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Rumble in the Bronx
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Wikipedia article
{{Infobox film
| name = Rumble in the Bronx
| image = Rumble-in-the-Bronx-poster.jpg
| caption = 'Rumble in the Bronx' Hong Kong theatrical poster
| alt =
| director = Stanley Tong
| producer = Barbie Tung
| writer = Edward Tang
Fibe Ma
| screenplay =
| story =
| based_on =
| starring =
| narrator =
| music = J. Peter Robinson (US version)
Nathan Wang (HK version)
| cinematography = Jingle Ma
| editing = Peter Cheung
| studio = Paragon Films Ltd.
| distributor = Golden Harvest
| released =
| runtime = 106 minutes (HK version)
90 minutes (US version)
| country = Hong Kong
| language =
| budget =
| gross =
}}
'Rumble in the Bronx' (Chinese title: , 'Hong Faan Kui' (transl. 'Red Turn District') is a 1995 Hong Kong martial arts film starring Jackie Chan, Anita Mui and Franoise Yip. It was directed by Stanley Tong, with action choreographed by Chan and Tong. Released in Hong Kong in 1995, 'Rumble in the Bronx' had a successful worldwide theatrical run, and brought Chan into the North American mainstream. The film is set in the Bronx area of New York City, but was filmed in and around Vancouver, Canada. The film grossed worldwide against a budget, making it the most profitable film of 1996.
Plot
Ma Hon Keung (, M Hnqing), a Hong Kong cop arrives at New York to attend the wedding of his Uncle Bill. When he arrives, he meets Danny ('Morgan Lam'), a disabled Chinese-American boy who is Bill's neighbor. Uncle Bill owns the Wa-Ha Supermarket in The Bronx, an area with a high level of crime. Unbeknownst to Keung, Bill's market is a victim of frequent shoplifting and a protection racket, and he is desperate to sell it. Bill meets a potential buyer, Elaine who is reluctant to buy it for Bill's price. Nonetheless, Bill invites Elaine to his wedding. At the wedding, Keung helps negotiate a deal that convinces Elaine to buy the market. Elaine actually buys the supermarket before coming to the wedding, and Keung is simply offering his help in transitioning just before Bill and his wife leave for their honeymoon. One day, members of a local biker gang led by Tony attempt to shoplift many goods from the Wa-Ha market, but Keung thwarts and beats them. Later that night, Keung thwarts some gangsters from abducting a woman. When Keung "rescues" her, she attacks him, revealing a ploy to lure him into a spot where Tony's gang attacks him again for revenge (this time with Tony present). The gang corners Keung into a dead-end alleyway, then severely injures him with glass bottles.
Afterwards, Keung almost makes it back to his Uncle's apartment, but not before fainting in front of Nancy, who is Tony's girlfriend and the woman who lured Keung earlier. It is revealed that Nancy is Danny's neglectful older sister. She fixes Keung's wounds upon realizing that he and Danny are friends. Danny informs Keung about Nancy's help the next morning, but Keung still doesn't know that Nancy was the one who lured him. Later, Keung goes to the market to inform Elaine that he lost the contract (during the alleyway brawl with the gang). Elaine tells Keung about her desire to back out of the deal upon realizing how often the market is a victim of theft and a protection racket. Later, Tony and his gang come back to the store, demanding "compensation" for Keung hurting them earlier. Elaine gives in to their demand, and they rob and vandalize the store. Keung confronts them outside, and tells the gang that he's the boss of the store and that he has called the police on them. The gang disperses upon the police's arrival. Later, Tony and his gang attempt to chase down Keung for revenge, which leads to Keung making a daring escape by jumping from the roof of a parking garage to a fire escape on a building across the street.
