''Shanghai Knights'' is a 2003 American martial arts action comedy film. It is the sequel to '' Shanghai Noon'', and the second installment of the ''Shanghai'' film series. Directed by David Dobkin and written by

Alfred Gough Alfred Gough (born August 22, 1967) is an American screenwriter, producer and showrunner. He is best known as co-creator of The WB/The CW's Superman prequel series ''Smallville'' and Netflix's '' Addams Family'' spin-off series '' Wednesday''. ...

and

Miles Millar Miles Millar (born 1967) is an Australian-British screenwriter, showrunner, producer and director. He is known for co-creating the long-running Superman prequel television series ''Smallville'' and the Tim Burton Netflix '' Addams Family'' spi ...

, it stars

Jackie Chan Fang Shilong (born 7 April 1954), known professionally in English as Jackie Chan and in Chinese as Cheng Long ( zh, c=成龍, j=Sing4 Lung4; "becoming the dragon"), is a Hong Kong actor, filmmaker, martial artist, and stuntman known for ...

Owen Wilson Owen Cunningham Wilson (born November 18, 1968) is an American actor. He has had a long association with filmmaker Wes Anderson with whom he shared writing and acting credits for ''Bottle Rocket'' (1996), '' Rushmore'' (1998), and '' The Royal ...

, Fann Wong,

Donnie Yen Donnie Yen Chi-tan (; born 27 July 1963) is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist, and action director. Yen is one of Hong Kong's top action stars. Yen is widely credited for bringing mixed martial arts (MMA) into the mainstream Asian cinema by cho ...

and Aidan Gillen. It was released on February 7, 2003. The film received mixed reviews but it performed well at the box office.

Plot

In 1887, Lord Nelson Rathbone leads a band of Boxers into the

Forbidden City The Forbidden City () is a palace complex in Dongcheng District, Beijing, China, at the center of the Imperial City of Beijing. It is surrounded by numerous opulent imperial gardens and temples including the Zhongshan Park, the sacrific ...

, killing the Keeper of the Imperial Seal of China and stealing the seal. With his dying breath, the Keeper gives his daughter, Chon Lin, a puzzle box for her brother,

Sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...

Chon Wang. In

Carson City Carson City is an independent city and the capital of the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 58,639, making it the sixth largest city in Nevada. The majority of the city's population lives in Eagle Valley, on t ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

, Wang has captured an impressive array of fugitives. Wang receives the box and a letter from Lin telling him of their father's death and that she has tracked the murderer to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. Wang travels to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

to find his old partner Roy O'Bannon and collect his share of their gold so that he can buy passage to

. Roy has left

law enforcement Law enforcement is the activity of some members of government who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms governing that society. The term ...

, broken off his marriage, invested all their gold in the

Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, ...

, and is now a waiter and part-time

gigolo A gigolo () is a male escort or social companion who is supported by a person in a continuing relationship, often living in her residence or having to be present at her beck and call. The term ''gigolo'' usually implies a man who adopts a lifes ...

. After an aborted attempt at prostitution to pay for tickets, the pair ship themselves to London in a crate. In London, Roy's pocket is picked by a youth named Charlie. After a struggle between Roy, Wang, Charlie, and a gang angered by Charlie stealing on their turf, they are arrested. In Scotland Yard, Inspector Artie Doyle thanks the two for defeating the

Fleet Street Fleet Street is a major street mostly in the City of London. It runs west to east from Temple Bar at the boundary with the City of Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the London Wall and the River Fleet from which the street was n ...

gang. When they ask about Lin, Artie shows them she is in custody, having attempted to kill Lord Rathbone. Roy is instantly smitten with Lin and gives her a deck of playing cards as a good luck charm. Wang and Roy encounter Charlie. Breaking into an estate for shelter, they find an invitation to a gala at Buckingham Palace. Roy and Wang infiltrate the gala in

disguise A disguise can be anything which conceals or changes a person's physical appearance, including a wig, glasses, makeup, fake moustache, costume or other items. Camouflage is a type of disguise for people, animals and objects. Hats, glasses, cha ...

: Roy as

Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

" Sherlock Holmes" (a name he derives from the face of a clock) and Wang as the "

Maharaja Mahārāja (; also spelled Maharajah, Maharaj) is a Sanskrit title for a "great ruler", "great Monarch, king" or "high king". A few ruled states informally called empires, including ruler raja Sri Gupta, founder of the ancient Indian Gupta Em ...

of Nevada". Wang and Roy follow Rathbone to a private library, where he slips through a secret passage. Wang finds the seal box, but the seal itself is gone and they are attacked by guards. Lin, having used Roy's playing cards to pick the lock on her cell, arrives and saves Roy. The three see Rathbone give the Imperial Seal to Wu Chow, the

illegitimate Legitimacy, in traditional Western common law, is the status of a child born to parents who are legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtain a legal divorce. Conversely, ''illegitimacy'', also known as ...

brother of the

Emperor of China ''Huangdi'' (), translated into English as Emperor, was the superlative title held by monarchs of China who ruled various imperial regimes in Chinese history. In traditional Chinese political theory, the emperor was considered the Son of Heave ...

