bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Matt Glasby

When Rush Hour was released in 1998, it was just possible to discern the slightest whiff of cynicism.
A buddy cop film directed by Brett Ratner that paired Jackie Chan’s Hong Kong policeman with Chris Tucker’s loud-mouthed LAPD detective, it was designed to capitalise on the American box office success of 1995’s Rumble in the Bronx.
Although the genre had felt stale for years, Rush Hour made US$244 million worldwide, with the pair’s chemistry winning over the critics – or, at least, some of them.
“I didn’t like the movie. I still don’t like the movie,” Chan told the Los Angeles Times. “I don’t like the way I speak English, and I don’t know what Chris Tucker is saying.”


Confusing or not, the movie’s success meant that Rush Hour 2 (2001), also directed by Ratner, was a no-brainer.
“I make the movie and I tell my manager, ‘See? I should never make this kind of movie!’” Chan told Crosswalk magazine.
“Then I go to Asia to make an Asian film, and they call me and say, ‘Jackie, big hit! It’s a success!’ I say, ‘What?’ Then I make Rush Hour 2 and I hate it. Worse than Rush Hour 1!”
How Johnny English Reborn sent Sino-British relations back to 1997
As genre conventions dictate, the sequel sees Detective James Carter (Tucker) and Chief Inspector Lee (Chan) reunited in Hong Kong and is, indeed, worse than Rush Hour 1.
In case viewers were in any doubt as to the location, the film starts with a sweeping helicopter shot over The Peak; the “2” in Rush Hour 2 is shaped like a dragon; and there are numerous tourist-friendly clips of the Lantau Big Buddha, junks in the harbour and trams in Wan Chai.
The plot involves an international money-laundering operation and lots of opportunities for pratfalls and comedic misunderstanding.

We first meet Carter and Lee singing along to The Beach Boys’ “California Girls” in the car while trying to pick up women, a pursuit for which Carter has attempted to learn Cantonese.
Unfortunately, instead of inviting them out, he mistakenly asks them to “get naked and sacrifice a small goat”, a running joke that gets less amusing as it goes on.
Jeff Nathanson’s script trades in lazy Hong Kong stereotypes – all cheap tailors and chicken torture. There’s a taxi driver who pretends not to understand English until Carter waves some money in his face, and jokes about eating dogs.

Even the interplay between the two characters, presumably at least partly improvised, trades in low blows.
During a punch-up in a massage parlour, one of the few action scenes that reaches Chan’s usual level of athletic invention, Carter accidentally punches him because, he claims, all Chinese people look alike.
This dynamic soon bubbles over into outright racism. “I will slap you so hard you end up in the Ming dynasty,” Carter tells Lee. “I’ll bitch-slap you back to Bangkok.” This is desperate stuff, but at least the joke’s on Carter for not knowing that Bangkok is in Thailand.

Later, when Lee responds, “I’ll bitch-slap you back to Africa,” there’s no such get-out clause.
The film also contains a deep vein of sexism, with both Carter and the camera leering over secret agent Isabella Molina (Roselyn Sánchez) and assassin Hu Li (Zhang Ziyi).
Post #MeToo it’s hard not to connect this back to the accusations of sexual misconduct levelled at director Ratner in a 2017 Los Angeles Times article, which he “vehemently disputes”.

Ultimately, it’s cynicism that wins the day. This is a film that never takes itself seriously – never takes anything seriously – so it’s hardly surprising when the closing blooper reel reveals Tucker answering his phone during a take.
Even with such indifference from its stars, the film made US$347 million at the global box office, almost a third more than the original, meaning a second sequel – 2007’s awful Rush Hour 3 – was on the cards, whether Chan liked it or not.
“I will continue to find different partners,” he said, “maybe children or even a dog or a monkey, because in the American market, I need somebody’s help.”
Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook


Meet Monica Barbaro, aka Timothée Chalamet’s love interest in Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown: the actress landed her breakthrough role in Top Gun: Maverick – but did she date Tom Cruise?

Who are the 6 Scream Queens of 2024? From Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney to Beetlejuice Beetlejuice actress Jenna Ortega, and The Substance’s Margaret Qualley

Who is Jim Carrey’s musician daughter Jane Carrey? She appeared on American Idol and hosted MTV’s Catfish, and the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 star and his ex Melissa Womer gave her a ‘normal’ upbringing

Blake Lively accuses It Ends with Us director Justin Baldoni of harassment, smear campaign

American cinema

Why Jackie Chan ‘didn’t like’ Hong Kong-set Rush Hour 2 and why, with its crude stereotypes, sexism and Chris Tucker’s bad Cantonese, he was justified

Jackie Chan (left) and Chris Tucker in a still from “Rush Hour 2”. The Rush Hour sequel was a huge success upon release in 2001, but Chan “hated” it. Photo: New Line Cinema