Later, a member of Tony's gang named Angelo gets involved in an illegal diamond deal gone bad and steals the diamonds for himself. A mobster leader with the alias "White Tiger" ('Kris Lord') is after the diamonds. Keung and Danny witness some of the carnage, then run inside for safety, leaving Danny's wheelchair in the apartment hallway. Unable to hide from the mobsters and cops, Angelo stuffs the diamonds in Danny's wheelchair cushion. The police arrive, arresting some of the syndicate members along with Angelo. However, the police eventually let them all go due to a lack of evidence. Meanwhile, at Danny and Nancy's apartment, Nancy eavesdrops on a conversation between Keung and Danny, where she listens to Danny talk about the emotional difficulty of being disabled. Upon hearing this, she comes out into the living room and tearfully apologizes to Keung and Danny. Keung now realizes that Nancy was the woman who lured him into the gang ambush the other day, but decides to let it go. Meanwhile, Elaine tries to sell the market to another couple, using the same lies and tactics that Uncle Bill used to convince her. Keung witnesses this, and gives her his half of the market sale back, asking that she only pay him back once she makes money. Later that evening, Keung goes out, but not before the mobsters (who are posing as FBI agents) question him about the diamonds.
They give Keung a number to call if he finds anything. Keung visits Nancy at a nightclub, where she works a lingerie dancer and model. When the gangsters see Keung and Nancy together, they give chase, but fail after Nancy knocks over the gangsters' motorcycles. Keung advises her to stay away from Tony's gang and to look after Danny. A romantic relationship develops between them. After failing to confront Keung, the bikers trash Elaine's supermarket again. During the commotion, White Tiger's men kidnap two of Tony's men to interrogate them about Angelo's whereabouts. Angelo's friends are unaware of his involvement and whereabouts. The mobsters execute one of the gangsters in a tree-shredder. Meanwhile, Keung and Nancy go to the bikers' headquarters after the latest supermarket attack, and Keung defeats them in another brawl. Keung berates and insults the gang for their criminal lifestyle and urges them to change for the better. Immediately after, one of the gangsters comes back to the hideout, with the executed gangster's remains, which he reveals was a warning to return the goods that Angelo stole. Keung agrees to help Tony and his gang find Angelo. Keung contacts the syndicate (which he thought was the FBI) after they find Angelo.
Angelo reveals that he hid the diamonds in Danny's wheelchair. The mobsters take Tony, Angelo, and Nancy hostage while the rest force Keung to look for the diamonds at Danny and Nancy's apartment. Keung eventually subdues the mobsters after they find the diamonds. When White Tiger calls one of the gangsters, Keung takes the cell phone and reveals that he has his diamonds and his thugs held hostage. White Tiger tells him that he'll arrange an exchange and warns him not to contact the police. Keung makes Danny wait at school for his own safety. After the other mobsters fail to return, one of them forces Tony to tell him of Keung's whereabouts. Tony declares that Keung is the owner of the Wa-Ha supermarket. Keung goes to Elaine for advice, but later, the syndicate's thugs destroy the supermarket with a tow truck as a warning to Keung. Keung calls the police for help. They give Keung recording equipment and instruct him to just show the gangsters one diamond, and to try to get the gang to talk about the murder and robbery. However, during their meeting, Keung reveals that he knows of the name "White Tiger", causing the syndicate men realize that Keung is working with the police. They take Keung to a secluded place to have him executed. But before they can execute him, Keung overpowers them and escapes. Later, the police come and chase the gangsters away. White Tiger's men commandeer a hovercraft into the Hudson River, with Keung and the New York Police Department in hot pursuit. The hovercraft ends up running through the streets, causing much damage to property, including cop cars. The hovercraft seems unstoppable. Keung ends the chase by stealing a large sword from a museum, clamping it on a Lamborghini Countach and driving to the hovercraft, shredding the rubber skirt and crashing the vehicle. Keung forces them to reveal White Tiger's location, then drives the repaired hovercraft to a golf course where White Tiger is playing. He runs over White Tiger, leaving him naked on the ground.
