RUMBLE IN THE BRONX
Hong Kong, 1995, 85 minutes, Colour.
Jackie Chan, Anita Mui, Françoise Yip.
Directed by Stanley Tong.
If an audience wanted to see an archetypal Jackie Chan action film, then they would be advised to go to his initial Hong Kong career and see the various police stories as well as the martial arts action films. During the 1980s and 90s, he made a number of films in the United States including the Cannonball Run films as well as starring in some actioners but they failed to make him an American star.He also made some entertaining action films in Australia.
With Rumble in the Bronx, the Hong Kong producers hoped to make a film that would be popular in the United States and make audiences realise what a screen presence Jackie Chan was and how intricate his choreography of fights. The story and the dialogue was not ambitious, nor the casting of Americans in the film. However, it was a great box office success and enabled Jackie Chan to move comfortably between Chinese films and American films, the Shanghai Noon films, Around the World in 80 Days, and, of course, the Rush Hour films.
As Jackie Chan got older, he appeared in a number of Chinese films of a more serious and historical nature.
The plot of Rumble in the Bronx is basic, Jackie Chan coming from Hong Kong to New York to visit his uncle who is about to be married, driving through Manhattan in wonder, then seeing the more downbeat aspects of the Bronx. His uncle, thoroughly Americanised, is about to sell his very prosperous market to a young woman, Elaine (Anita Mui, Chinese singer who sadly died at the age of 40 from cancer). The nephew promises to be a support for the new market. His uncle is marrying an African- American and so there is a mixture of styles and African- American beat to the music for the wedding.
In the meantime, gangs in the Bronx have illegal motor races, in the narrow streets, driving over the tops of cars. Local thugs, of many races, participate in these activities. One is a young woman, Nancy (Françoise Yip) who has a brother in a wheelchair whom the nephew befriends.
Once the gangs get going, there is a whole lot of violence in the streets, and the nephew seems to be an easy target after he has done a whole lot of his martial acrobatics when some of the gang shoplift in the market. The thugs corner him in a dead-end and smash bottles at him – and he is rescued by Nancy and cared for.
The various episodes when the gangs want to get their revenge on him, have them going to the market and creating mayhem and destruction. Elaine is very upset, condemning the nephew. He then goes the gang headquarters and causes mayhem and destruction there. Somewhat improbably, the head thug listens to Nancy who asks for some kind of leniency and the possibilities for a truce, combining when they have a common enemy.
Fortunately, there is a common enemy, jewel thieves who are pursued by the Eastern European diamond dealers and their rather huge heavies. The local thug, Angelo, victim of the nephew, hides the diamonds in the young boy’s wheelchair cushion.
This means that the heavies pursue the thugs and the nephew as well. The heavies and their boss are no holds barred and set up all kinds of chains and ropes within the market and completely collapse it.
The plot becomes more and more improbable, the pursuit of the heavies, the cornering of the nephew, his working with the police and wearing a wire, and the heavies escaping on a hovercraft (allegedly in the Bronx but the final credits offer a lot of praise for Vancouver and British Columbia hovercraft – standing in for New York City). There is even more mayhem as the hovercraft goes through the waters, people diving for cover, and then goes on land even more destructively, including running over the nephew and pressing him into the sand. The hovercraft then goes on its way through the narrow streets, pushing aside everything in its path – until ultimately, the nephew sees an antique show and a weapon and slices the base of the hovercraft.
Heavies caught.
But then the hovercraft is patched up, and everyone gets on board and goes to the golf course where the boss is playing golf, he and his entourage are pursued, crushed, and, what else, but happy ending?
Jackie Chan was injured at times during the making of this film as is seen in the clips in the final credits. So were other members of the cast. But everyone carried on.
As regards the action, that is the main thing to be seen, audience admiration for Jackie Chan’s agility, live action, gymnastics, combining techniques of martial arts with standard fights. If you want to see Jackie Chan in action, best to go and see Rumble in the Bronx.
