Review of Shinjuku Incident (2009) by Casey C — 24 Apr 2009

The highly-anticipated and much-awaited Jackie Chan-Derek Yee's collaboration effort tries hard to be a gangster thriller and a social drama about illegal immigrants, but the film is surprisingly uneven.

Yee is no stranger to such dark genre like this one, having previously helmed ONE NIGHT IN MONGKOK (2004) and PROTEGE (2007) but here he is seemingly a bit out of his depth. Perhaps there are just too many issues he is wanted to tackle in such epic proportion something in the vein of Martin Scorcese's GOODFELLAS and to some extent, even Johnnie To's ELECTION.

But the plot ends up either too patchy or half-realized from one portion after another. The cast are a mixed bag of uneven performances, except for Daniel Wu's noteworthy roles as a mousy immigrant to a violent criminal.

Still, the biggest loss about SHINJUKU INCIDENT is Jackie Chan himself. While he is worth applauding for trying something outside his usual action role, his first-ever dramatic performance feels largely awkward.

His acting is too wooden leaves little impression that it would have been better if Yee picked a more reliable actor instead, perhaps someone like Lau Ching-Wan. A major disappointment.