TV Times

TV Times

Medallion empowers Jackie Chan
By Harinda Vidanage
Jackie Chan who has become legend in martial arts moving making whose recent works came under fire for not providing the entertainment his earlier movies gave prompting a great response by Chan through his new movie The Medallion which portrays Chan as a cop whose change of fortune endows him with supernatural powers.

The Medallion is the brainchild of producer Alfred Cheung, who made his name in the Hong Kong film industry by writing, directing and starring in a string of well-observed social comedies. The concept for the new movie based is on the mythology behind the Highbinder warriors. “Highbinder means a knight or warrior. You have good Highbinders and bad Highbinders.”

Alfred Cheung says “I wanted to create a cross between Lethal Weapon and Ghost, which would be a very fresh and new idea for Jackie”. Jackie Chan in his previous movie Tuxedo was seen in a role where the Tuxedo he gave him some sort of mechanical but still super powers. But the makers of Medallion insist that this is the first movie ever of Jackie Chan in a role of a super hero.

The action comedy story line Chan stars as Eddie Yang, a resolute Hong Kong cop who suffers a near fatal accident while investigating a case involving a mysterious medallion. Eddie soon discovers that with the powerful medallion in his possession, he gains incredible speed, strength and skills – taking his martial arts abilities to a whole new level. Enlisting the help of British Interpol agent Nicole James (Claire Forlani), Eddie is determined to learn the secret of the medallion and face down the evil Snakehead (Julian Sands) who wants to use its awesome powers for his own plans of becoming an immortal with super powers.

The movie is seen as Hollywood, Hong Kong collaboration and a combination of martial arts skill of Jackie Chan and state of the art special effects technology. The action sequences were directed by One of Jackie Chan’s oldest friends and collaborators, Sammo Hung, who was asked to join the film based on his solid reputation as an action director. Gordon Chan the director of Medallion says “Sammo is one of the best Kung Fu choreographers in Hong Kong.

When Sammo was on the set, we were all amazed at his charisma and the energy he put into it. And the fact that Jackie and Sammo grew up together really helped.”

The movie makers had to treck around different locations of the globe to find and even built suitable locations. Because most part of the movie setting concentrated in Ireland proving to be the perfect backdrop to combine both the supernatural elements and the romance of the film. Reputed production designer Joe Nemec was the ideal person to recreate the elaborate castle interiors. The pure logistics of filming such complicated action sequences called for an expert.

The exteriors of Snakehead’s castle were shot on the northern coast of Ireland. To get the best production value, the key design team relocated to Thailand where they built the elaborate 40-foot high interior chamber of Snakehead’s castle in the Thunderdome sports stadium on the outskirts of Bangkok.

The Hong Kong government has given its full support to the production as there were criticisms that the Chinese authorities in charge of government are not providing adequate support for Hong Kong Hollywood collaborations. But this time the government had gone into the extremes of providing even its latest Air Force helicopters and coast guard vessels to the movie makers.

Jackie Chan has flavor for action movies but with the comic element, but specially in the Medallion the character of the little lama who is the real possessor of the Medallion on which the whole story is woven plays a energizing but diminutive role. All in all The Medallion is a better effort than the Tuxedo which many film critics who were fans of Jackie Chan for a long time dismissed as being a silly movie.

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