DVD Movie Rating for: Twin Dragons - Jackie Chan

3 out of 5 stars

Movie Plot of: Twin Dragons - Jackie Chan

On holidays in Hong Kong, Mrs Ma gives birth to identical twins. A criminal in the same hospital attempts to escape, taking one of the twins hostage. The child is lost during the confusion, and Mr and Mrs Ma return to New York with one child. Years later, John Ma is a famous conductor and pianist, unaware that his twin brother "Boomer" is a mechanic/race car driver/bodyguard in Hong Kong. When John travels to Hong Kong to give a concert, the twins get caught up in each other's business, about which they are anything but experts.

Twins, separated at birth, end up as a Hong Kong gangster and a New York concert pianist. When the pianist travels to Hong Kong for a concert, the two inevitably get mistaken for each other. Martial-arts action hijinks and slapstick bedroom farce results.

DVD Production Details of: Twin Dragons - Jackie Chan

Starring: Jackie Chan, Maggie Cheung

Director: Hark Tsui, Ringo Lam

Format: Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby

Studio: Dimension Home Video

DVD Release Date: April 8, 2003

DVD Easter Eggs

Cast of the movie: Twin Dragons - Jackie Chan

• Jackie Chan.... Ma Yau/Die Hard (John Ma/Boomer in US version)
• Maggie Cheung.... Barbara
• Nina Li Chi .... Tammy
• Teddy Robin Kwan .... Tarzan (Tyson in US Version) (as Teddy Robin)
• Anthony Chan .... Hotel Staffer
• Philip Chan .... Hotel Manager
• Sylvia Chang .... Twins' Mother
• Alfred Cheung .... Boss Wing
• Chi Leung 'Jacob' Cheung .... Cashier
• Tung Cho 'Joe' Cheung .... Orchestra Member
• David Chiang .... Hotel Security (as John Keung)
• Ringo Lam .... Car Mechanic
• Chia-Liang Liu .... Doctor
• Guy Lai .... Gang Leader (as Lai Ying Chow)
• Jamie Luk .... Rocky

Photo Gallery of the movie: Twin Dragons - Jackie Chan

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Twin Dragons

Reviews of the movie: Twin Dragons - Jackie Chan

Jackie Chan resurrects the old Corsican Brothers chestnut of identical twin brothers separated at birth who meet up as adults and discover that they share more than blood ties. Poor boy Chan is a mechanic and race-car driver whose black-market activities have made him the target of some nasty mobsters, while jet-setting Chan is a world-famous conductor back in Hong Kong for a concert. In the same vicinity for the first time in years, they can suddenly feel each other's pain, and more. As one Chan jumps a jet boat for a wild escape, the other becomes a spastic victim of the furious ride, thrown around a posh restaurant while drenching his date with drinking water. Though the American cut has been pared of the worst of Chan's incessant mugging (it's about 12 minutes shorter than the original version), it's still overloaded with silly slapstick and cartoonish mistaken-identity gags as the boys swap girlfriends and dance. But wade through the crude comedy and you're rewarded with a gymnastic free-for-all climax in a car-testing workshop, where Chan leaps over, under, and through cars while taking on an army of gangsters before split-screen brothers team up for a bit of marionette martial arts. Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam codirect, Tsui taking the comedy and Lam handling the action, and John Woo makes a cameo as a priest in the wedding finale

A Great Action and Comedy Film
Rating: 9-`A must see for everyone who is a fan of the genre. Anyone seriously or casually interested in film should enjoy it or at least find something interesting about it.'

In Jackie Chan and Jackie Chan's film, Twin Dragons, he displays his ability to stretch while at the same time, provides us with an ample dose of the high quality Hong-Kong action style combined with humor that he's known for.

Chan plays two twins separated at birth. The opening scenes, establishing the premise, are shot in black and white and give the impression of a delightful mock of the Hong Kong style. One Chan grows up in European Culture and becomes a conductor and concert pianist, the other Chan-`adopted' as a baby through a finders-keepers method by a prostitute, grows up in a more street-wise culture in Hong Kong.

The rest of the plot is fairly predictable, but you don't go to a Jackie Chan movie to see an innovative, complex plot. You go to see martial arts ballets, filled with thrilling action, acrobatics and humor, and Twin Dragons delivers on that promise as well if not better than any other Chan film. There isn't as much mass destruction, perhaps, as Rumble in the Bronx (most likely because they didn't have the budget of Rumble in the Bronx), but mass destruction, pleasant as it is, isn't a necessary ingredient.

The twins idea provides even more humor than you usually get from Chan. Twin Dragons works as well as a straight comedy as it does as an action film. The complications involving each Jackie's female companion are especially funny (and both women are gorgeous to watch). And in addition to all the other elements, directors Ringo Lam and Hark Tsui are masters at creating tension in those scenes.

Other scenes that are particularly funny include the street-wise Chan conducting an orchestra, complete with martial arts moves and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth; a fight with a Chinese biker in a department store; and the conductor Chan unwillingly throwing fits and water on his girlfriend in a restaurant. Which brings up another wonderful comic idea in Twin Dragons-many of the movements that one Chan makes are psychically mimicked by the other Chan. The streetwise Chan can't figure out why his fingers keep moving as if he's playing piano and the conductor Chan is able to fight at a crucial moment. Of course, this idea is not very realistic, but it's not supposed to be. It's supposed to be funny, and it is.

I was dreading curmudgeonly film critics watching this film and complaining about its unbelievability, but I was pleasantly relieved at the reaction of the audience I watched Twin Dragons with. There were as many laughs in the theater as there were in There's Something About Mary, and it seemed that most people were on the edge of their seats for the action sequences.

I hope that the American theatrical release of this film-after 9 years-is a sign that we'll be getting more Hong Kong films in the future.

Recommendation: This is a must see for Jackie Chan fans as well as fans of Hong Kong films, action, or comedy in general. Most others should enjoy it as well.