(Hong Kong 2001)

Original Title: Dak Mo Mai Sing

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Directed by Teddy Chen Produced by Jackie Chan, Raymond Chow Action by Jackie Chan, Stephen Tung Wei, Jackie Chan Stunt Steam Starring: Jackie Chan, Eric Tsang, Vivian Hsu, Kim Min Jeong, Wu Hsing Kuo, Alfred Cheung, Brad Allen, Scott Adkins, Anthony Carpio Reviewing: Kam & Ronson HK DVD Release Genres: Martial Arts / Action / Thriller

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Rating: 3.5 / 5

Kam & Ronson HK Blu-ray Synopsis: It all starts when one normal dull day, Bei (Jackie Chan) follows his instincts to trail two suspicious looking men into an alley. When he realizes that these men are robbing a jewelry store, he jumps into action to foil their plans. Soon after Bei meets Liu, a private investigator who convinces Bei that he may be the long-lost son of a rich Korean businessman. In no time, Bei is on his way to fulfill his dream of adventure and fortune travelling to Korea, and even exotic Turkey. As Bei is drawn deeper into the gameof cat and mouse, he realizes he has become the key to locating a lung cancer virus. With an assortment of characters fighting him along the way, will Bei succeed in fighting the virus himself? (108 Mins)

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Kam & Ronson HK DVD Synopsis: It all starts when one normal dull day, Bei (Jackie Chan) follows his instincts to trail two suspicious looking men into an alley. When he realizes that these men are robbing a jewelry store, he jumps into action to foil their plans. Soon after Bei meets Liu, a private investigator who convinces Bei that he may be the long-lost son of a rich Korean businessman. In no time, Bei is on his way to fulfill his dream of adventure and fortune travelling to Korea, and even exotic Turkey. As Bei is drawn deeper into the gameof cat and mouse, he realizes he has become the key to locating a lung cancer virus. With an assortment of characters fighting him along the way, will Bei succeed in fighting the virus himself? (108 Mins)

 

Universe HK DVD Synopsis: Bei, instinct-driven and well-trained in fighting, is on his way of adventure to Korea to look for his long-lost parent. With the help of a female reporter he travels to exotic Turkey where he finds a huge amount of money and meets a mysterious girl. Against an assortment of characters fighting him along the way, he finally realizes that he has become the key to locating a lung cancer virus... (108 Mins)

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Pony Canyon Japanese DVD Synopsis: Jackie Chan has become a global superstar thanks to his success in Hollywood. "There were a lot of restrictions in Hollywood, so I couldn't act to my heart's content" he says, but he has now made a comeback to Hong Kong films, drawing on all the action techniques he has developed so far and bringing his action skills to the forefront! Co-stars include Vivian Hsu, who is also popular in Japan, Kim Ming, a rising star  in the Korean film industry, and Eric Tsang, a renowned director in the Hong Kong film industry as well as other Asian films. Buck (Jackie Chan) is celebrated as a hero after he uses his special powers to predict a bank robbery and solve the case. But then a man calling himself a private detective appears before Buck, leaving behind a mysterious message about Buck's birth and then disappears. Having grown up in an orphanage without any knowing about his parents, Buck wanders between Korea, a country with a different brain than the one he was born in, Istanbul and Turkey, and before he knows it, he is caught up in a three-way conspiracy. In the midst of a swirl of inexplicable events and confusion, Buck begins his lonely battle in search of the final answer. (109 Mins)

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Views: After purchasing my second copy of this turn-of-the-century Chan flick, I felt it was only fair to return to my original review and start over again. I had initially purchased the Universe Hong Kong DVD release when The Accidental Spy first came out, during a time when the DVD market was only really kicking-off and the quality on most discs (except major Hollywood productions), were questionable at best. Of course, this is only something we have learned many years later due to digital restorations on Blu-ray, as well as newer DVD distributors which helped make my latest buy of this movie a much more positive experience. It was only a few months back that I had watched the aforementioned Universe release of which the picture isn't HD perfect by any means, with the film presented in a squashed letterbox fashion and its colors looking more than a little washed. So when I found this Kam & Ronson DVD on Ebay for only a few pounds, I jumped at the chance with that hope that their claim of it being 'Digitally Remastered' would hold up. And I have to say, I was not disappointed! Everything from the ratio and picture quality to the color was just fantastic, and while the Universe edition carries a DTS option soundtrack, the same option here actually sounded much more spectacular. It was like watching a brand new film altogether, and was probably the most I've ever enjoyed watching The Accidental Spy!