Notes
Cast
* Jackie Chan as Ma Hon Keung (T: , S: , P: 'M Hnqing')
* Anita Mui as Elaine
* Franoise Yip as Nancy
* Bill Tung as Uncle Bill Ma (T: , S: , J: maa5 piu3, P: 'M Pio')
* Marc Akerstream as Tony, leader of the gang
* Garvin Cross as Angelo
* Morgan Lam as Danny
* Kris Lord as White Tiger, the syndicate boss
* Carrie Cain Sparks as Whitney Ma
* Elliot Ngok (Yueh Hua) as Walter Wah, the Realtor (T: , S: ) ('credited as Elly Leung')
* Eddy Ko as Prospective market buyer
* Emil Chau as Ice cream salesman
* Alex To as Ice cream customer
* Jordan Lennox as Jordan, a syndicate member with glasses
* John Sampson as a syndicate member with a mustache who Keung knocks in the water in the boathouse
* Richard Faraci as a syndicate member with a ponytail who Keung subdues in Danny's apartment
* Gabriel Ostevic as Gabriel, a syndicate member who Keung subdues in Danny's apartment
* Terry Howsen as a syndicate member in a black suit
* Mark Fielding as a syndicate member run over by the hovercraft at the golf course
* Owen Walstrom as a syndicate member flying into a tree at the golf course
* Allen Sit as one of Tony's gang members with a mustache and ponytail, who speaks Cantonese in the supermarket and is the first one who Keung physically confronts
* Alf Humphreys as a Police Officer
Production
In his autobiography, 'I am Jackie Chan: My life in Action', Jackie Chan talked about the initial difficulty of filming a movie in Vancouver that is set in New York. The production team initially had to put up fake graffiti during the day and take it all down during the evening, while simultaneously making sure that no mountains made it into the background. However, Chan decided that it was best that the production team focus on the action only without worrying too much about scenery. In his review, Roger Ebert notes that there are mountains in the background, which are not present in the NYC landscape. There is also an NYC helicopter which displays a Canadian civil registration (C-GZPM - A Bell JetRanger).
The original spoken dialogue consisted of all of the actors speaking their native language most of the time. In the completely undubbed soundtrack, available on the Warner Japanese R2 DVD release, Jackie Chan actually speaks his native Cantonese while Franoise Yip and Morgan Lam (the actors playing Nancy and Danny) speak English. All of the original dialogue was intended to be dubbed over in the international and Hong Kong film markets, and New Line cinema overdubbed and slightly changed the original English dialogue.
During filming, Chan injured his right leg while performing a stunt. He spent much of the remaining shooting time with one leg in a cast. When it came to the film's climax, the crew colored a sock to resemble the shoe on his good foot, which Chan wore over his cast. His foot still had not completely healed when he went on to shoot his next film, 'Thunderbolt' (filmed the same year, 1994, but released earlier in the U.S.).
The lead actress and several stunt doubles were also injured during the shooting of a motorcycle stunt, with several people suffering broken limbs and ankles.
The film had a production budget of .
Release
New Line Cinema acquired the film for international distribution and commissioned a new music score and English dub (with participation from Jackie Chan). A scene of Keung's airplane flying into John F. Kennedy International Airport was added to the opening credits. Three scenes were added exclusively for the international version: a shot of the syndicate's car pulling up to the diamond deal, Keung and Nancy escaping from the nightclub after the bikers spot them together, and White Tiger taking a golf shot before a subordinate approaches him with his phone. None of these scenes were in the original Hong Kong release. In comparison to the Hong Kong version, 17 minutes of cuts were made, and the new English dub changed some of the context of the characters' conversations. Keung being a cop and having a girlfriend in Hong Kong is never mentioned. Keung's father being shot by a robber years ago is also not mentioned. In the New Line Cinema edit, Elaine buys the grocery store upon her first meeting with Uncle Bill, but in the Hong Kong version, she decides to buy the market at Bill's wedding.
The new soundtrack replaced Chan's song over the closing credits with the song "Kung Fu" by the band Ash, the lyrics of which mention Jackie Chan, as well as other Asian figures and characters ubiquitous in the west.
