A Life Through Film #014: Rumble in the Bronx
Jackie Chan finally makes it big in America, thanks to some help from Canada
Release Date: 2/23/1996
Weeks at Number One: 1
Thanks for reading! This is my ongoing series where I track the evolution of American culture in my life by reviewing every number one film at the weekend box office since I was born in chronological order. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend reading my introduction post here, and be sure to like and share the review if you enjoyed it!
You’re ready to do it. It’s time to follow the dream.
You’re gonna leave your boring day job behind and follow your childhood ambition of being an acclaimed filmmaker (bear with me, this is your dream now).
You have a great script in your back pocket, but it requires a bigger scope than just you shooting in the local woods with a handheld camera and a buddy. You’ve raised some capital for production, but you don’t have Marvel money, pal. You’re gonna need to make all those dollars really count. Where in North America do you film this movie?
Well, do you want a pleasant, somewhat anonymous city that you can disguise as another major metropolitan area while dealing with a temperate climate and a robust community of potential local crew? Can I perhaps interest you in filming your feature film in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada?
Why shoot in what has been described by some as “Hollywood North?” Beyond the massive tax credits that make the prospect quite affordable, Vancouver has the unique nature of being both extremely beautiful and shockingly anonymous in its aesthetics. A wide variety of architectural styles and natural wonders will look good on film, but none of it is so distinct looking as to prevent the filmmaker from shooting a movie there and claiming it to be one of a few other major cities. Can’t afford to shoot in New York, Philly, or Boston? Vancouver!
Knowing this, let’s do another hypothetical. Let’s say you’re an international megastar, famous around the world for your work both in front of and behind the camera, but you’ve yet to break into the American film market in any meaningful way. A quality movie shot in a major US city might do the trick, but you don't have the budget to achieve that kind of shoot, even if the setting is very important to the movie you’re trying to make. Well, it’s all gonna work out, because you can shoot that flick in Vancouver! It’s perfect: it’ll look just like the Bronx.
Rumble in the Bronx is a 1996 martial arts comedy starring the legendary Jackie Chan. The story, though unimportant, follows Chan’s character as he travels from Hong Kong to visit his uncle in the Bronx before getting embroiled in conflict with a local motorcycle gang. A collaboration between Chan’s regular Hong Kong team and local Canadian crews, Rumble in the Bronx is the moment when the United States finally caught on to what so many millions around the world already knew: Jackie Chan kicks ass.
One of the many benefits of writing this column has been reliving the moments where people that I have perceived as having always been famous actually broke into the mainstream and became stars. Earlier examples like Brad Pitt and George Clooney were fascinating, but those stories are pretty straightforward. A working actor grinds it out on TV and in smaller roles for years before a big break or two gets them to that next level. Jackie Chan’s journey to American stardom differed greatly from this path.
I was shocked to find out that Chan’s filmography dates back to the early ‘60s (an important and exciting time). Raised as a student of jingxi, a style of Chinese theater with a focus on tumbling, acrobatics, and martial arts, the Hong Kong legend started acting at the age of 8 in small roles where he often played nameless children. Though inauspicious early on, this upbringing made Chan multitalented on a film set, giving him untold hours of experience in acting, stuntwork, writing, and eventually directing and producing.
Chan’s dual mastery of slapstick comedy and action ability makes sense when you consider some of his biggest influences. The silent comedy stylings of Buster Keaton and the graceful dancing of Gene Kelly have as much influence on the man as any martial arts master. As he continued working in Hong Kong, Chan was able to surround himself with regular collaborators who were adept at capturing his unique brand of kung fu action. With hits like Drunken Master [I’ve only seen Drunken Master II, it’s a 3.5/5] and the Supercop series, Chan spent the ‘70s and ‘80s building a reputation in Asia and Europe as one of the biggest draws at box offices around the world. Though these films were screened in America, it was usually in smaller theaters focused on foreign or low budget films. Chan remained a relative unknown.
