Comments: Somehow tractor mechanic Jackie Chan bounces between two beauties Jinglei Xu and Bingbing Fan but doesn't give them much to do in this manly movie except translate grunts for the men. It's helpful if you can distinguish Mandarin from Cantonese from Japanese in order to better follow the machinations of the various gangs. There is a decent drama and some interesting issues buried underneath the testosterone bullshit here and of course the movie ends with twenty minutes of ho-hum violence. Too bad. This movie could have been better if it had fully thrown off it's genre clothing and worked the themes of unity, power, betrayal, and the Chinese immigrant experience in Japan a little more thoroughly--and given the two fine actresses something more substantial.
Summary: A simple Chinese immigrant wages a perilous war against one of the most powerful criminal organizations on the planet in this sprawling action drama directed by Derek Yee (One Night in Mongkok) and starring Jackie Chan, Daniel Wu, and Masaya Kato. In Japan, foreign migrants are shunned by mainstream society. Taunted by the yakuza, they live in constant fear of being discovered and repatriated. Into this perilous world ventures Steelhead (Chan), a humble tractor repairman who has traveled to Tokyo in search of his missing girlfriend, Xiu Xiu (Xu Jinglei), who vanished into thin air shortly after arriving in the city. It doesn't take Steelhead long to learn just what kind of hardships Chinese immigrants in Japan endure at the hands of underworld gangsters and foreign crime syndicates, and upon discovering that Xiu Xiu has adapted a Japanese identity and married up-and-coming yakuza chief Eguichi (Masaya Kato), the two men form an uneasy alliance. Over time, Steelhead earns the respect of his fellow Chinese immigrants by establishing a place for them to gather. But the dark side still beckons to Steelhead, because after helping Eguichi dispense with a powerful rival, he is granted full control of Shinjuku's most popular nightspots. Resistant to the allure of the criminal lifestyle, Steelhead discovers a new love and opens a tractor repair business just outside the city. When Equichi begins using Steelhead's former compatriots as pawns to front the yakuza's drug trade, the vengeful immigrant returns to the city determined to exact justice, even if it means destroying the future of the woman he once loved.
San suk si gin
2009
Hong Kong
Shinjuku Incident