. After a brief struggle, Charlie steals the seal. Rathbone and Wu Chow escape after the former sets the barn that they were in on fire. Lin manages to escape, with Roy and Wang stealing Rathbone's car, later crashing it into

Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connecting ...

. Rathbone fires Artie after suggesting that his "incompetence knows no bounds". Wang and Roy are picked up by Lin the next morning who takes them to

Whitechapel Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed a c ...

. At a

brothel A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub p ...

, Roy overhears Wang try to convince Lin that Roy is an unsuitable husband, even telling her of his gigolo history and suspected

infertility Infertility is the inability of a person, animal or plant to reproduce by natural means. It is usually not the natural state of a healthy adult, except notably among certain eusocial species (mostly haplodiploid insects). It is the normal st ...

. Wang soothes Roy's feelings of betrayal by treating him to a pillow fight with the brothel staff. Wang, Roy, and Lin are found and captured by Rathbone, who reveals his plan: In exchange for the seal, Wu Chow will kill the British royal family and frame Lin. As tenth in line for the throne, Rathbone will then become king. Awaiting death, Roy confesses he spent most of the fortune publishing novels such as ''Roy O'Bannon Vs. The Mummy'', in which he portrayed himself as a hero and Wang as a cowardly sidekick. The two are reconciled and Wang says he will not stand between him and Lin. He frees himself and saves Roy. Wong and Roy consult Artie about Charlie's location. Artie deduces from a hat he dropped that Charlie is at

Madame Tussauds Madame Tussauds (, ) is a wax museum founded in 1835 by French wax sculptor Marie Tussaud in London, spawning similar museums in major cities around the world. While it used to be spelled as "Madame Tussaud's"; the apostrophe is no longer ...

. They save him from the Boxers but lose the seal after the three are forced to hand it over to the Boxers, in exchange for Charlie's life. The three are then captured by police. Charlie rescues them and reveals his full name is Charlie Chaplin. They save the royal family from being assassinated by Wu Chow, whom Lin kills with a rocket. The three pursue Rathbone to the top of

Big Ben Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the Great Clock of Westminster, at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, England, and the name is frequently extended to refer also to the clock and the clock tower. The official ...

. Roy is thrown off but hangs onto the clock face, while Wang is hopelessly outmatched at swordplay by Rathbone, who repeatedly spares his life so as to prolong their duel. Wang gives up on trying to outright defeat Rathbone, instead severing the support ropes for their platform. Roy catches Wang as Rathbone falls to his death. Both soon jump after grabbing a portion of the Union Jack landing safely inside the Queen's coach. Roy, Wang, and Artie are knighted. Artie decides to write stories, and asks Roy for use of the "Sherlock Holmes" name. Wang opens the box his father sent him to find a message reminding him of the importance of family. Roy proposes that he and Wang go to

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywoo ...

to join the new

motion picture A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...

industry. Charlie stows away as they drive off.

Cast

as Chon Wang *

as Roy O'Bannon * Fann Wong as Chon Lin * Aaron Johnson as Charlie Chaplin * Tom Fisher as Arthur "Artie" Doyle *

as Wu Chow * Aidan Gillen as Lord Nelson Rathbone * Oliver Cotton as

Jack the Ripper Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in the autumn of 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer ...

* Kim Chan as Chon Wang and Chon Lin's Father *

Gemma Jones Jennifer "Gemma" Jones (born 4 December 1942) is an English actress. Appearing on both stage and screen, her film appearances include '' Sense and Sensibility'' (1995), the ''Bridget Jones'' series (2001–2016), the ''Harry Potter'' series ...

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...

* Tom Wu as "Lead Boxer" Liu * Kelly-Marie Kerr as Clara * Constantine Gregory as the Mayor of New York City *

Ray Donn Ray Donn (7 August 1937, in Poplar, East London, England) is an English entrepreneur and businessman-turned-actor. Raphael Siratsky (Ray Donn) born London's East End 7 August 1937 eldest of four children his single mother Rose Siratsky (aka Do ...

as Chinese villager (''uncredited'') * Barbara Nedeljáková as Debutante *

Anna-Louise Plowman Anna-Louise Plowman (born 9 May 1972) is a New Zealand actress. Early life and education Plowman was born in New Zealand. She attended Samuel Marsden Collegiate School, Wellington, between 1982 and 1989, and then the London Academy of Music an ...

as Debutante * Georgina Chapman as Debutante * Daisy Beaumont as Cigarette girl * Alison King as Prostitute * Matt Hill as Deputy *

Barry Stanton Barry John Stanton (23 January 1941 – 21 January 2018) was an English-Australian rock and roll musician. He performed on pop music programs, ''Six O'Clock Rock'', '' Bandstand'', ''Johnny O'Keefe Show'', '' Sing Sing Sing'', ''Saturday Date'' ...

as Lord Chancellor

Jackie Chan Stunt Team

* Brad Allan as Street thug / Library thug (''uncredited'') * Paul Andreovski as Library thug with sword (double) / English policeman (''uncredited'') * Nicky Li * He Jun * Wu Gang * Park Hyun Jin * Lee In Seob * Han Guan Hua

