Shanghai Knights

Release Date: February 7, 2003

Watch Date: April 26 – April 27, 2023

 

    I am one of the many people of the opinion that it is incredibly rare, and nigh on impossible, for a sequel to be as good as the original, and Shanghai Knights does not, unfortunately prove me wrong. But I want to be clear here that just because it’s not better than ‘Noon’ does not mean that it is in any way a bad movie.

    ‘Knights’ is just as fun and action-filled as the first one. There are still plenty of laughs, though a little bit too many nods and references to actual people all interacting in one place. Chon is still amazing at kicking butt and mugging, and Roy is still able to talk his way out of anything and despite being a generally terrible guy, still maintain his friendships, come out on top, and get the girl.

    There’s a few plot points that don’t make a ton of sense to me. Roy has apparently lost all of their money from the first movie self-publishing a series of novels about their ‘adventures’, real or imagined, in which Chon is portrayed as the goofy sidekick. Though this seems to bother Chon, they never really hash it out in any meaningful way, which is extremely different from the emotional tone of the last movie where, when they disagreed or hurt each other there were actual consequences and an airing of grievances that weren’t immediately solved by a pillow fight. But Roy says his novels were second only to the bible, and everyone seems to know about them, so how did he lose all his money, how did he have nothing to show for it?

    The other major flaw that they try to handwave away is the romantic interests of our two male characters. Princess Pei Pei is apparently working in San Francisco, and while Chon is loyal waiting for her to return, they don’t seem to be pursuing an active relationship. It’s a little sad, but at least it makes sense and is addressed. Chon references, momentarily, that Roy is living in New York, married and rich, and while the rich part is easily explained away we’re immediately shown that Roy is not married, so how Chon got that impression and what happened to the indigenous woman Roy ends the previous movie with I couldn’t tell you. She’s never brought up again, and the questions are never answered, because they needed Roy to be single and able to pursue Chon’s sister Lin. But they didn’t need to include that Roy was married at all, because by doing so they just give me more questions than they do answers.

    I think the previous villains were stronger, in that they had an actual grudge, were much more intimidating, and there was the whole slave labor thing, which tends to make a person feel a lot more evil just by default. Still, Rathbone was a serious threat for most of the film, and was able to throw his weight around and make his presence known, so he wasn’t exactly an impotent baddie, I just preferred the original.

    Now, Bob and I like to play a game called ‘spot the racism’ with the older Disney movies. Usually this is because we get a warning that there will be racist content, so we like to determine what made Disney decide the warning label was worth it. In these newer movies, you don’t really get that label. Bob even lamented at the beginning of this film that our days of playing ‘spot the racism’ were soon to be over. And then Jackie Chan put on a turban and started shaking his head while looking doe eyed at people to pretend he was from India. So no, I don’t think our little game will ever go away.

    All in said, this is still a fun watch that I wouldn’t have a problem popping some popcorn, cuddling up on the couch and putting on after a long day of work. It will make you laugh, and that’s really all it’s meant to be doing, taking you on a wild ride that makes you smile. Junk food for the soul. And we could all use a little junk food every once and awhile.