Shanghai Knights

This topic contains:

• details about Shanghai Knights' classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Shanghai Knights completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 6 April 2003.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie Shanghai Knights contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• sexual reference
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message
• overall comments

A synopsis of the story

This film is set in 1887 and starts in the Forbidden City, China. The guardian of the Imperial Seal and his daughter are viciously attacked during the theft of the Seal. The guardian is killed and the daughter Chon Lin is determined to avenge his death. She travels to England to pursue the killer, Lord Rathbone, who is tenth in line to the throne of England. Rathbone has plotted with the Emperor’s brother, Wu Chan, to kill the nine members of the Royal family who are in line before him in exchange for the Seal which will give power to Wu Chan.

Meanwhile Chon Lin’s brother Chon Wang (pronounced John Wayne), who is the sheriff of Nevada, is saddened by the news of the death of his father. He heads to New York to find his old friend Roy O’Bannon and to collect his share of the Emperor’s gold. He discovers that Roy has squandered all of it and is working as a waiter/gigolo. He persuades Wang that it’s okay to earn some money by having sex with women. After a hasty getaway one night, the pair stowaway to England to retrieve the Seal. They arrive in London and set out to find Lord Rathbone and the Seal. After many adventures, mayhem and Kung Fu, Lin, Wang and Roy try to prevent Wu Chan from killing the Royal family during a fireworks presentation. The trio then have to tackle Lord Rathbone.

Use of violence

There is a lot of violence in this film, mostly comic, but some very realistic. Much of the violence is performed by heroes Wang and Lin, made to look glamorous and is successful. It has few real life consequences.

The comic violence includes scenes such as:

• Police try to arrest Wang in a hotel lobby and Wang uses Kung Fu to escape; the police look like fools.
• Roy and Wang are surrounded by villains in London town and Wang fights them all off using Kung Fu; one of the men falls off a roof.
• Lin karate kicks Roy in the face
• A British Grenadier rifle butts Roy in the groin after incessant teasing by Roy.
• Wang uses an umbrella in one Kung Fu scene while ‘Singing in the Rain’ is playing.
• Roy is hanging upside down from a rafter and is repeatedly dunked in water while Wang is fighting with a Boxer.

While most of the Kung Fu fights are in a comic setting, there is also realistic violence including scenes such as the initial scene of the film, the attack on the Guardian and Lin:

• the guards outside have ropes thrown around their necks and they are hoisted up and hanged.
• men with long curved swords attack and apparently chop men’s heads off (not actually shown)
• Lin uses a crossbow to fight back
• the guardian is killed with a long spiral dagger stabbed into him.

Other scenes portraying realistic violence include:

• Wong, Roy and Lin are trapped in a stable which has been set alight.
• Lin is tied up and tortured by having her hands and ankles stretched apart.
• Roy is hit viciously across the face with an implement.
• A boxer is ordered to slit Lin’s throat and he holds a curved sword to her throat.
• Wu Chan shoots at the Royal family with his ‘invention’ of a continuous firing machine gun
• Wang and Wu Chan have a serious Kung Fu fight which ends when Lin sets off a firework rocket that takes Wu Chan into the sky and explodes killing him.
• Wang and Rathbone have a serious sword fight.

Material that may scare children

Under seven

There is much in this film that would scare children in this age group including all of the violence mentioned above.

Seven to twelve years

There are quite a lot of realistic threats and dangers that would scare children in this age group including all of the realistic violence scenes mentioned above.

Early adolescence

Children in this age group would probably appreciate the comedy in the film but might still be scared by the realistic violence scenes, particularly the start of the film, the torture scene and Lin being threatened with having her throat slit.

Sexual references

There are many sexual references in this film including:

• Roy telling Wang it’s okay to sleep with women for money
• Roy is worried that his horse riding days might have affected his ability to father a child. He says that it might have “sent his semen upstream” and he might be “shooting blanks”.
• At Rathbone’s formal ball, Wang and Roy are offered ‘spotted dick’ and Roy thinks the waiter is asking him “if he has the clap”.
• Roy reads the Kama Sutra
• Wang falls out of a window and lands on Roy in a suggestive position.
• Nudity and sexual activity

The sexual activity in this film is supposed to be comic but it presents women as either prostitutes or loose and not in a respectful way:

• Wang is taking a bath when a woman comes in
• Roy comes into the room where a woman is on top of Wang doing some kind of balancing act but made to look sexual
• a hidden entrance is opened by pressing on nude statue’s breast.
• after an accident Roy is dreaming of Lin and asks her if she wants to try the position on a particular page of the Kama Sutra. Lin licks him salaciously on his face. However he wakes up to find it is in fact a sheep licking him.
• Lin enters a hotel room where Roy and Wang are having a pillow fight with lots of women; the men are in the nude although nothing is seen.

Use of substances

There is drinking in the bar and at the ball. Roy smokes a cigar and drinks brandy. Doyle gets drunk after losing his job.

Coarse language

There is infrequent coarse language, words used include:

• arse
• piss off
• God
• Jesus
• shit.

The movie's message

There is really no take home message in this film. The only value that parents may wish to encourage is that Chon Lin is a very capable female who is well able to look after herself and even kicks Jack the Ripper into the river.

Values that parents may wish to discourage include:

• it’s okay to sleep with women for money
• violence is a way to solve problems
• being a Kung Fu expert enables you to take on several people at once.

Overall comments

This film is made as a comedy although the humour is very corny. It is really a vehicle to show off Jackie Chan’s Kung Fu skill which is quite entertaining to watch. The story line is fairly weak and it relies a lot on sexual innuendo for its laughs.