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The film opens with a brutal massacre in Turkey, as a gang of terrorists mow-down some foreign scientists and field workers. Its a violent and beautifully shot action scene that is supposed to set the overall tone of the film. But within minutes, we are introduced to Jackie's character, Bei (or Buck); a gym-equipment sales-assistant who likes to show-off to potential customers as he demonstrates how everything works. It's a light-hearted and comedic introduction to our hero and something we get sprinkled lightly throughout, although without ever distracting from the more serious side of things. After over-doing it during a sales-pitch, Jackie heads-out to lunch in a shopping-mall where he finds himself caught in the middle of a bank robbery. After a neat stunt on the escalators, Jackie takes the robbers on a wild-goose-chase as he runs-off with their loot. He soon gets chased into an elevator where we get to enjoy the first scene of Jackie in action as he ducks and dives, punches and kicks his way out (helped by the hilarious Teresa Ha Ping and her pair of pruning shears). Making a run for the roof with the robbers close behind him – and the police right behind them – Jackie is forced onto the edge. With nowhere to go, the unlikely hero takes a crazy leap onto a nearby crane that is towering over the city. As one of the robbers follows, Jackie makes his way along the arm of it; still clutching on to the bag of money as he risks his life. But when the police open-fire, the robber stumbles into the cabin of the crane and unknowingly hits some buttons that starts the arm moving in the wrong direction, much to Jackie's surprise. In yet another impressive stunt, and one of the highlights of the film, we witness Jackie hold-on for his life as the arm of the crane smashes through the side of a building, tearing through the offices and out the other side before it stops. Shocked at his survival, Jackie is then lowered down to ground-level where he is quickly hailed as a hero.

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After plenty of media attention, the great Eric Tsang makes a connection with Jackie, enticing him to take on a mission that directs him to Korea with the possibility of finding his real father. It's from here, that the film starts to get quite dark – which is even more noticeable after its previous action scene – and comes across more like a thriller with its cold-blue filter, darkened shots, and serious melodrama. After finding a man in a hospital who he suspects may be his father, Jackie soon encounters a gang of terrorists that have taken interest in the very same man. This leads to a cool fight scene in the hospital ward and (random but decent) car chase after that. It isn't long before Jackie starts finding more clues in his adventure which takes him to Turkey, allowing for more exotic locations and inventive action scenes that thankfully take us away from the bleak setting of the Korean winter. As the clues and mystery continue, Jackie soon finds himself up against a group of Turkish terrorists who are in search of 'the thing'. That fucking 'thing' that every bad guy wants, yet nobody knows what they are asking for – except 'that thing'. The 'thing' of course, is a new form of Anthrax which Jackie just happens to have in his possession!

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Thankfully, this trip to Turkey comes with a number of cool action sequences, including the fun skirmish with the taxi-drivers and the highly memorable fight in the Turkish bathhouse, spilling out to the marketplace where a naked Jackie must use everything available to keep his bits out of view (although still managing to throw a punch or kick whenever he can). This fight is a lot of fun, and definitely proves to be one of the more 'Jackie Chan' moments of The Accidental Spy, but it doesn't take long to get thrust back into Teddy's dark world of terrorism and espionage as Jackie gets taken hostage by the Turkish fighters, forced to fight his way out in a violent and bloody gun-fight. It does make for an intense getaway, but the flip-flop of the moods and tone did start to annoy me. It's like a big budgeted Godfrey Ho movie at times, and I don't mean that it's terrible – I just mean it can start to feel a tad messy. Even the fights seem a little lazy at times (although not all disappointing), and none more-so than the last fight with the late Brad Allen in the back of a convertible. Its hardly anything as exciting as their fights in Gorgeous and plays more like a game of 'slappy-hands', which is a damn shame. This leads to the films big finale, which is another highlight of The Accidental Spy, although something that had become all to common of Jackie's movies from this period – trading a good old fist-to-foot showdown for a big vehicle stunt! Having crashed the convertible into the back of an oil tanker, Jackie must rescue the driver and his family from the burning truck, and all while keeping the huge vehicle moving so that the flames don't race up the tank and cause an explosion. Its a pretty big stunt and very well executed that (finally) brings a bit more excitement to the film, with Jackie executing one of his finest stunts that sees him swinging from some construction netting on a bridge after leaping from the burning truck, before he hits the dirt hard. Impressive yes, but definitely not enough to make The Accidental Spy sit strong in Jackie Chans top-ten.

