The sequel picks things up in the Forbidden City six years after the first movie. We meet Chon Wang's father (Kim Chan), the Keeper Of The Imperial Seal, and his lovely daughter Chon Lin (Cantopop star Fann Wong). The obvious difference in age between Lin and her brother suggests that Chon Sr. either has a bit of the old Anthony Quinn about him, or a steady supply of Ancient Chinese viagra - possibly the same stuff I keep getting spam emails about. Anyway, Lin tries to show her father a letter from Wang, but he responds, "your brother is dead to me."

This family stuff is all very well but it doesn't get the sockey chopped, so at that moment Ee-vil English lord Nelson Rathbone (Aidan Gillen) and his nasty Boxer allies decide to try and steal the Imperial Seal. Lin tries gamely to fight them off with some of that hot chick kung fu I love so much, but there are too many goons and the elder Chon is killed with a distinctive dragon-headed dagger. Rathbone escapes with the seal and Lin vows to retrieve it...

Meanwhile in Carson City, sheriff Chon Wang has caught pretty much every criminal on the books and life is good. His only troubles are that Princess Pei Pei is off in San Francisco doing charitable works, and his deputy insists on reading a series of implausible Roy O’Bannon pulp novels by Sage McCallister in which the Shanghai kid is sidelined as a minor character. Still, better this than the news that his father is dead. He sets off for New York to find Roy and retrieve his share of the ransom gold from movie #1, which Roy has supposedly invested.

Roy, naturally, has lost all the money, and is working as a waiter in a swanky hotel. Roy being Roy, he is involved in romantic dalliances with loose women, including somewhat unwisely the Mayor of New York’s daughters. Chon is furious but can’t help saving Roy from some decidedly Keystone cops.

Arriving in Victorian London, the movie really begins, by which I mean returning writers Alfred Gough & Miles Millar start to trot out every hoary old English stereotype gag they can get their hands on. There are swipes at the allegedly bad food, driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road, the immobile guards at Buckingham palace, everyone having bad teeth, the weather, Stonehenge, Jack The Ripper; the list is seemingly endless. Another old chestnut is the Chirpy Cockney Sparrer™ Pickpocket (Aaron Johnson) who offers to help show the tourists around. Roy is rude to the cheeky young scamp, who retaliates by stealing Roy‘s watch. Roy gives chase and Chon gets caught up in a spectacular brawl with a gang of ruffians who seem to have escaped from an off-Broadway production of Oliver! Take note of the lovely selection of pineapples, melons, citrus fruit and other exotic treats for sale in the East End pauper’s market; very authentic I’m sure. Still, I get the impression this is thoroughly tongue in cheek.

Anyway, Chon and Roy take down the gang much to the delight of Scotland Yard’s finest, Inspector Artie Doyle (Tom Fisher). Not only does the remarkably perceptive copper admire the duo’s crime fighting skills, he’s also a huge fan of the Roy O’Bannon novels. Unfortunately Artie has bad news; Lin was arrested trying to kill Lord Rathbone. Far from being a mere aristocrat, Rathbone is the 10^th in line to the Throne and Queen Victoria’s favourite cousin.

Our daring pair sneak into Rathbone’s Jubilee Ball disguised as Major-General Sherlock Holmes and the Maharajah of Nevada. A spectacular fight breaks out in the library as Chon and Roy search for the Seal - ably assisted by Lin who has by now escaped from jail. In the midst of the mayhem Chon now has another problem; keeping the amorous Roy away from his sister. As they follow Rathbone into his stables, the real villain of the piece is revealed. This is Wu Chow (martial arts movie God Donnie Yen), bastard brother of the Emperor of China. He is the owner of the dragon dagger and it was on his behalf that Rathbone stole the Seal. Wu intends to use the Seal to rally the Boxer rebels and overthrow the Emperor. In return, Wu is going to wipe out the 9 Royals in line to the throne before Rathbone.

Once discovered, our heroes manage to escape the burning stable but the Chirpy Cockney Sparrer™ turns up and steals the Seal. Regrouping in a Whitechapel brothel, Roy asks Chon to talk him up to Lin. In a neat reverse to the first film Roy overhears Chon telling Lin what an unreliable loser he is. Roy’s anger is short-lived though and everything is solved by the time-honoured mediation technique of a naked pillow fight with hookers.

