Shanghai Knights (2003)

Shanghai Knights is a 2003 American martial arts action comedy film. It is the sequel to Shanghai Noon, and the second installment of the Shanghai film series. Directed by David Dobkin and written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, it stars Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson, Fann Wong, Donnie Yen and Aidan Gillen. It was released on February 7, 2003. The film received mixed reviews but it performed well at the box office. with budget $50 million, Movie earned in Worldwide $88.3 million.

Plot.

In 1887, Lord Nelson Rathbone leads a band of Boxers into the Forbidden City, killing the Keeper of the Imperial Seal of China and stealing the seal. With his dying breath, the Keeper gives his daughter, Chon Lin, a puzzle box for her brother, Sheriff Chon Wang. In Carson City, Nevada, Wang has captured an impressive array of fugitives. Wang receives the box and a letter from Lin telling him of their father’s death and that she has tracked the murderer to London. Wang travels to New York City to find his old partner Roy O’Bannon and collect his share of their gold so that he can buy passage to London. Roy has left law enforcement, broken off his marriage, invested all their gold in the Zeppelin, and is now a waiter and part-time gigolo. After an aborted attempt at prostitution to pay for tickets, the pair ship themselves to London in a crate.

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In London, Roy’s pocket is picked by a youth named Charlie. After a struggle between Roy, Wang, Charlie, and a gang angered by Charlie stealing on their turf, they are arrested. In Scotland Yard, Inspector Artie Doyle thanks the two for defeating the Fleet Street gang. When they ask about Lin, Artie shows them she is in custody, having attempted to kill Lord Rathbone. Roy is instantly smitten with Lin and gives her a deck of playing cards as a good luck charm. Wang and Roy encounter Charlie. Breaking into an estate for shelter, they find an invitation to a gala at Buckingham Palace. Roy and Wang infiltrate the gala in disguise: Roy as Major General “Sherlock Holmes” (a name he derives from the face of a clock) and Wang as the “Maharaja of Nevada”.

Van and Roy follow Rathbone to a private library, where he slips through a secret passage. Wang finds a box with a seal, but sees that the seal itself is missing, and at that moment they are attacked by guards. Lin, who used Roy’s playing cards to pick the lock on her cell phone, arrives and rescues Roy. The three see Rathbone give the Imperial Seal to Wu Chow, the illegitimate brother of the Emperor of China. After a brief struggle, Charlie steals the seal. Rathbone and Wu Chow escape after the former sets fire to the shed they were in. Lin manages to escape, while Roy and Van steal Rathbone’s car and then crash into Stonehenge. Rathbone fires Artie after suggesting that his “incompetence knows no bounds”. The next morning, Van and Roy are picked up by Lyn, who takes them to Whitechapel.

Production.

Director David Dobkin was personally chosen by Jackie Chan. Dobkin had a difficult time choosing a suitable Asian actress who could do movement work, emote well and speak excellent English. He then saw clips of Fann Wong’s videos “Wo lai ye” (2001) and “Qing she yu bai she” (2001) and asked to audition her in London, which she did. She got the role and the number of scenes with her in was increased by thirty percent. On Jackie Chan’s memoir Never Grow Up, Faye Wong from his native city Hong Kong was his first choice but Fann Wong was incorrectly hired. Aside from establishing shots of iconic English landmarks, including The House of Lords, Buckingham Palace and Madame Tussaud’s, the scenes in London were largely filmed in Prague, Czech Republic from February 4 to June 21, 2002.