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The Medallion

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The Medallion
Theatrical release poster
Directed byGordon Chan
Written byGordon Chan
Alfred Cheung
Bennett Davlin
Paul Wheeler
Bey Logan
Produced byAlfred Cheung
StarringJackie Chan
Lee Evans
Claire Forlani
Julian Sands
CinematographyArthur Wong
Edited byDon Brochu
Chan Ki-hop
Music byAdrian Lee
Steve Porcaro
Production
company
Distributed byTriStar Pictures
Release dates
August 15, 2003 (2003-08-15)
(Hong Kong)
August 22, 2003
(United States)
Running time
88 minutes
CountriesTemplate:Film Hong Kong
Template:Film US
LanguageEnglish
Budget$41 million
Box office$34,268,701

The Medallion (Chinese: 飛龍再生) is a 2003 action-comedy film co-written and directed by Hong Kong filmmaker Gordon Chan, and starring Jackie Chan, Lee Evans, and Claire Forlani. It was much less successful than Chan's other American movies such as the Rush Hour film series, Shanghai Noon and its sequel, Shanghai Knights.

Plot

Eddie Yang (Jackie Chan) is a Hong Kong police officer cooperating with Interpol in the capture of a crime lord named AJ "Snakehead" Staul. The film begins with Snakehead (Julian Sands) himself buying an ancient book from a Chinese bookstore keeper. The book tells the story of a boy being chosen every thousand years, to bind the two halves of a legendary medallion. Snakehead begins searching for the boy, who has recently been chosen. In Hong Kong, a team of Interpol agents, led by Agent Arthur Watson (Lee Evans), are preparing to capture Snakehead and his men, who are planning to kidnap the boy. Eddie and the Interpol agents fight Snakehead's men inside a temple where the boy, named Jai, is kept. Jai is saved but Snakehead and his men escape. Two weeks later, Jai is captured and is held aboard a cargo boat in Hong Kong. Eddie and a team of Hong Kong Police agents engage and defeat several of Snakehead's men, but he and a few others escape with Jai to Dublin.

In Ireland, Eddie is assigned to help Interpol with the investigation, much to Watson's chagrin. Eddie is also reunited with his girlfriend, a British agent named Nicole James (Claire Forlani). Eddie later encounters one of Snakehead's top men, quite by chance. After catching him, he confesses Jai is being held in the harbour. Eddie, Watson, and Nicole move to rescue Jai, defeating several Snakehead agents in the process. Eddie and Jai end up trapped inside a container, which is knocked into the water by one of Snakehead's men before they can be released. Jai is kept alive by an inflatable tent, but Eddie drowns. After being rescued, Jai uses his medallion on Eddie's body. In the morgue, Watson is grieving over Eddie's body when he suddenly appears beside him. Eddie realises Jai used the medallion to resurrect him, and his former body vanishes into nothingness. Jai splits the medallion into its two halves, giving one of them to Eddie. Snakehead's men appear in the hospital to recapture Jai and during the fight, Eddie discovers the medallion has also granted him superhuman strength and immortality.

Jai is captured again by Snakehead. He is forced to use the medallion on Snakehead, but with only one half of it, he gains superhuman strength but is still mortal. Snakehead and his men attack Wastson's family and steal the other half of the medallion. Eddie, Watson and Nicole learn Snakehead's hideout is in a castle called "Raven's Keep" and go to finish him once and for all. The operation runs smoothly at first, but Snakehead kills Nicole and has become immortal. He and Eddie engage in a vicious fight, until Eddie used the medallion to take away the life it gave; Snakehead is destroyed by it. Jai allows Eddie to use the medallion to resurrect Nicole, who also gains super-strength and immortality. The two run off into the distance, and Jai enters a portal to another world.

Cast

Original plot and conception

The working title of the film was "Highbinders". In the original plot of the film, those who were given power by the medallion became a Highbinder. Snakehead's original goal in the film was to create an army of Highbinders to join in his crime organization.

According to the commentary by the editors, "The Medallion" was not American-made, although Columbia-TriStar bought the distribution and editing rights worldwide except in Japan, France, and Hong Kong (but these three countries retain the American cut of the film, the only cut ever made). The original cut was meant to be around 108 minutes, and the plot of the film explained Snakehead's crime organization of human smuggling, and the deaths that occurred from it, as well as his desire to create an army of Highbinders to aide his crime organization. All of this, however, was cut to center on the medallion.

Over 20 minutes of these deleted scenes can be viewed on the US DVD.

Reception

Box office

In its US release, The Medallion was #5 at the box office on its opening weekend and fell steadily lower during its 10-week release. Overall, it has earned $22.2 million, ranking #42 among all martial arts films released in the US and eighth among the Jackie Chan films distributed in the US.[1]

Critical reception

The film fared poorly with critics and has a 18% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[2]

Fan reception

Some critics and fans of Jackie Chan were disappointed by the use of CGI special effects and extensive wire-based choreography in place of the daring stunts usually present in Chan's previous films and were turned off by the desire to achieve Hollywood-level results with a lower budget.[citation needed]

Awards and nominations

References

  1. ^ The Medallion at Box Office Mojo (retrieved on December 3, 2006).
  2. ^ The Medallion at Rotten Tomatoes (retrieved on December 3, 2006).
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