Product Description

Jackie chan is a dashing hong kong millionaire who meets a sexy young country girl and falls madly in love. But when his corporate rival howie sets a deadly suprise trap he must fight for his lady and his life. Special features: jackie chans commentary making-of featurette music video and much more. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 09/20/2005 Starring: Jackie Chan Leung Emil Run time: 99 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Vincent Kok

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24435 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2000-07-11
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Cantonese
• Subtitled in: English
• Dubbed in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 99 minutes

Amazon.com
In between the Hollywood productions Rush Hour and Shanghai Noon, Hong Kong's most popular export, Jackie Chan, returned home to indulge his romantic side in this modern fairy tale. He plays a modern Prince Charming, a big business mogul and notoriously eligible big-city bachelor to dreamy teenager Shu Qi, a girl from a Taiwan fishing village. When a heartbreaking message in a bottle washes ashore, she traces it back to Hong Kong, where she meets Jackie in the midst of a mid-ocean brawl on a luxury yacht. Hong Kong heartthrob Tony Leung has a grand time spoofing his image, playing a gay fashion photographer who "adopts" Shu Qi and helps her woo her handsome dream lover. It's a pleasant change to see 40-plus Jackie discard his usual goofy lovesick fool to play a suave swinger, but next to giggly teen Shu Qi, who proves to be a spunky and winning actress, he seems a little too mature. There are still plenty of opportunities to see Jackie in acrobatic action with a subplot involving a boyhood friend turned shady business rival, but at heart it's a sweet, silly little love song full of unabashed romantic imagery, elegant art design, snazzy fashions, and a gooey happy ending. Jackie doesn't provide his own voice in the English dubbed edition, which makes a minor dent in his charm but does little to affect the film as a whole. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

A charming family movie
*Gorgeous* may well mark a turning point in Jackie Chan's career. Under the guidance of his mentor, the late Leonard Ho, Chan had been confining himself to playing cops and adventurers in action-packed martial arts movies. But after Ho's death, he felt somewhat freer to explore new horizons, and decided to take risks with this uncharacteristic romantic comedy.

*Gorgeous* is the story of a naïve country-girl, Bu, interpreted by the brilliant and extraordinarily charming Shu Qi (the tomboy from Golden Harvest's video-gamish *Storm Riders*), who, after being lured to the city by a message in a bottle, falls in love with an aloof, self-made businessman, interpreted by Jackie Chan. The film also has a subplot involving Chan's rivalry with a less principled businessman, whose hired goons repeatedly attempt to beat Chan up.

Seduced by the script written by Vincent Kok, Chan infused the lead male character with his own personality, down to his obsession with cleanliness, his fondness for white clothes, his martial arts prowess and his name. The production designer even copied Chan's real-life office and used Chan's training equipment for the movie. (The only difference between his alter-ego and himself, Chan says, is "I don't understand Wall Street"!)

The result is a mixture of fairy-tale, reminiscent at times of the Spielberg productions of the eighties, romantic comedy, Hong Kong slapstick and martial arts movie- a kind of Chinese Disney film, benevolent, healthy and moral. Even the fight scenes are good-natured, preaching fair-play, non-violence, humility and camaraderie.

As Chan explains in his audio commentary, some critics seem not to have found him believable as a businessman. But that is no reflection on his acting abilities, which have improved a lot since the 1970s. On the contrary, I believe such remarks are motivated partly by the same kind of tunnel-vision that is hampering the movie careers of the great sitcom actors and actresses, and partly by the rarity of thoroughly good businessmen on screen. As far as I am concerned, Chan can play any kind of character (there's a Chinese architect in my script for *Spicemoon*; hint-hint) and I think he could have scrapped the martial arts altogether in *Gorgeous* and given us a full-fledged romantic comedy (even though we would have lost the wonderful fighting scenes with his extremely talented student, Brad Allan.)

If you are tired of the depravity of most modern movies, *Gorgeous* may be exactly the kind of alternative you are looking for. I strongly suggest watching the film in Cantonese with subtitles, and treating yourself to Chan's audio commentary (in English), a loose series of reminiscences about the making of the film that will give you a glimpse of Chan's wonderful generosity, candour and intelligence.

Some of his best fight scenes ever!
Up front, "Gorgeous" has an ok plot. At least we're seeing a new side of Jackie as he dons the "romantic" role. Now, to the fight scenes. These are by far some of his best ever filmed! When he takes on the four guys with the baseball bats, you'll be rewinding that for sure. But don't stop yet, as the two fight scenes with the American fighter are the ones to stick around for. The moves and speed exhibited here are amazing, and the choreography on the fight scenes are absolutely some of his best ever. The thing I really appreciated about the film was the fact that there was no bad guys in the movie. The fight scenes between Chan and the American were done with respect toward each other, and even the main villian isn't really into it to hurt Jackie. No stereotype villians here, that's for sure. A great movie!

another side of Mr. Chan
Judging from the title and the plot description I wasn't expecting this to be another Jackie Chan fight/stunt fest extravaganza. After all Jackie is pushing the age towards geezer-hood (but still in pretty good shape and fighting form). So you won't see any specatacular fight sequences or death-defying action scenes.

What you do get though is the side of Jackie you don't normally see. As he does get older he is resorting to his charm and humor in pleasing his audience (see Shanghai Noon). And you know what .......it works. His romantic persona is on display here and coupled with an equally appealing co-star this movie will please most.

Just not the action hungry fans who catch this for just that.

Tony Leung is surprisingly good as the gay make up artist who takes in Bu. And Shu Qi portrays the love-struck, naive Bu with attractiveness and an appeal missing from Hollywood's leading asian actresses.

For Chan fanatics this is a movie worth checking out to find that their star is indeed more multidimensional than his pugilistic repertoire he unleashes.