Cast: Jackie Chan, Naoto Takenaka, Daniel Wu, Xu Jingle, Bingbing Fan, Lam Suet, Masaya Kato; Director: Derek Yee; Producers: Willie Chan, Solon Su, Jackie Chan; Screenwriters: Derek Yee, Tin Nam Chun; Music: Peter Kam; Editor: Ka-Fai Cheung, Chi-Leung Kwong, Man To Tang; Genre: Action/ Drama; Cinematography: Nobuyasa Kita; Distributor: Emperor Motion Pictures; Location: China, Tokyo (Japan); Running Time: 114 min.;Technical Assessment: 3
Moral Assessment: 2.5
CINEMA Rating: For mature viewers 18 and above
Steelhead (Jackie Chan) lands in Japan’s Wakasa Bay with hundreds of illegal Chinese immigrants in search for a better life in the 90’s when China’s economy was far from being robust. But Steelhead, a simple farm worker from a remote Northeastern Chinese village, heads for Tokyo for the primary purpose of searching for his long lost girlfriend Xiu Xiu (Jinglei Xu). In the Shinjuku redlight district, he joins other illegal refugees including Jie (Daniel Wu) and Old Ghost (Suet Lam) who show him the ropes to survive in the harsh environment. They manage to do so by indulging in petty crime and taking on grueling work that no Japanese is willing to do. They learn to steer away from immigration officers as well as notorious gangs. Naturally kind, Steelhead saves a cop Inspector Kitamo (Naoto Tasenaka) from death and develops an unlikely friendship with him. He finds out that his girl friend Xiu Xiu has taken a Japanese name and is married to a rising Japanese Yakuza gangster Eguchi (Masaya Kato). In the turf wars between the different Japanese crime lords, the illegal immigrants are enmeshed. By a twist of fate, Steelhead saves the life of Eguchi, Xiu Xiu’s husband. Later, Eguchi takes Steelhead under his wing. In acquiescing to live a life of crime, Steelhead intends to improve the lives of his fellow refugees. How will each one fare in the new set-up?
Being a Jackie Chan film and directed by well-known Derek Yee, Skinjuku Incident (also titled San Suk Si Gin or Xin Su Shi Jian in Chinese) was the most awaited picture in the Hongkong International Film Festival held in the summer of 2009. It did not disappoint his fans but it presents an entirely different Jackie Chan from the usual superhuman persona that his admirers had always expected of him. There is no clowning around as Jackie demolishes the bad guys. Yes, there is the quick thinking with the equally quick deadly strokes but the display of his usual martial arts prowess is not as sensational as in his previous films. The movie has a lot of action, excessively violent and gory in some parts, especially involving the well choreographed gang wars. But this is primarily a somber, realistic drama with a serious protagonist. In his first more dramatic role, Jackie may have had limited success with his morally ambiguous character but it is still his movie and he does adequately well. Initially cowardly, Daniel Wu’s Jie almost upstages Jackie with his adept character transformation. As in most Chan movies, the women do not have much to do except look beautiful. The movie tries to put in several sub-plots perhaps to project multiple messages but the introduction of such is haphazardly done and proves unwieldy.
In Shinjuku Incident, Jackie Chan deviates from his usual lighthearted entertainment fare. It presents the harsh conditions in the lives of the Chinese illegal immigrants in Japan and in a way celebrates their undying spirit of trying to adapt to these grim realities in order to better their lives. It projects how the refugees try to unite to improve each one’s lot and to forge a strong community by helping one another. Portraying strength in solidarity, determination and compassion, the film, however, also projects betrayal and self interest. It shows how quick success and power ca change and corrupt even basically simple, good hearted people and bring out selfishness and disunity that weaken the community and make each one vulnerable again to discrimination and exploitation. Jackie Chan’s Steelhead remains unselfish and never wavers from his goal of improving the lives of his countrymen but one cannot agree with some of the ways he uses to achieve his goal. For instance, he did not hesitate to kill for a deal to secure legality of status and wrest power from a rival Taiwanese gang. The cruel and gruesome torture methods of the gangs graphically shown as well as other excessive and shocking in your-face type of violence are not images that the viewers should be exposed very early in life. Repeatedly imbibed subliminally, such exposure may desensitize the viewers to violence. Immature minds may be ill-prepared to handle and properly understand the adult themes.
