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Rumble in the Bronx

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Rumble in the Bronx
File:Rumble in the bronx.jpg
Rumble in the Bronx theatrical poster
Directed byStanley Tong
Written byEdward Tang
Fibe Ma
Produced byBarbie Tung
Roberta Chow
Raymond Chow
Leonard Ho
StarringJackie Chan
Anita Mui
Françoise Yip
Marc Akerstream
CinematographyJingle Ma
Edited byPeter Cheung
Music byWong Chung Yin
Distributed by- USA -
New Line Cinema
- UK/Australia -
Hollywood Pictures
Release date
January 21, 1995
Running time
91 minutes
CountriesHong Kong
Canada
United States
LanguagesMandarin, Cantonese and English
BudgetUS$ 7,5 million
Box officeUS$ 32,392,047 (Domestic)

Rumble in the Bronx (紅番區; Hong faan kui in Cantonese) is a 1995 Hong Kong martial arts-action film starring Jackie Chan and the late Anita Mui. Released in the US in 1996, 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.

Plot

Keung (Jackie Chan), a Hong Kong cop comes to New York to attend the wedding of his Uncle Bill (Bill Tung) who introduces his new wife to him down at his supermarket, which he owns and is in the process of selling to Elaine (Anita Mui). Uncle's friend, Steven Lo, loans him a vintage automobile for the wedding. Later that night, a street gang starts a motorcycle race near Uncle Bill's apartment. They are about to run over his friend's car until Keung jumps down and stops them. He soon starts a rivalry with the street gang when he drives them away from the supermarket that they were robbing and vandalizing. When a member of the street gang named Angelo (Garvin Cross) gets involved in an illegal diamond deal gone bad and steals the diamonds, the small-time gangsters become the victims of a much larger criminal syndicate, and Keung agrees to help their leader, Tony (Marc Akerstream). Keung convinces the street gangsters to reform, then brings the big-time criminals to justice.

Cast

Box office

In Hong Kong, Rumble in the Bronx earned HK $56,911,136 making it the biggest film of the year in Hong Kong 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

Injuries

During the course of the film, Jackie Chan pulled off his usual death-defying stunts, consequently injured his leg. 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 hadn't completely healed when he went on to shoot his next film, Thunderbolt (filmed the same year but released earlier). 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 Chan on an airplane to New York was added to the opening credits. Two scenes added exclusively for this edit are Keung and Nancy escaping from the night-club, and White Tiger taking a golf shot before his man 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 gang members extort some money, and then steal some items from beside the cash register.
  • A scene where Uncle Bill and his wife sing a lament in Chinese at their wedding.
  • Keung doing more exercises (before he rolls into a headstand).
  • A lecture by Keung on Martial Arts after fighting off the biker gang.
  • An entire scene In the morning after the night of the alley ambush, where Keung travels to a market to find it's been robbed by some youths. Simultaneously, the two gangsters return to extort money, only to be scared off by Keung. Immediately after, the entire biker gang show up but Keung is intimidated and instead calls the police (this scene is restored in the US cable version).
  • Some escapism moves during the fight with the biker gang at their turf.
  • On the car-park roof top, Keung begs for someone's help, but is scared away.
  • More angles of the car-park jump are shown.
  • The long haired thug asking Keung if he's seen any diamonds.
  • Two cops waiting for Angelo in their car as he attempts to retrieve the diamonds.
  • A full scene (after a thug is "shredded" through machinery). 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 key figures from Hong Kong cinema.

Last night Jackie Chan came around,
I played pool with him and we hung out.

It has been reported that the American Movie Channel aired some of these scenes during their broadcast of the film.[citation needed]

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. It has a ratio of roughly 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, 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 Malaysian. 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 imbedded 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.

Critical reception

When released in North America, Rumble in the Bronx received generally good reviews, as most critics were happy that a Jackie Chan film was finally getting a wide theatrical release in North America. The film currently has a 78% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and 81% among the 'Cream of the Crop.'[1] 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.[2]

See also

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