Rumble in the Bronx

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Rumble in the Bronx
File:Rumble-in-the-Bronx-poster.jpg
Rumble in the Bronx Hong Kong theatrical poster
Directed by Stanley Tong
Produced by Barbie Tung
Roberta Chow
Raymond Chow
Leonard Ho
Written by Edward Tang
Fibe Ma
Starring Jackie Chan
Anita Mui
Françoise Yip
Marc Akerstream
Music by Nathan Wong (HK version)
J. Peter Robinson (US version)
Cinematography Jingle Ma
Edited by Peter Cheung
Distributed by Golden Harvest
Release dates
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  • 21 January 1995 (1995-01-21)
(Hong Kong)
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  • 23 February 1996 (1996-02-23)
(US)[1]
Running time
 106 minutes (HK version)
87 minutes (US version)
Country Hong Kong
Language Cantonese[2]
English[3]
Budget US$ 7.5 million
Box office HK$56,911,136 (HK)
US$ 32,392,047 (U.S.)

Rumble in the Bronx, is a 1995 Hong Kong martial arts action comedy film starring Jackie Chan and Anita Mui. Released in Hong Kong in 1995, Rumble in the Bronx had a successful theater run, and brought Chan into the American mainstream. The film is set in the Bronx area of New York City but was filmed in and around Vancouver, Canada.[4]

Plot

Ma Hon Keung (Jackie Chan), is a Hong Kong cop who comes to New York to attend the wedding of his Uncle, Bill (Bill Tung) and Whitney. The couple own a supermarket, but it is being sold to Elaine (Anita Mui).

A race involving a biker gang, led by Tony (Marc Akerstream), occurs before the night of the wedding, but Keung intervenes to prevent their loaned vintage wedding car from being damaged. He encounters them again as he defends Elaine and the supermarket they are robbing, but becomes targetted later. Among the gang is Nancy (Françoise Yip), a lingerie model/dancer, and the elder sister of Danny (Morgan Lam), whom Keung befriends after being introduced by his neighbour, Uncle Bill.

With a relationship beginning to form between Keung and Nancy, he becomes targeted again by boyfriend Tony, but the small-time gangsters become the victims of a much larger and more effective criminal syndicate led by White Tiger (Kris Lord), when a member of the gang named Angelo (Garvin Cross) steals illegal diamonds after a deal goes bad. Both Keung and the gang find themselves coming to a truce as they try to overcome the syndicate, who are determined to retrieve the diamonds by any means.

Cast

Box office

In Hong Kong, Rumble in the Bronx broke the box office record earning HK $56,911,136 making it the biggest film in Hong Kong at that time [5] and one of Chan's biggest ever.

It was also Chan's North American breakthrough. Opening on 1,736 North American screens, it was number one at the box office in its opening weekend, grossing US $9,858,380 ($5,678 per screen). It finished its North American run with US $32,392,047.

Awards and nominations

  • 1997 Key Art Awards
    • Winner: Best of Show – Audiovisual

For the "Ben Knows" comedy TV spot

Filming and production

File:Rumble in the Bronx bad landing.jpg
Jackie Chan's right foot lands at a bad angle after jumping onto the hoverboat, causing a serious injury that would not heal for the remainder of filming. The shot still made it into the finished movie.

In his autobiography, I am Jackie Chan: My life in Action, Jackie Chan talked about the initial difficulty of filming a movie in Vancouver that is set in New York. The production team initially had to put up fake graffiti during the day and take it all down during the evening, while simultaneously making sure that no mountains made it into the background. However, Chan decided that it was best that the production team focus on the action only without worrying too much about scenery. Viewers have noted mountains in the background, which doesn't exist in the NYC landscape, as well as the NYC helicopter which displays a Canandian civil registration (C-GZPM).

The original spoken dialogue consisted of all of the actors speaking their native language most of the time. In the completely undubbed soundtrack, available on the Warner Japanese R2 DVD release, Jackie Chan actually speaks his native Cantonese while Françoise Yip and Morgan Lam (the actors playing Nancy and Danny) speak English. All of the original dialogue was intended to be dubbed over in the international and Hong Kong film markets, and New Line cinema overdubbed and slightly changed the original English dialogue.

During filming, Chan injured his right leg while performing a stunt. He spent much of the remaining shooting time with one leg in a cast. When it came to the film's climax, the crew colored a sock to resemble the shoe on his good foot, which Chan wore over his cast. His foot still had not completely healed when he went on to shoot his next film, Thunderbolt (filmed the same year but released earlier).[6]

The lead actress and several stunt doubles were also injured during the shooting of a motorcycle stunt, with several people suffering broken limbs and ankles.

New Line Cinema edit

New Line Cinema acquired the film for international distribution and commissioned a new music score and English dub (with participation from Jackie Chan). A scene of Keung's airplane flying to New York was added to the opening credits. Two scenes added exclusively for the international version are Keung and Nancy escaping from the nightclub after the bikers spot them together, and White Tiger taking a golf shot before a subordinate approaches him with his phone. Neither of these scenes were in the original Hong Kong release.

