Shanghai Knight (2003)

Shanghai Knight (2003)

6/10

Starring

Jackie Chan

Owen Wilson

Donnie Yen

Fann Wong

Directed by David Dobkin

Shanghai Noon (2000) gradually becomes Shanghai Knights, with both actors from the previous movie reprising their roles as Chon Wang (Jackie Chan) and Roy (Owen Wilson). The movie isn’t as good as the first, but it’s surprisingly interesting, funny, and captivating.

This time, the makers went as far as bringing more familiar themes into the plot—things we’re more used to. For example, we have a boy who winds up being Charlie Chaplin, the detective in the film ends up being Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (who goes on to write the Sherlock Holmes mysteries), and according to the movie, the name Sherlock Holmes is made up by Roy.

The movie plot follows our dynamic duo from the first film, only this time their adventure takes them to England. The movie starts with the death of Wang’s (Jackie) father, who was a guard of the royal diamond seal, which gets stolen. While dying, Wang’s father tells his daughter, Chon Lin (Fann Wong), to retrieve the stolen seal and deliver a puzzle box to her brother.

Now, Wang, her brother, has become a sheriff in Nevada. When he gets the message about his father’s death and the stolen seal being taken to England, he searches for Roy to get some money to travel there. Roy, on the other hand, has lost all their gold from the first film to gambling and bad investments. So now, together with Wang’s sister Lin, they have to retrieve the diamond and return it to China.

There are many more homages in this film that I’d like to mention:

1. The villain is also tagged "the finest swordsman in England," which is a tribute to Basil Rathbone, known for his swordsmanship. Rathbone always seemed better than his counterparts in his movies but held back because the hero had to win. Rathbone also played Sherlock Holmes in the 1930s to 1940s series.
2. In the movie, we get to see Jackie Chan pay homage to the Rush Hour movies, where Jackie distracts the guards by using Chinese vases.
3. When knocking on Conan Doyle's door, the clothes that Roy and Wang are wearing are exactly the same as those worn by Holmes and Watson in Conan Doyle's stories.

The movie did fairly well at the box office but was a massive hit in Pakistan, where it was dubbed in Punjabi. Several million copies of the movie’s DVD and VCD sales were great, prompting the producers to also release Shanghai Noon in Punjabi.

This movie is a nice watch—one that you’ll enjoy seeing. I encourage you to give it a try.