Miracles

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Movie
German title Miracles / Canton Godfather
Original title Qiji
Country of production Hong Kong
original language Cantonese
Publishing year 1989
length 122 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Jackie Chan
script Jackie Chan , Edward Tang
production Golden Harvest
music Cong Su , Lam Mui
camera Wong Ngok Tai
cut Peter Cheung
occupation

Miracles (alternative title Canton Godfather ) is an action and martial arts film shot in Hong Kong in 1989 with Jackie Chan as director and leading actor.

action

Hong Kong in the 1930s. Like many of his compatriots, the poor soldier of fortune Charlie Kuo comes to town looking for work, but immediately experiences a fiasco : the supposed job turns out to be a hoax, his savings are stolen from a fraudster and finally he is robbed. When he buys a flower from a poor rose seller with his last money, events roll over. He gets into a shootout between two rival gangsters. Charlie tries to help the "godfather" of the gang, but he dies shortly afterwards. Through a mix-up and a chain of events, Charlie is determined from the dying to the new boss of the gang.

The actually good-hearted Charlie is taken to the side by the fatherly advisory shark who wants to turn him into a gangster. But Charlie doesn't want this and would rather convert his people to do good. And shortly afterwards, Charlie had his hands full in his role as godfather: First, he turned the bar “Ritz” into a glamorous nightclub and the talented singer Ruby became the star of the show. Ruby himself soon interferes in Charlie's private life, which partly helps, but partly also annoys Charlie. Additionally, he doesn't understand Ruby's advances towards him at first. Furthermore, Charlie's right hand Fei works behind his back against him, because he actually saw himself as his successor. He intrigues and conjures up against Charlie's will a new gang war with the men of the gangster Tiger Lo , who wants to appropriate the "Ritz". In addition, the pedantic policeman Ho appears again and again , who has Charlie in mind and wants to bring him up to a better life. Ho is usually quite clumsy and does more harm than good afterwards.

Last but not least, the " rose lady " crosses Charlie's path again and again and gives him a new lucky rose, which Charlie - in the form of a running gag in the film - always protects against attacks and accidents. But when the lady receives a mail from her daughter announcing an engagement to a millionaire's son, she breaks down. Contrary to the truth, she has always shown her daughter to be a rich lady and is now afraid of breaking up with her child. Charlie takes on the matter and, with the help of Ruby and the day thief Tung as a pseudo-husband, managed to maintain the charade so long that the visit was a success.

But shortly before the wedding all problems overlap and Charlie has to dare a balancing act to cope with everything. First, Tiger kidnaps him, but Charlie escapes execution. After being able to overpower Tiger's minions in a martial arts duel in a rope factory, he reconciles with him and Fei and proves the dispute. And he can also avert arrest by the authorities after telling everyone the truth. After all, the wedding will be a lavish celebration and a complete success. Charlie now looks forward to a bright future as a gang boss and a man at Ruby's side.

criticism

“Largely weak action slapstick in a historical setting, the basic idea of ​​which is too thin for a full-length feature film; only a few fight scenes choreographed as happy slapstick are worth mentioning. "

- Lexicon of international film

Individual evidence

  • When creating the script, Chan was primarily inspired by the classic Lady for a Day (Lady for a Day, 1933) and its remake The Lower Ten Thousand (Pocketful of Miracles, 1961).
  • With a budget of just under nine million US dollars , “Miracles” was one of the most expensive productions from Hong Kong at the time. Jackie Chan calls it his favorite movie. The flick was enthusiastically received by the critics, but it failed to achieve the desired success at the box office and flopped. To compensate for the losses, Chan then shot the globetrotter adventure “ Mission Adler ” a little later .
  • Other titles in the film are: Miracle, Mr. Canton and Lady Rose, The Canton Godfather, The Chinese Godfather, Black Dragon, Singapore Sling
  • Like most of his films, “Miracles” was initially broadcast in a version that was cut down to 89 minutes. Here one limited oneself to a rough framework and fight scenes. It was not until 2009 that an uncut original version was released on DVD under the alternative title “Canton Godfather”. The previously omitted scenes, which contain the majority of the plot with the rose seller, are contained in the Cantonese original with German subtitles.
  • During the shooting, a typhoon devastated large parts of the sets. The reconstruction of these sets increased the production time again to a total of nine months.
  • Actor and Jackie Chan's friend Yuen Biao has another cameo in the film.

Awards

  • Hong Kong Film Awards 1990: Winner "Best Action Choreography". Also nominated in the categories “Best Actor” (Jackie Chan), Best Equipment, Best Editing (Peter Cheung).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Miracles. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed July 24, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used