In comparison to the Hong Kong version, 17 minutes of cuts were made, including:

  • Some more footage of Keung and Uncle Bill in the car talking about the supermarket.
  • A scene in which two biker gang members extort some money while Uncle Bill is showing his supermarket to Elaine, and then steal some items from beside the cash register.
  • Keung does more comical antics in front of the one-way mirror in Uncle Bill's office.
  • The motorcycle race and climactic fight between Keung and the gang in their house are trimmed slightly.
  • A scene where Uncle Bill and his wife sing a lament in Chinese at their wedding. This scene is restored in the US cable version.
  • Keung does more exercises before he rolls into a headstand.
  • Keung spots more shoplifting by the gang's Cantonese-speaking member from the office with the one-way mirror.
  • A lecture by Keung on martial arts after fighting off the biker gang the first time.
  • An entire scene in the morning after the night of the alley ambush by the bikers where Keung arrives at the supermarket to find it has been robbed by some youths. Simultaneously, the two gangsters from the beginning of the film return to extort money, only to be scared off by Keung. Immediately afterward, the entire biker gang shows up and Keung tries to intimidate them, but eventually calls the police. This scene is restored in the US cable version. This scene also explains why the motorcycle gang chases Keung to the parking garage.
  • On the parking garage roof top, Keung begs for a woman's help, but inadvertently scares her away.
  • More angles of the parking garage jump are shown.
  • The long haired syndicate thug asking Keung if he has seen any diamonds.
  • Two policemen waiting for Angelo in their car as he attempts to retrieve the diamonds.
  • A full scene after one of Angelo's men is murdered by a syndicate using a tree-shredder, where Keung and Nancy return to the apartment with shopping. A displeased Elaine emerges and describes what happened to the store.
  • Slightly more footage of Keung trying to bargain about the diamonds with the gang in the boathouse.

The new soundtrack replaced Chan's song over the closing credits with the song "Kung Fu" by the band Ash, the lyrics of which mention Jackie Chan, as well as other Asian figures and characters ubiquitous in the west.

Media

The majority of DVD versions of the film contain the heavily edited US New Line Cinema cut, with the relevant dubs created for each market. However, other versions exist, which are closer to the original theatrical release.

Warner

  • A DVD was produced by Warner Brothers HK for Hong Kong and South Korea. This contains the New Line Cinema version with additional abridged Cantonese and Mandarin soundtracks. It has an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, but includes no English subtitles.
  • Warner Home Video also released a DVD in Japan of the Hong Kong version. This version contains the Hong Kong cut of the film. The dialogue is completely undubbed in a mono 2.0. However, its aspect ratio is cropped to 1.85:1 and contains no English subtitles.
  • In Hong Kong, a VCD containing the Hong Kong version in Cantonese, with newly generated English and Chinese subtitles was also released. It's 2.35:1.

Thakral/Chinastar

It appears that a joint-distribution deal was made, with Thakral releasing the film in China, and Chinastar releasing it in Hong Kong. This version contains no credits, not even the film title, but is otherwise the Hong Kong version. There are no English subtitles and the ratio is roughly 2.10:1.

Speedy

Malaysian distributor Speedy released a VCD featuring the Cantonese/English soundtrack. The subtitles are in three languages – English, Chinese and Malay. In comparison to the Hong Kong version, it cuts footage of strong language and offensive gestures. Unlike the Hong Kong release, during a scene in which Angelo insults Keung in the car-park, he keeps his trousers up. For some dialogue scenes, it actually dubs the normally English-responding characters into Cantonese. Although the correct ratio is 2:35:1, it is distorted into roughly 1:60:1.

Funny

The film had three separate DVD releases by Taiwanese distributor Funny. Two of these DVDs feature the Taiwanese Mandarin-dubbed version with embedded subtitles. One of these contains a Dolby 5.1 soundtrack only, whilst the other contains both Dolby and DTS soundtracks. The third release is a double-sided disc, featuring the Taiwanese Mandarin dub on one side and the English-dubbed New Line Cinema version on the other. Despite containing a dubbed soundtrack, these DVDs are the only releases to contain English subtitles for a Chinese version. All three are presented in 2.35:1.

4 Film Favorites

Critical reception

When released in North America, Rumble in the Bronx received generally positive reviews, as most critics were happy that a Jackie Chan film was finally getting a wide theatrical release in North America.[7][8][9] The film currently has a 79% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[10] Most critics agreed that the plot and acting were lacking, but the action, stunts, and Chan's charm made up for it.

Roger Ebert's review for the Chicago Sun-Times was:

"Any attempt to defend this movie on rational grounds is futile. Don't tell me about the plot and the dialogue. Don't dwell on the acting. The whole point is Jackie Chan – and, like Astaire and Rogers, he does what he does better than anybody. There is a physical confidence, a grace, an elegance to the way he moves. There is humor to the choreography of the fights (which are never too gruesome). He's having fun. If we allow ourselves to get in the right frame of mind, so are we.[11]

See also

References

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  2. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113326/alternateversions?ref_=tt_ql_trv_5
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[dead link]
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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