This lack of success in America wasn’t for lack of trying. In 1980, Chan starred in his first American production, The Big Brawl. Though the film was meant to kickstart his career in America, all it did was show that Hollywood wasn’t ready for Jackie. Chan was already an amazing talent by this point, but the team behind the low budget Brawl weren’t nearly adept enough to capture that ability. This wasn’t made with Chan’s usual Hong Kong crew of stuntmen and action coordinators, so the star felt out of place during filming. Though the story goes to some fun places in the third act, The Big Brawl didn’t end up making an impact at the box office or on American culture like Jackie was hoping it would [it’s a 2.5/5, but the last twenty minutes nearly made me wanna give it a 3].
Jackie Chan spent the next 15 years after Brawl refining his craft and becoming a global megastar. His movies routinely topped the box office in Hong Kong, mainland China, Malaysia, and other East Asian markets. Eventually, Europe started taking notice too, and by the mid ‘90s, Jackie’s movies were big hits all over world. Despite this, mainstream success in America eluded Chan.
Even though he found Hollywood movies too violent and increasingly reliant on greenscreen effects, he knew the importance of succeeding in the biggest movie market on Earth. And Jackie knew just how to do it: an action movie filmed with his team that was so American, it takes place in the major US city: the Big Apple, the City That Never Sleeps, New York City.
Well, despite the $10 million budget being big for Hong Kong standards, it wasn’t so big as to justify actually shooting in New York.
It’s fine! Vancouver’s much cheaper anyway! No one will notice!
Unlike The Big Brawl, this new movie would be made by a whole cadre of Chan associates. The director, Stanley Tong, had worked on multiple Supercop movies, while the screenwriters, Edward Tang and Fibe Ma, had repeatedly penned big Hong Kong hits for the star. Perhaps most importantly, Jackie’s usual crew of stuntmen and coordinators would be on hand to help make the action just right. With production bolstered by local Canadian cast and crew, Rumble in the Bronx was ready to film in Hollywood North.
Cultural differences between the Hong Kong and Canadian parts of the cast and crew led to frustration from the director and his star. If Jackie had an idea for a stunt, his people were usually ready to shoot it immediately, whereas the locals needed to test the shot, make sure the stunt was feasible, and set up safety nets (literal or otherwise). Chan later described the gap in approach thusly:
The difference in pace made the Americans think we were slapdash. We saw them as inefficient.
As occasionally happened with his movies, Chan and others suffered injuries while filming the many stunts for Rumble in the Bronx. Multiple stuntwomen and actress Françoise Yip were hurt while filming a motorcycle chase, and Chan himself broke his ankle during a jump from a bridge down to a hovercraft. The star was nonplussed though. The take where he suffered the injury was the shot they ended up using in the movie. According to Jackie, that broken ankle luckily happened in the last week of filming, so he was able to finish the movie off in a boot.
Meanwhile, the American multiplex was becoming a place where a Jackie Chan movie could potentially thrive. Mainstream interest in the States for Hong Kong action movies, long considered a niche import for hobbyists, had risen exponentially thanks to those hobbyists becoming some of the biggest directors of the day. Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, previous main characters of this column, were massive fans of Chan, and had found big success infusing their movies with the over the top action of his Hong Kong movies. Tarantino, also responsible for the John Travolta/John Woo linkup that resulted in Broken Arrow, presented Chan with an MTV movie award in 1995, saying during his speech:
He is one of the best filmmakers the world has ever known. He is one of the greatest physical comedians since sound came into film. If I could be any actor, I would have the life Jackie Chan has.
Last week’s movie was the result of a Hong Kong icon working within the Hollywood system. Now, it was time to see if America would buy a ticket to a full-blown Hong Kong production at their local AMC.
After the Rumble in the Bronx’s initial Asian release in 1995 (where it was a record breaking success in Hong Kong, mainland China, and South Korea), Chan was approached by New Line Cinema for a wide release in North America. This was it, the chance for one of his movies to break it big in the US, just as he had hoped. Allowing the studio to re-edit and overdub the movie, Chan went into business with New Line.
That New Line edit is what I watched for this review, since it’s the version that topped the American box office on release in February of ‘96. Though it added a few small scenes, the overall effect of the edit is one of streamlining the plot. A full seventeen minutes was cut from the original Hong Kong version, and all the dialogue was overdubbed in English, including the lines that had already been in the language in the original version. The new dialogue simplified Chan’s character of Keung. Originally a Hong Kong cop nursing the trauma of his murdered father, these aspects of Keung were either heavily stripped back or outright removed, leaving a character who’s a martial arts master with a thirst for justice with no further explanation.
