Gorgeous (1999)

Gorgeous (1999)

Directed by: Vincent Kok

Starring: Jackie Chan, Qi Shu, Tony Chiu Wai Leung

This is kind of a weird movie, and it’s right at the edge of when Jackie Chan moved from Hong Kong cinema to mainstream American movies. Somehow this one managed to slip under my radar, which is kinda neat because it’s like finding another old Jackie Chan movie after I thought I’d already seen them all. It’s weird to be happy about making mistakes.

Jackie Chan plays a professional fighter who starts dating a girl under a false identity, and has to keep the relationship going at the same time as he’s dealing with some gang or other. As always. The gang hires some crazy white kickboxer guy who just loves fighting and who kicks Chan’s ass at first, then keeps coming back for more fights just because he enjoys it. A training montage later, Jackie Chan is able to beat the bad guy and get the girl. Aww.

As you may expect, the plot isn’t great (and is an awful lot like most of the movies Jackie Chan did in this time period), but the couple fight scenes with the kickboxer guy are pretty awesome, and full of the Jackie Chan goodness you’ve come to expect. If you’re into that sort of thing (and I assume you are, since you’re watching a Jackie Chan movie), then it’s worth watching just for that, though there are unfortunately not as many of the fight scenes as one might like. Otherwise, it falls a little flat, but whatever, this isn’t exactly Shakespeare. I mean, I don’t remember kickboxing in basically ANY of that guy’s plays. What a loser.