Jackie Chan (left) and Chris Tucker in a still from “Rush Hour 2”. The “Rush Hour” sequel was a huge success upon its release in 2001, but Chan hated it. Photo: New Line Cinema

Chan (left) and Tucker in a still from “Rush Hour 2”. Photo: New Line Cinema

(From left) Zhang Ziyi, director Brett Ratner, Chan and Tucker at the Rush Hour 2’s premiere in Hollywood in July 2001. Photo: Reuters

Zhang Ziyi in a still from “Rush Hour 2”. Photo: New Line Cinema

Chan (front) and Tucker in a still from “Rush Hour 2”. Photo: New Line Cinema

How 2012, Roland Emmerich’s end-of-the-world drama, broke Chinese box-office records – despite not being the ‘love letter to China’ some thought

John Cusack as Jackson Curtis, a failed writer who tries to save his family as the world ends; and Morgan Lily as his daughter Lilly in a still from “2012”.

John Cusack plays a failed writer who tries to save his family as the world ends in “2012” (2009). Roland Emmerich’s apocalyptic drama broke box-office records in China, but why?

(From left) Morgan Lily, Amanda Peet and Liam James in a still from “2012”.

A still from “2012”.

How Michael Mann’s 2015 film Blackhat mixes hacking, Thor’s Chris Hemsworth and Hong Kong to disappointing effect

Tang Wei and Chris Hemsworth ride an escalator in a station on Hong Kong MTR subway network in a still from “Blackhat” (2015). Michael Mann’s 2015 film had plenty of expertly filmed action set pieces, but little else going for it. Photo: Universal Pictures

Wang Leehom in a still from “Blackhat”. Photo: Edko Films Limited/Kingmart Advertising Company

Hemsworth (left) and director Michael Mann on the set of “Blackhat”. Photo: Edko Films Limited/Kingmart Advertising Company

Tang and Wang in a still from “Blackhat”. Photo: Edko Films Limited/Kingmart Advertising Company

Hemsworth in a still from “Blackhat”. Photo: Edko Films Limited/Kingmart Advertising Company

How Hong Kong setting gave Chris Evans superhero movie Push a real feel a world away from the Marvel films he would go on to star in as Captain America

Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning in a still from “Push”. Photo: Hirotake Okazaki/Summit Entertainment.

Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning in a still from “Push”. The movie harnessed the energy of Hong Kong, where it was set, to make for a superhero that feels more real than those of the Marvel films Evans would go on to star in. Photo: Hirotake Okazaki/Summit Entertainment.

Li Xiaolu as triad watcher Pop Girl in a still from “Push”. Photo: Summit Entertainment

(Front row from left) Jacky Heung, Hal Yamanouchi and Fung Chi-kwan in a still from “Push”. Photo: Hirotake Okazaki/Summit Entertainment

Director Paul McGuigan (second from left), Dakota Fanning (centre) and Chris Evans (right) on the set of “Push”. Photo: Hirotake Okazaki/Summit Entertainment

How Disney got kicked out of China over Martin Scorsese’s Kundun, a 1997 movie that ripped a hole in US-China relations

Tulku Jamyang Kunga Tenzin is bowed to in a scene from the film &apos;Kundun&apos;, 1997. (Photo by Buena Vista/Getty Images)

A scene from Martin Scorsese’s 1997 movie Kundun, about the early life of the Dalai Lama, which left a scar on US-China relations and saw Disney kicked out of China. Photo: Getty Images

A scene from Kundun. Photo: Walt Disney Studios

Martin Scorsese at a press conference on Kundun in Rome on March 9, 1998. Photo: AP

Tulku Jamyang Kunga Tenzin (front) in a scene from Kundun. Photo: Getty Images

How Bait 3D, an Australia-Singapore shark movie co-production, became a monster hit at the Chinese box office

A still from “Bait 3D”.

Sharni Vinson (left) and Xavier Samuel in a still from “Bait 3D” (2012), which took the Chinese box office by storm.

“Bait 3D” has “the requisite mix of gore, bad CGI and ‘Jaws’ jokes”. 

Adrian Pang as Jessup in a still from “Bait 3D”.

Clean up on aisle three: a great white shark menaces shoppers in a still from “Bait 3D”.

Lifestyle

Entertainment

Culture

Film & TV

Rush Hour 2 made millions at the box office upon its release in 2001, with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker’s on-screen chemistry widely praised. But Chan hated it
The actor felt his character’s bad English was an issue, but looking back, the film’s crude stereotyping, and objectification of women, are far more troubling


2001’s Rush Hour 2, starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, was a major box office success. Chan hated the film – although not for its crude stereotypes and overt sexism.
