Is This Jackie Chan’s Best Movie in a Decade?

Many foreigners, when they think about Chinese actors, can’t name many, but almost always one of the first actors that comes to mind is Jackie Chan. He was born and grew up in Hong Kong, and that’s where his movie career started before he went on to become an international movie star.

Hong Kong movie productions are usually shot in Cantonese and then later dubbed into Mandarin, often with the original actors. So most of Jackie’s movies were originally shot in Cantonese, and because I usually like to watch movies in their original language, I haven’t recommended movies from Hong Kong so far. But it’s good for you to know that if you want to practice your Mandarin, then watching movies from Hong Kong can also be an option for you, as they usually come with a Mandarin audio track too, if you don’t mind that it’s not the original language of the movie.

However Jackie Chan’s latest movie, The Shadow’s Edge (捕风追影), is a little bit different. It was shot in Macau instead of Hong Kong, and it was filmed mostly in Mandarin Chinese, and only later dubbed into Cantonese. After finding out that it received possibly the best reviews for a Jackie Chan movie in a very long time, I decided to watch it too, and I ended up enjoying it more than I thought I would, so if you’re a fan of Jackie Chan, or action movies in general, I do recommend you watch it. You can watch the trailer below.

The movie is not without faults, but it does set up an interesting rivalry between the two leads (Tony Leung Ka-fai being the villain), with many great action sequences using Macau as a backdrop. And if you’re curious, Jackie is still doing his own stunts even though he is already over 70 years old.

The end of the movie is set up in a way that indicates there might be a sequel coming soon, and after a quick search online I can confirm that the director is already planning the sequel. I would be very surprised if it did not get one, as this was Jackie’s biggest Chinese box office hit since 2017’s Kung Fu Yoga (功夫瑜伽).

You can also practice some of the more interesting words and phrases from the movie on my Quizlet page.