Listen, if you get to watch an action movie with a halfway decent plot, consider yourself lucky. But even by the low standards of the genre, Rumble in the Bronx has a terrible story guiding us along. The non-existent stakes never get the blood pumping, the characters are caricatures of all kinds, and the overdubbed dialogue turns everyone into the worst actor who’s ever lived. The plot is like that of a video game, in that it only exists as a suggestive framework to justify cool fights in various settings. Again, this is true of a lot of action movies, but the low quality is on a different level here. If you just look at narrative, Rumble in the Bronx makes Broken Arrow look like Raiders of the Lost Ark [5/5].
Another problem: no movie has ever looked less like it takes place in New York City than Rumble in the Bronx.
The very occasional b-roll of the Manhattan skyline can’t save the movie from its overwhelming vibe of being in the Pacific northwest, and that’s before we get wide shots featuring very Canadian mountains in the background. Chan says in his autobiography I Am Jackie Chan that at some point, he asked the crew to focus more on making sure the action was right than convincing everyone the movie actually was set in its titular borough.
The final effect is unintentionally hilarious in its disparity. Vancouver finally feels distinctly itself on the big screen, and it’s for a movie called Rumble in the Bronx.
You may think, based on all the pointing and laughing at its story and setting, that I don’t like this movie. Au contraire. Despite these unfortunate elements, I dig Rumble in the Bronx, and it all comes down to that sweet, sweet Jackie Chan action. From the first moment we see the man’s incredible speed and precision on a practice dummy at the start of the movie, it’s clear that this is a star fully locked in on how to make himself look like an icon.
The way that Chan’s action scenes are shot differ wildly from many American films at the time (and today, honestly). You can see the difference if you watch something like The Big Brawl. There, the camera is basically locked in place for longer wide shots that capture looser action: big punches, some kicks, nothing fancy. In shots like that, Chan’s superhuman precision and creativity can be lost in a sea of stuntmen and flat sets. In Rumble in the Bronx, though, each fight is much more technical, carefully choreographed with a full team of frequent collaborators. Each sequence within the fight is carefully blocked and staged to maximize impact and drama, using as many takes and cuts as necessary.
The result is fast-paced, but not overly choppy like you see in some movies today. Each shot of action is quick but clear in its depiction of the incredible technical ability on display. You watch every stunt and martial arts battle fully aware that Jackie Chan is doing all of it himself, zero stuntmen required.
How do I even pick a favorite moment from Rumble in the Bronx? The initial supermarket fight is brief, but sets the standard for Chan’s ability for a new audience. Later confrontations in the alley and gang hideout expand on this ability by throwing in interesting locales for these fights, filled to the brim with props that Jackie can seamlessly integrate into combat.
In an interview with Steve Tartaglia around the time of the movie’s American release, Chan said that he can see any object on the street and immediately think of a way to incorporate it into a fight scene. When he and the stunt producers found a local Vancouverite selling a bunch of fridges and televisions one day while shooting, his brain must have nearly exploded from the possibilities.1
(I know I link a lot of videos in these reviews. If you watch any clip from this review, I beg of you, make it this one)
On top of that, Jackie Chan is a master at keeping things fun during these action scenes. The guy has a natural friendliness that made it tough for him to live up to the promise The Big Brawl marketing made of him being “the next Bruce Lee.” But by 1996 he’d learned to lean into the charm. His character isn’t an invincible world-beater; despite his skills, the man gets his ass kicked a lot. It’s in these moments when Keung is on the defensive that Chan most embodies the physical comedy of Buster Keaton. His use of body language and movement to convey emotion and comedy in these moments is a big reason why his movies have found success no matter what language the audience speaks. You can watch any action scene in this movie on mute and enjoy the fun flow and energy regardless of native tongue.
My only qualm with the action is that the finale of the movie focuses far more on stunts than fights, which are excellent but not my favorite of the two categories. This includes the scene where Chan broke his ankle jumping down from a bridge as well as an extended bit where he essentially water skis behind a hovercraft (classic New York City activity). These stunts are marvels of skill and athleticism, only made more impressive when you see the behind-the-scenes of their craft during the credits. I just wish there had been one last great fight scene in the last thirty minutes or so.
