Hoping to be reunited with his fiancée, Nick Steelhead (Jackie Chan) leaves China for Japan, where he joins other illegal immigrants as a day laborer in the country’s thriving black market. After saving the life of a high-ranking Yakuza, Nick becomes overlord of his district; he hopes to use his power and influence as a way of providing a better life for his people, but his friends’ corruption and disdain for the law put him at odds with both his Yakuza bosses and other elements of the Chinese mob.

CRITIQUE

Shinjuku Incident is a change of pace for Jackie Chan (who also served as one of the movie’s producers, which helps explains the origin of some of the problems I’m about to get to), who’s made a career playing the guy no one could dislike. It’s not much of a change of pace, though, seeing as how his character here is the sort of mobster who’d last about fifteen seconds in any sort of real organized-crime outfit.

For all his wrongdoing and lust for power, Nick Steelhead is about as dangerous as one of those colorful eccentrics Andy and Barney used to lock up in the Mayberry jail on a weekly basis. The filmmakers want audiences to see Shinjuku as a cousin to Goodfellas or Scarface, but the similarities are superficial at best. Imagine if either of those movies had been designed as a vehicle for an in-his-prime Jimmy Stewart and you’ll have some idea of how this movie plays.

Despite the (unjustified) notoriety the (ho-hum) violence earned Shinjuku in its homeland (which I suspect was just a marketing ploy), this is the sort of gangster flick that your great-grandmother wouldn’t feel uncomfortable watching, which means it’s not really much of a gangster flick at all (or at least not the kind I want to see).

I can understand why Chan (whose performance is nothing more than perfectly okay) would want to expand his boundaries after all these years (although his refusal to step too far away from his established persona makes his claim about desiring to step away seem a little disingenuous; the fact that he followed this movie with The Spy Next Door makes it that much more so), but I wish he’d chosen a better vehicle. He seems to have done what so many stars who are restless, bored, or simply tired of the one-trick-pony jokes do, and that’s jump on the first marginally different thing that comes along, in the process not stopping to actually consider the quality of the material. (As great a performance as it was [and still is], would anyone remember Henry Fonda’s turn in Once Upon a Time in the West if the movie itself weren’t great? Probably not.)

As far as content goes, Shinjuku may be different for Chan, but it’s no different from most tales of a pretty much nondescript guy who makes a name for himself in organized crime. Writers Chun Tin-Nam and Derek Yee’s (the latter also directed) script is as predictable as a porn flick whose main character is a virginal delivery boy. Every single step Steelhead takes on his journey through the ranks of the mob is telegraphed way ahead of time; pay even marginal attention and fifteen minutes in you’ll be able to diagram everything that’s coming. We’re dealing with characters who are supposed to be live-wire dangerous and crazy, just as likely to club you to death with a baseball bat as they are to shake your hand, but there’s never any real sense of danger to the proceedings.

Everyone you expect to live lives, and everyone you expect to die dies, and they die exactly when you expect they will. And there’s one major supporting player who exists solely to pull Steelhead’s fat out of the fire on several occasions, a living, breathing deus ex machina. (For what it’s worth, and as silly as the rescues get, Yee and Tin-Nam should have just reverted to playground rules and had Steelhead yell, “Forcefield!” whenever he’s in danger.)

In addition to being predictable, the script is flabby and awkwardly structured. The scene in which Steelhead (a name that sounds like it was lifted from an unrealized Alan Spencer project) saves the life of the Yakuza boss doesn’t come until the midway point. Before that (finally) occurs you get a halfway interesting look at how the Chinese immigrants ply their trade, as well as far too many scenes in which the cops show up and almost bust them. This is interspersed with scenes of some mobsters scheming, which largely consists of them delivering a lot of boring, stilted exposition. These scenes are supposed to pay off in the movie’s second half, but seeing as how most of the characters involved in all of this plotting aren’t given anything beyond a cursory identification, it’s impossible to keep up with who’s doing what to whom.

And when everyone (and I mean everyone, including seemingly anyone who’s ever committed any sort of crime in Japan and one character who suddenly--and laughably--shows up after having vanished for the better part of an hour) starts getting together in the second half, putting their various plans into motion and double- and triple-crossing one another, it becomes ever more difficult to follow who’s doing what to whom. It’s the sort of confused storytelling that has you hoping the shooting will soon start, as you know the only way the filmmakers will be able to resolve anything is by killing off several of the main characters (which is exactly what happens). Oh, and because of the bloated, repetitive first hour and unfocused, hurried second hour, there’s not much time left for any sort of depiction of exactly what Steelhead does during his kingpin phase.

The sanitized nature of both the character and his story means you’d be foolish to expect scenes of him collapsing into a molehill-sized mound of cocaine or doing lines off a hooker’s naked backside, but most stories like this usually contain a middle act that offers an extended glimpse of just what the main character does when he finally ascends his throne. Shinjuku Incident can’t even get that right. Steelhead’s inevitable collapse is so abrupt they probably didn’t even have time to change the letterhead on his personal stationary. Maybe Yee and Tin-Nam knew we would know how the story would ultimately resolve itself and felt no need to bother with the connecting material. If so, annoying as it may be, that’s the one novel thing they did.

THE VIDEO

The 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer is rather good in spots, a little bad in others. There’s a soft look to most scenes, which appears to be intentional, although exactly why these scenes are soft and the rest not isn’t really clear.  Blacks aren’t particularly strong, but they’ll do. The standout scenes are those in which bright, sometimes gaudy lighting schemes take over, such as those inside a pachinko parlor or the moment a street gang whose members look like Adam Ant fanatics shows up. It’s a slightly uneven presentation, but it definitely contains more good than bad.

THE AUDIO

Two Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks are included here--the original Chinese mix and an English dub (which is exactly what you’d expect in terms of quality). Aside from the brief moments of action, which offer a few here-and-there surround effects, the mix doesn’t move beyond the front channels. There is a quite good spread across the front, but the story and locations really cry out for a more active mix, a well as a more robust low end, which can be punchy at times but for the most part is flat. English, English SDH, and French subtitles are available.

THE EXTRAS

What’s billed as commentary on selected scenes by Jackie Chan finds the star offering a few anecdotes about the production. The sum total of these comments is roughly nine minutes, making this more or less a glorified interview.

Say Hello to the Bad Guy: Up Close with Jackie Chan (10 minutes) is a by-the-numbers promotional piece.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Not even the novelty of Chan playing marginally against type is enough to distinguish Shinjuku Incident from any other two-bit gangster flick. There are plenty of far better mob movies--from every corner of the globe--you can use to occupy your time.