Miracles (Qiji, 1989)
A lavish, period-piece gangster movie, Jackie Chan style. Jackie plays a good-hearted young man who stumbles his way into saving a gang boss, then becoming the new boss even though he doesn't really want the job. Every day he buys a rose from an old woman, believing the rose brings him luck and keeps him one step ahead of a rival gang. When the old woman needs his help to convince her daughter she has become a high-society sucess in Hong Kong, Jackie rounds up his gang members to help bring about the deception.
This is a sweet, lighthearted movie--a mobster film that only Jackie could make, where gangsters throw down their guns to fight hand-to-hand, no one gets seriously hurt, and instead of killing the rival gang member at the end Jackie promises to do dim sum with him.
There are some fantastic fight sequences here as well (especially the final showcase brawl at a rope factory), but those who are watching only for the fights will no doubt be bored and squirming through the long passages in between them. Hong Kong movie afficionados should have fun spotting all the other stars who appear in it--my favorites being Richard Ng as a bumbling police officer and the always fun Bill Tung as a conman.
SUMMARY:
Overall rating: A- It really seems to come from Jackie's heart, a labor of love that tells a sweet story, even if it sometimes gets bogged down in silliness and sentimentality.
Droolworthiness: A- Jackie in all those beautiful period suits is just too divine. Still, he doesn't show any skin :-(
Slashiness: F Nothing of note.
Action: A- for several very clever and fast fight sequences--but you will have to sit through long stretches in between them.
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