master days, and it's a good sign of things to come as he goes on in years. It's a small, exciting movie with no big surprises and some interesting dramatic beats.

The stronger message in the story here, is how easily the Chinese get taken advantage of. As the adage goes, united we stand and divided we fall. It's very obvious that given the myriad of Chinese, from the Mainlanders with the different dialect groups to the Taiwanese to the Hong Kongers etc, the immigrants here are shown to exhibit solidarity when they are together, sharing whatever little spoils they have as they build their little community. But quick success would mean the opportunity for corruption to creep in, splitting up the unity established, and spawn plenty of infighting to make the community weak again and ripe for the picking by their enemies. Perhaps in not wanting to acknowledge this issue as highlighted in the film, would have resulted in making Violence an excuse for the Chinese censors to drag their feet in awarding a rating, since they put the people on the whole in some negative light.

One scene too was reminisce of Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury, where Lee's character Chen Zhen rips apart a signboard that says "Sick Man of Asia". Here, lead actor Jackie Chan tears away a sign that says "No Entry to Chinese", but this is no action movie for the action star we're so used to see. In fact, if Shinjuku Incident was a typical Jackie Chan film, then we would see him kick everyone's rear with nary a scratch to himself. Here he drops his superhuman persona, wanting instead to take on a more dramatic, ordinary role as Steelhead, a simple man from Northeastern China who made his way to Tokyo in order to look for his lost love Xiu Xiu (Xu Jinglei).

He strikes an unlikely friendship with Japanese police inspector Kitano (Naoto Takenaka in a more dramatic role too, as I associate him with madcap characters he plays in zero-to-hero movies), and works his way around the new environment with the help of Daniel Wu's cowardly Jie, and with the likes of supporting characters played by Chin Kar Lok and Lam Suet. Together with his Chinese buddies, Steelhead embarks on a life of crime after seeing his lady love had already moved on in life, and a crime he committed back home meant his new one should begin in Japan, hence the desire to achieve instant results. It's almost quite an insult though to the Japanese's polite society manners that the Chinese sought to exploit for personal gains.

Derek Yee had fused some realism into his previous triad drama Protégé, and here he does the same in bringing on the Japanese crime lords, where their latest election of a new leader brought about unhappiness amongst the ranks. So the illegal immigrants got embroiled in the new turf war, in order to lead it to the second and very hurried act of witnessing how power could corrupt, especially when the person at the top, steelhead, decides to adopt a nepotistic approach in delegating power to friends out of pity, or out of having to repay favours, and didn't spell the out-of-bound markers clearly. All this just because of his rebound affection for Fan Bingbing's bar hostess Lily, who's severely underused here.

Surprisingly the many subplots cooked up for the film, got let down by the relatively fluffy narrative style. It had wanted to deal with multiple themes (like selfishness, unity, betrayal and doing deeds for the greater good at whatever the costs), but found itself introducing them quite haphazardly, jumping from one point to the other sometimes with disregard to time. While action sequences are very sparse and bordering on shock value with in-your-face type violence, the finale whack-fest brought to mind some Johnnie To classical stand off moments, but unfortunately was let down by the tight shots and poor lighting. And lo and behold, the guilty party in ruining the film experience is the trailer which basically spelt everything out in black and white terms, so if you haven't seen any clips of the film, don't.

Jackie Chan had limited success in taking on a more dramatic role, and a morally ambiguous character who's prime motivation may have seemed like a mechiavellian one masked by a very simple exterior, and looked clearly uncomfortable in not being able to unleash his usual repertoire of stunts when surrounded by thugs. Deniel Wu however upstaged Chan with ease with his Jie role, despite having to suffer bad hair days throughout the film with a ridiculous perm, and a Joker-esquire makeup in the latter half. And following the Jackie Chan trend, female characters are little to show for, and here both Xu Jinglei and Fan Bingbing's characters do nothing more than looking good and offer translator services.

Shinjuku Incident is a good effort, but nowhere near the ranks of Derek Yee's better films. This is not to say that this film is no good, but it could have been much better. A pity too that it had to end with a whimper.

I went to see this film out of the blue, wasn't hyped, didn't even know it came out yet. However I am a fan of Asian films, not hardcore as some but I've watched my fair share, also you can say I'm a fan of Daniel Wu and of course Jackie Chan.

That said, this film you can put next to Jackie Chan's more serious films, and without a doubt IS his most serious film in all his career, in my opinion.

The plot is obviously based on the Chinese people who "migrated" to Japan and their struggles and battles to establish themselves, mix in Japanese yakuza, turf war and old missing friend(s), and then to top it off depiction of human tendencies to be corrupted by power.

Analyzing the plot is time consuming and I don't get paid for it, so I wont get into it too much at all. However I do want to mention that it is a gritty film, it is violent, harsh but these things were necessary to set the tone of the film. Don't expect the usual Jackie Chan flips, martial arts, fun kung-fu action scenes.. no.. its more realistic that violence is represented by people chopping each other almost Kill Bill-esquire.

It is a serious film, well shot, well acted and the cast were well suited. Daniel Wu is good in it, although some questionable and real quick turn of character as the movie goes on. Jackie Chan is good too, the man can put on a serious face and act in a dramatic role when he needs to. I'm glad it was made for the Asian audiences, I can imagine it being only being mediocre if not bad if westernized.

If you want a film with a scar face esquire story/plot, lots of gang members fighting, a bit of drama, heaps of blood and quiet frankly a pretty darn good film... then I recommend it.

Its a 4 star movie for me...

Another inspiring and meaningful movie directed by Derek Yee, he still intends to educate his audience after the success of "Protege" The story of the movie is very very good indeed. 10years of planning in pre-pro gives Derek Yee a solid script, but he tends to inject too many incidents and characters to the movie. Which is why, he didn't actually put all his effort into every scenes. I cannot really recognize his style in this movie, but of course he is still very focusing on the message of the story. No action and stunts by Jackie Chan, which is...quite weird for me....but we all gotta try to accept him...maybe give him a chance. Another fantastic performance by Daniel Wu, always maintain his own acting style while he has already possessed to his character. "Shinjuku Incident" is a movie that is worth for a watch, if you are not looking for an excellent cinematography and editing aspects.