The Shinjuku Incident

I started watching The Shinjuku Incident without knowing much about it (as usual). So I expected it to be the usual stuff from Jackie Chan. But it's nothing like his other films at all. There's virtually no humour or kung-fu. This is a very serious, and very violent, film.

Chan plays an illegal immigrant to Japan from China who gets mixed up in all sorts of criminal activities. There are parts where we see conflict between his honest core beliefs and the blatant criminality that he somehow justifies to himself.

I would have liked to have seen more emphasis on that dilemma... maybe it didn't exist; maybe he was just a bad man... it's hard to tell from most of the film, despite early displays of honesty and honour.

It was good to see Jackie Chan doing some serious acting (I guess Karate Kid was fairly serious, but this is grown up serious). He does well. Better than many of the other actors, who come across as caricature villains... particularly the Japanese.

Overall though, this is a decent film. Interesting.