Rumble in the Bronx is conceptually a remake of Bruce Lee’s Way of the Dragon, with Jackie Chan taking over the role of Bruce’s character. It is also one of the earlier roles Jackie had that was aimed at American audiences, and was the movie which brought him into the mainstream of English speaking action films.
Jackie plays Ma Hon Keung, a Police Officer from Hong Kong who flies over to the US to attend his Uncle’s Wedding in New York. During the wedding he offers to help Elaine at her grocery store – which she just bought from Uncle Bill. After a group of thugs come into the store trying to steal and causing trouble, Keung steps in, beats them up and teaches them a lesson.
From there the thugs do their best to teach Keung a lesson, starting fights and bashing him into a bloody pulp. But Keung bounces back and eventually teaches them all a lesson using his superior Kung Fu. But when a very dangerous group of men from an organised crime syndicate start to escalate things, after some stolen diamonds go missing, Keung must do his very best to stop them and save his friends from being killed.
A More Serious Role for Jackie Chan
Unlike his previous movies, Jackie Chan’s role is very much a serious one in Rumble in the Bronx, and it sure paid off!
Considering it was his breakthrough role for English Speaking audiences and set new Box Office records in Hong Kong, I’d say it was a smart move. While physical comedy may have made Jackie Chan’s career initially, it’s good to be reminded of Jackie physical skill in a film like this one – which I find funny as Rumble in the Bronx is a remake of Way of the Dragon, Bruce Lee’s most comedic martial arts film.
We see Jackie getting seriously hurt and seriously hurting others , but we see him very much driven toward fighting against the thugs before being forced, in desperation, to fight more dangerous criminals toward the end of the film. Knowing Chan’s ability to play a tough character, I was very happy to see him play down his lighter side for a more aggressive character.
But Jackie still manages to do some good in typical fashion, ‘teaching’ the young gangsters a lesson and changing their ways instead of merely bashing and killing them all. Along with protecting the young boy Danny, who is paralyzed from the waist down in a wheelchair, we still see the side of Jackie character that he usually tries to portray – a good guy trying to help people as opposed to merely getting angry and violent, seeking revenge.
The Action & Martial Arts
From the moment Jackie Chan exploded onto the camera with his techniques on the Wing Chun dummy, I knew he was going to show us some hard edged and fast Hong Kong style action – and I was right to think so!
It was pretty cool to see Jackie demonstrate a bit of Wing Chun, as he did study under Grandmaster Leung Ting in the late 70’s and early 80’s. He blends it very well with a hard hitting performance backed by the serious tone of the movie.
What I like about the action in this movie is that it shows Chan’s character as a vastly superior fighter, but when cornered and outnumbered, is just as vulnerable as any other great fighter – as opposed to him stepping him and taking all of them apart effortlessly. He’s only human!
Most of the fighting takes place in the first 70% of the movie, with the finale of the movie being more ‘generalized’ action which shows off Chan’s excellent ability as a stuntman. In famous Chan style he performs some dangerous stunts and jumps that are all timed precisely. Jackie even broke his ankle during one jump in this film, but as he always says – if he doesn’t hurt himself the movie usually doesn’t do well.
This sums up Jackie approach to his movies and especially Rumble in the Bronx, he pushes him self to the point of injury to bring the audiences a level of action most of the world’s best cannot. So check out this movie as it is without a doubt one of his most exciting!
On Blu Ray –
Region B (UK, Australia, New Zealand, Europe etc)
Rumble In The Bronx [Blu-ray]
On DVD –
Region 1 (US & Canada)
Rumble in the Bronx
Region 2 (UK, Europe, etc)
Rumble In The Bronx [DVD]
