The Sudoku Incident - 7/10 (Fresh)
Saturday, Aug 1, 2009 3:39AM / Standard Entry
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I was trying to write a full review for this but failed miserably because of lack of writing skillz and time. So here's the short version. I like it. Aight?
Xuan
said her sister got a horror movie called "Sudoku" starring Jackie
Chan. Knowing how I love Jackie Chan and sudoku, she said that with an
exclamation mark. My reaction: sudoku? horror movie? Jackie Chan?
That's puzzle I could easily put together. It must be the latest Jackie
Chan movie "Shinjuku Incident." It's not a horror movie, it's a gorey
gangster movie set in Japan about Chinese immigrants. No martial arts.
Jackie does his best to pretend he couldn't fight. It's strange to see
him hold a stick, surrounded by a group of thugs, and trying really
hard to act like he doesn't know how to use it. It looks pretty
unnatural, actually - not how you would expect a normal person to use
it. So you get a lot of that in the movie.
To make ends meet, you see Jackie's character and his posse start off by selling fake phone cards and then fake accessories. One
thing leads to another and he and his posse turns into a full-blown "HK
triad," helping a local Yakuza gang kill off their their rivals. They
also get into the drug business. That's when Jackie's character decides
that they've ventured too far into the dark side and decides to help a
local cop shut off the entire operation and capture affiliated Yakuza
leaders.
Even without martial arts, the film is gripping. The story is decent; the acting pretty good; and the
production value is high. I only wish Jackie Chan's character would
kick some major ass though. A lot of times you see Jackie doing great
action in a crappy movie. Now, he's in a decent movie, but he doesn't
fight. It's a pretty good movie by itself, but it would have been
excellent if he threw in some kung fu.
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