Reception
Box office
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="float:right; text-align:center;"|+ Box office performance
! rowspan="2" | Market
! rowspan="2" | Year
! colspan="2" | Gross revenue
! rowspan="2" | Ticket sales
! rowspan="2" class="unsortable" |
|-
! class="unsortable" |Local currency
! US dollars
|-
|Hong Kong
|1995
|
|
|
|
|-
|China
|1995
|
|
|
|
|-
|Taiwan
|1995
|
|$2,060,705
|295,892
|
|-
|Japan
|1995
|
|
|
|
|-
|South Korea
|1995
|
|
|941,433
|
|-
|North America
|1996
|
|$32,392,047
|7,361,000
|
|-
|Germany
|1996
|
|
|349,325
|
|-
|Italy
|1996
|
|
|58,773
| rowspan="8" |
|-
|Switzerland
|1996
|
|
|20,571
|-
|Sweden
|1996
|
|
|18,556
|-
|Belgium
|1996
|
|
|13,505
|-
|Denmark
|1996
|
|
|3,162
|-
|Czech Republic
|1996
|
|
|1,222
|-
| rowspan="2" |Spain
|1996
|
|
|96,309
|-
|1997
|
|
|2,744
|-
|United Kingdom
|1997
|
|
|130,583
|
|-
|Hungary
|1997
|
|
|54,116
| rowspan="4" |
|-
| rowspan="3" |Romania
|1997
|
|
|40,709
|-
|1998
|
|
|40,535
|-
|1999
|
|
|11
|-
|France
|1998
|
|
|204,894
|
|-
! colspan="2" |Total
! colspan="2" |US$76,028,558
!22,343,340
!
|-
! colspan="2" |Inflation adjusted (2021)
! colspan="2" |US$154,476,114
!
!
|}
In Hong Kong, 'Rumble in the Bronx' broke the box office record, earning , making it the highest-grossing film in Hong Kong up until then. In China, within ten days of release, the film grossed from tickets sold at each. It set a record in Guangzhou, with grossed in the city. It became the highest-grossing imported film in China up until then, grossing . It was the year's eighth highest-grossing film in Taiwan, earning . In Japan, the film earned at the box office. In South Korea, it was the highest-grossing film of the year, selling 941,433 tickets and earning .
The film was Chan's mainstream breakthrough in North America. When the film made its North American premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 1996, the film drew overwhelmingly positive reactions from large crowds cheering loudly, comparable to a sold-out concert. It eventually got a wide release in February 1996. Opening on 1,736 North American screens, it was number one at the box office in its opening weekend, grossing US$9,858,380 ($5,678 per screen). It became one of the year's top 20 highest-grossing R-rated films, finishing its North American run with $32,392,047 (equivalent to adjusted for inflation in 2021). In the United Kingdom, the film sold 130,583 tickets and grossed . In France and Germany, the film sold 493,756 tickets. In other European countries, the film sold 460,254 tickets.
It became Chan's biggest ever hit up until then, with a worldwide box office gross of (equivalent to over adjusted for inflation in 2021). It was the most profitable film of 1996, with its US box office alone earning over 6 times its budget.
Critical reception
When released in North America, 'Rumble in the Bronx' received generally positive reviews, with most critics happy that a Jackie Chan film was finally getting a wide theatrical release in North America. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating based on reviews from critics, with an average rating of . Most critics praised the action, stunts, and Chan's charm, but found the plot and acting to be lacking.Roger Ebert gave the film a positive review, rating it 3 out of 4 stars. His review for the 'Chicago Sun-Times' stated:
"Any attempt to defend this movie on rational grounds is futile. Don't tell me about the plot and the dialogue. Don't dwell on the acting. The whole point is Jackie Chan and, like Astaire and Rogers, he does what he does better than anybody. There is a physical confidence, a grace, an elegance to the way he moves. There is humor to the choreography of the fights (which are never too gruesome). He's having fun. If we allow ourselves to get in the right frame of mind, so are we.
Nate Jones in 'The Daily Utah Chronicle' rated the film 3-and-a-half stars. He described Chan as "the biggest action hero in the world" like a cross between Bruce Lee, Bruce Willis, Charlie Chaplin, and Harrison Ford, and said Chan "has brought the Kung-Fu action picture" genre "roaring back to life" in American pop culture. He praised the action choreography as "a masterfully seamless wave, proving that acting and fighting can coexist, if they're in the hands of a virtuoso." However, he criticized the English dubbing.
