4K Ultra HD Assessment – Jackie Chan’s Rise to Fame!

      Jackie Chan’s Breakout Hits!

      Directed by Jackie Chan, Chia-Liang Liu, Stanley Tong, Gordon Chan, Sammo Hung, and Benny Chan.

      Starring Jackie Chan, Ho-Sung Pak, Ti Lung, Anita Mui, Françoise Yip, Anita Yuen, Michael Wong, Annie Wu, Jackson Lou, Sammo Hung, Miki Lee, Richard Norton, Michelle Ferre, Mirai Yamamoto, Rachel Blakely, Ram Chiang, Thorsten Nickel, Bill Tung, Kris Lord, and Gabrielle Fitzpatrick.

      SYNOPSIS:

      This box set includes six films featuring Hong Kong icon Jackie Chan from the 1990s, chronicling his rise in America, complete with alternate versions and a wealth of bonus materials. Arrow Video is back at it, continuing to produce their Shawscope box sets, now on its fourth volume, and for fans of Asian cinema, they’ve compiled Jackie Chan's Breakout Hits!, a comprehensive 10-disc collection that consists of six films where martial arts superstar Jackie Chan achieved international fame in America after years of creating cult classics such as The Protector, Wheels on Meals, and the Police Story series in Hong Kong.

      The first film in the set is Drunken Master II, the 1994 sequel to Chan’s 1978 hit Drunken Master. In this sequel, Chan reprises his role as Wong Fei-hung, a playful young man known for his ‘Drunken Boxing’ technique. He has promised his strict father Wong Kei-Ying (Ti Lung) that he will refrain from fighting, believing that using alcohol to enhance his fighting makes one an addict. However, after accompanying his father and their servant Tso (Ram Chiang) on a herb-shopping trip, Fei-hung gets into a brawl with a suspected thief, thus unknowingly trading his ginseng for the Chinese Imperial Seal, a prized artifact the corrupt British consul is attempting to smuggle out of China to the British Museum. As chaos unfolds, Fei-hung unintentionally gives a patient of his father a poisonous root instead of ginseng, leading to complications as the British consul sends his vicious henchmen after the stolen item, forcing Fei-hung’s clever stepmother to intervene. This puts Fei-hung in a position where he must revert to his unique fighting style, risking his father's anger.

      At 102 minutes, Drunken Master II is packed with action as Chan navigates various challenges through clever plotting, fighting, and dialogue, with nearly every scene involving conversation that requires attention. The blend of sitcom-like family humor and astonishing martial arts makes it a worthwhile watch, seamlessly transitioning from comedy to drama to intense action without warning.

      In his first traditional martial arts film since the early 1980s, Jackie Chan shines brilliantly, demonstrating he can compete with any other martial artist of his time. The film’s natural color palette holds up well in 4K UHD, and among the discs in the set, this one is the most comprehensive, presenting three cuts of the film, a new audio commentary by martial arts cinema experts Frank Djeng and F.J. DeSanto, and eight additional featurettes about the film, along with trailers and outtakes. A fantastic start to the collection.

      The next feature is arguably the most prominent title in the collection: 1995’s Rumble in the Bronx. Here, Chan portrays Keung, who arrives in America to attend his uncle Bill’s (Bill Tung) wedding, with Bill operating a convenience store in The Bronx that he hopes to sell. When Bill sells the store to Elaine (Anita Mui) without disclosing the neighborhood's dangers, he leaves Keung to finalize the contract while he enjoys his honeymoon. Unfortunately, Keung gets embroiled in trouble, stepping up as Elaine’s protector against local troublemakers.

      With a vibe reminiscent of Death Wish 3 and bearing similarities to the 1985 Sho Kosugi classic Pray For Death, Rumble in the Bronx emerges as Jackie Chan’s major U.S. breakthrough. Despite its Chinese cast and crew, it carries the essence of an American action film. The collaboration of U.S. and Hong Kong actors (though some U.S. performers are not particularly strong) lends it a broader appeal, possibly because of its engaging and vibrant nature amid the popular Die Hard and Lethal Weapon sequels of the time. Nonetheless, Rumble in the Bronx delivers spectacular blockbuster-style entertainment infused with Chan’s signature high-energy martial arts.

      Yet, despite its action movie credentials, Rumble in the Bronx has some issues that keep it from being the crossover triumph it could have been. The first problem is the tone; while Jackie Chan films often feature comedic elements, the humor here feels awkward against the darker action backdrop. Chan is charismatic and excels with physical comedy, but the frequent goofy or misplaced jokes, particularly after serious moments, feel disruptive, signaling a need for more subtlety instead.

      Moreover, there are numerous antagonists