Their fun is sadly short-lived when our heroes are captured by Rathbone. The trio have no idea where the kid and the Seal have gone, so the villains decide to drown them in the Thames while Lin is to be framed for the murder of the Royal Family.

With the chips down and the future looking grim, Roy finally reveals that he is the author of the Roy O’Bannon novels; their publishing is how Roy lost their money. Even with this revelation Chon uses his daring-fu to rescue Roy from drowning. They hook back up with Artie, now sacked from the police, and using a curiously familiar bit of deductive reasoning he figures out that the kid is hanging out in Madame Tussaud’s famous wax museum. Unfortunately more Boxer thugs arrive at the same time they do, and though Chon beats the crap out of them they have to hand over the seal when the Boxers threaten to kill the kid.

Gor blimey guv’nor, is it time for the big finale already? Indeed it is, so while Artie and Roy try and warn The Queen, Chon sets off to rescue Lin. Wu Chow intends to kill the Royals with the newly-invented Gatling gun, using a firework barge on the Thames during Jubilee celebrations as a firing point. Chon arrives in the nick of time to save Lin and thwart the plot, leading to a neat fight under the out-of-control machine gun. Lin and Chon manage to finish off Wu Chow and then Roy and Chon pursue Rathbone into the top of Big Ben. Before you can say The 39 Steps Roy is hanging off the minute hand and Chon is facing down the Greatest Swordsman In All England. Of course, anyone with even the most passing familiarity with Jackie Chan movies will know that pretty soon Rathbone will be plummeting to his doom while Chon and Roy make a daring escape.

There’s not much else to do except for Queen Victoria (Gemma Jones) to knight our heroes, including Artie - and if you haven’t guessed who he’s meant to be yet, it’s finally revealed here. Artie is going to escort the Seal back to China, while Chon, Roy and Lin head for Hollywood to get into kung fu movies… THE END.

Shanghai Knights is an enjoyable sequel, taking the terrific Chan/Wilson chemistry and running with it. Where it falls down is in some of the clunky humour in the script; this may play better to non-English audiences but most of the Brit-centric jokes went out with the Ark. Still, Chan and Wilson have fun with them and there are a few genuine laughs. The new cast members are mostly good, in particular Fann Wong as the lovely-yet-formidable Lin. She gets some extended fight scenes though she is doubled for most of them, but she does manage to sell the character’s abilities effectively. Aaron Johnson and Tom Fisher provide occasionally odious comic relief, and their ‘secret’ identities are real groaners, but they aren’t too irritating for the most part.

The villains fare less well. Donnie Yen is one of the greatest martial arts stars to come out of Hong Kong, but he’s relegated to what is really an extended cameo. It’s also disappointing that his fight with Jackie is so comparatively short, as he is easily the best martial artist in the film. I can see why the filmmakers decided to trim so much (the DVD contains the long version as a deleted scene) and give more time to the novel fencing scene, but it really seems like an opportunity missed. Also it irks me that Yen is ignored in favour of Aidan Gillen, who is one of those dreadful sub-Richard Roxburgh villains I mentioned in my reviews of The Tuxedo and Tomb Raider. He is just horrible as Rathbone, though the end fight isn’t bad - like Fann, he’s doubled a lot of the time.

Speaking of action, this is the first film in a while where Jackie has done the choreography himself (ably assisted by Brad Allan and Nicky Li), which is presumably why the fights evoke many of his classic films. Chan shamelessly references his own movies including Miracles, The Young Master and Project A, and the scene on top of the tarpaulin market roof is stolen shot-for-shot from Crime Story. Also my comments about Chan slowing down on Shanghai Noon still apply, but for all that the action scenes are still very cool. Chan eschews the old school feel of the first movie and instead allows his love of silent comedians like Buster Keaton run riot. The Keystone cop fight in the revolving hotel doors is even underscored with some evocative ragtime music! Director David Dobkin (who used to share an office with Shanghai Noon’s Tom Dey at Ridley Scott’s commercial company, trivia fans) captures everything nicely.

Despite my reservations, I think Shanghai Knights is a hoot, and I’d much rather see another sequel in the series than any attempt at Rush Hour 3. Chan and Wilson are something of a Hope and Crosby for the 21^st Century, and the Shanghai… movies akin to those classic The Road To… films. I just wonder where they could go next. Maybe a musical action-comedy set in Philadelphia. The title? Why, Shanghai Society of course…

Dave Thomas, 18^th July 2003