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I suppose in hindsight, before they had went into production, Golden Harvest should really have decided that The Accidental Spy was either going to be more like Jackie's fantastic dark-thriller, Shinjuku Incident, or like a Stanley Tong directed globe-trotting adventure like First Strike or Kung Fu Yoga. Teddy Chen is one of those directors that (for me) often delivers films that prove to be entertaining, yet never seem to nail it. Before this, Chen had directed straight-forward action films Downtown Torpedoes and Purple Storm, both of which had their moments but just never did wow me. Thankfully, The Accidental Spy helped bump him up another level and genuinely offers quality entertainment (even with it's few flaws) and went onto win the awards for Best Film Editing and Best Action Choreography at the 21st Hong Kong Film Awards, with Stephen Tung Wai and the Jackie Chan Stunt Team working their magic on the latter. Interestingly enough, Tung Wai had worked with Chen as the action-choreographer of both those movies, with both teaming up again for Donnie Yen's awesome Bodyguards & Assassins and the hugely underrated Double World, which I really enjoyed.

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It's worth noting that while he only has 12 directing credits behind him in almost 30 years, Teddy Chen has been acting in Hong Kong films since 1986, and was working as an assistant director even earlier than that on films such as Man On The Brink, Once Upon A Mirage, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, as well as classics like The Legend Of Wisely, I Love Maria, and A Chinese Ghost Story 2. Joining Jackie and Eric Tsang is the beautiful Vivian Hsu who made her debut in the fun Shaolin Popeye with Jimmy Lin before going on to star with him again in Chivalrous Legend and Heavenly Legend, as well as other Kevin Chu movies such as Hunting List, Super Mischieves, and A Tale Of Rascal. Roles with Yuen Biao in Dragon From Shaolin and Tony Leung Chiu Wai in Your Place Or Mine would take her up to The Accidental Spy, with Hsu going on to star in films like One Last Dance, Fire Of Conscience, The Sorcerer & The White Snake, Warriors Of The Rainbow 1 & 2, and Rhythm Of The Rain through to present day. Wu Hsing Guo, Kim Min Jeong, Alfred Cheung, and Vincent Kwok also appear throughout as well as the aforementioned Brad Allen, Paul Andreovski, Eric Lee, Rocky Lai, Jack Wong, and a young Scott Adkins who all get to relish in the films many action scenes and help with the choreography as part of Jackie's team.

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Just to note though – avoid the US cut and dubbed version at all costs, which has been cut by 20 minutes, re-edited, re-scored, and badly dubbed with some new plot points. Aim for the original 108 minute HK release (more-so the Kam & Ronson DVD if something even better isn't already available) for the best version, and be sure to keep watching after the fun out-takes during the credits (with a theme song by Jackie Chan and Jacky Cheung) for a post-credit scene that shows Jackie continuing his role as a spy. Given it's success, The Accidental Spy should have led to a sequel, but nothing ever came of it unfortunately with the film proving to be last production Jackie would make for Golden Harvest. Of course, this is a shame as I'd like to have seen where they would have took it from here...

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Overall: While it has a few flaws, The Accidental Spy was something a little different for Chan fans at the time, and still proves to be highly entertaining today!

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Universe DVD Extras: Stars bio's, Making of Documentary, Trailers

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Kam & Ronson DVD Extras: N/A

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Pony Canyon DVD Extras: Bonus Video, Making of Documentary, Trailers