Production

Director David Dobkin was personally chosen by Jackie Chan. Dobkin had a difficult time choosing a suitable Asian actress who could do movement work, emote well and speak excellent English. He then saw clips of Fann Wong's videos "Wo lai ye" (2001) and "Qing she yu bai she" (2001) and asked to audition her in London, which she did. She got the role and the number of scenes with her in was increased by thirty percent. On Jackie Chan's memoir Never Grow Up, Faye Wong from his native city Hong Kong was his first choice but Fann Wong was incorrectly hired. Aside from

establishing shot An establishing shot in filmmaking and television production sets up, or establishes, the context for a scene by showing the relationship between its important figures and objects. It is generally a long or extreme-long shot at the beginning of ...

s of iconic English landmarks, including The House of Lords, Buckingham Palace and

Madame Tussaud's Madame Tussauds (, ) is a wax museum founded in 1835 by French wax sculptor Marie Tussaud in London, spawning similar museums in major cities around the world. While it used to be spelled as "Madame Tussaud's"; the apostrophe is no longer ...

, the scenes in

were largely filmed in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. Th ...

from February 4 to June 21, 2002.

Reception

Critical response

The film received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for the chemistry between Chan and Wilson, the action sequences, and the fun nature of the film, but strong criticism for the plot. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

the film has an approval rating of 66% based on 151 reviews. The site's consensus states: "A silly, anachronistic mess, but the pairing of Chan and Wilson makes the movie fun." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

the film has a score of 58 out of 100, based on reviews from 33 critics. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B+" on scale of A to F.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

of the ''

Chicago Sun Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...

'' gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, calling it "fun in a broad, genial way", but disapproved of the "entirely arbitrary" plot. Joe Leydon of '' Variety'' found it better than its predecessor: "A hugely entertaining and more lavishly mounted follow-up to 2000's ''Shanghai Noon'', the high-concept East-meets-Western that first teamed hetop-billed duo pic rides even taller in the saddle as a fleet and funny crowd-pleaser." Elvis Mitchell of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' gave a positive review, singling out Chan's fight sequences and Wilson's performance, noting how "Wilson gets to steal a part of the movie that Chan is smart enough not to want." Mitchell also praised the "bluntly gorgeous" cinematography, and said Chan's reputation is "resuscitated in the rousing, cheerful sequel", calling it "one of his best." Nathan Rabin of '' The A.V. Club'' also praised the chemistry between the two leads, writing, "Chan ..found the perfect screen buddy in Wilson." Rabin criticized the "thin" plot, but found "there's a greatest-hits element" to Chan's fight scenes.

Planned sequel

A third film was meant to be produced under the title ''Shanghai Dawn''. Plans for the film were posted on Jackie Chan's website, but after some news of casting and production plans, no film has been produced. While unconfirmed, it is speculated that the project has been halted indefinitely as there is no news nor a release date. In a February 7, 2003, interview, Owen Wilson said: "We're talking about it maybe starting in Hollywood and then going from there to Africa or the Pyramids ... I feel like we have the freedom to take them anywhere in time we want." MGM announced in May 2015 that they were moving forward with ''Shanghai Dawn''.

and Fann Wong are expected to reprise their roles as Chon Wang, Roy O'Bannon and Chon Lin respectively. In September 2016,

Jared Hess Jared Lawrence Hess (born July 18, 1979) and Jerusha Elizabeth Hess ( Demke; born May 12, 1980) are husband-and-wife American filmmakers best known for their work on '' Napoleon Dynamite'' (2004), '' Nacho Libre'' (2006) and '' Gentlemen Bronc ...

signed on as director for the film while both Millar and Gough would develop a screen story with Theodore Riley and Aaron Buchsbaum writing the script for the film. Gough said the third film will be set in China because Chan "wants to showcase China in the way that the first film showcased the old West". Gough added that Chan and Wilson also have a hand in the creative process: "With those films, the collaboration of Jackie and Owen comes out on screen as they get along very well. With that in mind, you want to get their input in the story phase, so that when we got to script, it's based into the DNA of the story." As of 2022, there is no further information or release date for the film.

References

External links

* * * {{David Dobkin 2000s martial arts comedy films 2003 films 2003 action comedy films 2000s buddy films American action adventure films American action comedy films American buddy films American sequel films Cultural depictions of Arthur Conan Doyle Cultural depictions of Charlie Chaplin Cultural depictions of Jack the Ripper Cultural depictions of Queen Victoria on film Fictional duos Films directed by David Dobkin Films produced by Roger Birnbaum Films set in 1887 Films set in Beijing Films set in China Films set in England Films set in Hong Kong Films set in London Films set in Nevada Films set in New York City Films set in the Victorian era Films shot in the Czech Republic Hong Kong action comedy films Hong Kong buddy films Hong Kong sequel films Spyglass Entertainment films Touchstone Pictures films Films scored by Randy Edelman 2003 martial arts films 2000s buddy comedy films Shanghai (film series) 2003 comedy films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films 2000s Hong Kong films