In a 1995 review for the Hong Kong Film Critics Society, Stephen Teo panned the film as "at best, an average Jackie Chan picture." He noted that despite the final hovercraft set piece, the action "is offset by the comedy underpinnings of the thin plot."
The film was featured in a 2015 video essay by Every Frame A Painting, calling attention to the fact that the movie was shot in Vancouver despite being set in the Bronx, where no mountain ranges are visible.
Awards and nominations
* 1996 Hong Kong Film Awards** 'Winner: Best Action Choreography (Jackie Chan, Stanley Tong)'
** Nomination: Best Actor (Jackie Chan)
** Nomination: Best Actress (Anita Mui)
** Nomination: Best Film Editing (Peter Cheung)
** Nomination: Best New Performer (Franoise Yip)
** Nomination: Best Picture (Barbie Tang)
** Nomination: Best Supporting Actress (Franoise Yip)
* 1997 Key Art Awards
** Winner: Best of Show Audiovisual
For the "Ben Knows" comedy TV spot
* 1996 MTV Movie Awards
** Nomination: Best Fight (Jackie Chan)
Television
In the United Kingdom, the film was watched by viewers on BBC1 in 2008, making it the year's most-watched foreign-language film on BBC. It was later watched by UK viewers on BBC1 in 2009, making it the year's most-watched foreign-language film on UK television. In 2011, it was again the year's most-watched foreign-language film on UK television with 900,000 viewers on BBC1. Combined, the film drew at least UK television viewership on BBC1 between 2008 and 2011.Home video
The majority of DVD versions of the film contain the heavily edited US New Line Cinema cut, with the relevant dubs created for each market. However, other versions exist, which are closer to the original theatrical release.
Warner
* A DVD was produced by Warner Brothers HK for Hong Kong and South Korea. This contains the New Line Cinema version with additional abridged Cantonese and Mandarin soundtracks. It has an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, but includes no English subtitles.* Warner Home Video also released a DVD in Japan of the Hong Kong version. This version contains the Hong Kong cut of the film. The dialogue is completely undubbed in a mono 2.0. However, its aspect ratio is cropped to 1.85:1 and contains no English subtitles.
* In Hong Kong, a VCD containing the Hong Kong version in Cantonese, with newly generated English and Chinese subtitles was also released. It's 2.35:1.
* A Blu-ray was released in the United States on 6 October 2015.
Thakral/Chinastar
It appears that a joint-distribution deal was made, with Thakral releasing the film in China, and Chinastar releasing it in Hong Kong. This version contains no credits, not even the film title, but is otherwise the Hong Kong version. There are no English subtitles and the ratio is roughly 2.10:1.Speedy
Malaysian distributor Speedy released a VCD. As well as local censorship (for profanity - also featuring a substituted shots of Angelo insulting Keung), it has a slightly different Cantonese/English soundtrack (some characters are dubbed in Cantonese); there are English, Chinese and Malay subtitles languages. It is cropped to approximately 1:85:1 and distorted to 1:56:1.Funny
The film had three separate DVD releases by Taiwanese distributor Funny. Two of these DVDs feature the Taiwanese Mandarin-dubbed version with embedded subtitles. One of these contains a Dolby 5.1 soundtrack only, whilst the other contains both Dolby and DTS soundtracks. The third release is a double-sided disc, featuring the Taiwanese Mandarin dub on one side and the English-dubbed New Line Cinema version on the other. Despite containing a dubbed soundtrack, these DVDs are the only releases to contain English subtitles for a Chinese version. All three are presented in 2.35:1.'4 Film Favorites'
* Another DVD was released as part of the '4 Film Favorites: Martial Arts collection'. The film is exactly like the New Line Cinema but put on the other side of the disc. The film is also attached to 'The Corruptor', 'Showdown in Little Tokyo', and 'Bloodsport'.See also
* Jackie Chan filmography
* List of Hong Kong films
References
Buy Rumble in the Bronx now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 1996