Review: Shinjuku Incident

 

Pan-Asian? How 'bout Chan-Asian: bringing 'em all together...to fight.

Shinjuku Incident could go down as something of an incident itself. The pan-Asian ensemble crime thriller, headed by international superstar Jackie Chan, is the actor's first real dive into 'gritty' material (New Police Story withstanding). It's also something of a paradox, as Chan (at this point in his career) seemingly has no place in such a film but even then—as it is—Shinjuku Incident would not work any other way.

Chan plays Steelhead (could there ever be a better name?), an everyman Chinese farmer washed ashore in Japan during the wave of illegal immigration in the '90s. Searching for a former fling, he holes up with old friends and neighbors and fellow aliens in Tokyo's Shinjuku district (hence the title). Going from shit-job to shit-job, to run-ins with the police and Yakuza, Steelhead finally gives into a life of crime... In other words, Chan's persona finally gives into the darker side of things. He quickly becomes an effectual leader, his no-bull approach bringing steady, modest prosperity. This further complicates things, however, as he is deeper-ensnared within the Yakuza: nasty scraps with the Taiwanese and even a fellow Chinese. Between the Yakuza, his girlfriend(s), and the causalities of gang war, the only thing that keeps him sane is an ongoing relationship with a detective (Naoto Takenaka), a man of stand-up, old-school honor.

And old-school really is the name of the game with Shinjuku, as writer-director Derek Yee and co. make genre mistakes that are near-inexcusable by today's standards. Crime naiveté, if you will. That said, these missteps are more of the 'unintentional laugh' variety than a frustrating one and ultimately don't detract from the material. Why? Because, after all, it is a Jackie Chan movie, and our humble, oftentimes naive hero makes these bumps in the road seem natural. Maybe an unfair gimme, but a gimme nonetheless. Plus, all the familiar faces are there, giving it that homey, pre-USA Jackie-Chan-movie feel. They may be a little past their prime (Police Story was twenty-five years ago...twenty-five! No more raw intensity, no more wonderfully-choreographed action sequences, etc.), but they still know how to get the job done. Entertainment-wise, at least.

Dramatic acting is not necessarily Jackie's strong suit...he looks confused half the time, more so that he's in the movie to begin with. The long, convoluted story loses weight (and a little blood) with each new twist, and kind of falls flat at some indeterminable time. The filmmaking doesn't help, either; whip-pans are fun, but it's not enough to be called engaging, sorry. The score's inconsistent, if not all out random. And speaking of randomness—random acts of violence—I don't know what's more distressing, the brutality or the sporadicness of it. Seeing Jackie Chan shoot someone in the face was enough for me.

The lost-in-translation ending shows what Shinjuku Incident is all about: the cinematic gathering, albeit a clunky one, of the Asian continent. Showing that Chan, his Americanization and political associations aside, can still bring it all home. Pan-Asian? Nah, this is Chan-Asian.


*** out of ****

~ Patrick Fryberger