At less than 90 minutes long, Rumble in the Bronx doesn’t come close to overstaying its welcome. In fact, the action depicted is so good that it left me craving some more. The movie comes recommended, with a caveat. I cannot emphasize this enough: do not go into this movie expecting anything close to a good story. Instead, be prepared to laugh at some truly silly dubbing between excellent moments of action in the streets of Vancouver (which have been covered in graffiti to sell the illusion).
Rumble in the Bronx had a raucous debut in front of diehard fans of movies, Jackie Chan, and Jackie Chan movies at Sundance Film Festival before its wide release. Critics were mostly onboard with Jackie’s attempt at American appeal, since the movie sits at 80% on Rotten Tomatoes. But, and I hate to be this guy, I think quite a few critics forgot to turn their brain off for this one.
Writers like Mick LaSalle from SF Gate, Stephen Holden from The New York Times, and Desson Howe from The Washington Post were more than right to critique the terrible story in their reviews, but to say that it ruins the movie like they did (Howe called the whole movie “exciting and awful…so bad it’s funny”) feels like missing the point. This is a movie about Jackie Chan doing exciting, clever pieces of action. By virtue of successfully showing us that, the movie is a success.
Roger Ebert gets it in his 3 star review:
[Chan]'s having fun. If we allow ourselves to get in the right frame of mind, so are we.
If a big budget American movie had topped the box office for one weekend of February by only grossing a little under $10 million, there might be reason to worry for the flick’s financial success. Not so here. Even if you ignore Rumble in the Bronx’s massive international release the previous year, the movie just about made its budget back in that first weekend at the US box office. After about three months, the movie finally left theaters and ended up making about $32 million here in the States (surely enough money to actually film in New York next time). A rousing success for Chan, Hong Kong filmmaking, and the city of Vancouver. Run the ad again!
Releasing Rumble in the Bronx during the dump month of February was a safe bet for New Line, since as a genre flick it couldn’t compete with the big summer releases coming just a few months down the line. This was the perfect window for it: right after a big Jackie Chan press tour in the states where he was endorsed by the hottest director in Hollywood and two weeks after people’s interest in Hong Kong action may have first been piqued with Broken Arrow. 15 years after The Big Brawl, Jackie Chan was finally an American success.
New Line would redub and release Jackie’s next few Hong Kong films (First Strike, Mr. Nice Guy, and Who Am I?) from 1996 through 1998. None of them topped the weekend box office like Rumble in the Bronx, but they did well enough when combined with his many media appearances to keep Chan part of the zeitgeist. Soon, he’d try his hand at making American movies again to massive success. Jackie Chan will be the subject of this column again some day.
I don’t know if I’d recommend Rumble in the Bronx as your first Jackie Chan movie. You might get the wrong idea that he can’t act, just exude friendly charm and do fight scenes really well. Granted, I haven’t seen much of the man’s legendary Hong Kong output, but I think if you’ve already seen Drunken Master, this is a fun contrast.
This movie shows Jackie Chan as a complete package. By the time he showed up to Vancouver to shoot, he has been fully refined into his final form. The comedy, the stunts, the martial arts mastery, they’re all here. If, like the American public at large in 1996, you need a primer on why he was and remains today one of the biggest stars in the world, Rumble in the Bronx is a fun, albeit flawed, entry into the Jackie Chan style.
Rating: 3/5
What Else Was At The Theater?
Wes Anderson’s debut feature film, Bottle Rocket, released into a handful of theaters the same day as Rumble in the Bronx. It didn’t make much money, but the critical darling set the stage for the future success of its director and the Wilson brothers. Not my favorite Wes Anderson, but still very entertaining. 3.5/5
Next Week: I’ll be honest y’all, these ‘96 Dump Months have really been tough on me. I promise, we’re near the end. We just gotta get through a baffling interrogation of the nature of truth disguised as a boring romantic drama. We’re watching Up Close & Personal next week
See you then!
-Will
Here is a shortlist of common items that Jackie Chan uses as a weapon in Rumble in the Bronx: a broken ladder, a jacket, a ski, a pinball machine, a chandelier, multiple fridges, multiple televisions, a walking crutch, a gun