News & Articles

Jackie Chan, kicking ass and taking no names in the 1989 Miracles, his tribute to Frank Capra and Hollywood studio musicals.

Along with an assortment of horror films for October (13 John Carpenter movies,13 under a category called Body Horror and 13 in the category of 2000s Horror – do you sense a theme here?), the Criterion Channel also offers two collections of Hong Kong cinema – Hong Kong Action Classics (38 films) and Directed By John Woo (8 films – all of which are included in Hong Kong Action Classics).

For a couple reasons, I immediately dipped into a 1989 Jackie Chan film called Miracles.

No. 1 – I had never seen it. 

No. 2 – It’s reputedly one of Jackie Chan’s favorite as director.

No. 3 – It’s advertised as a Hong Kong remake of a movie the great 20th century American director Frank Capra liked so much he made it twice.

Capra’s first take on the story was the 1933 tearjerker Lady for a Day. And he ended his illustrious career in 1961 with the remake Pocketful of Miracles.

Both were based on a Damon Runyon short story called “Madame LaGimp.” 

The premise is that a gangster buys an apple from a poor street corner apple lady and has a stroke of luck. He learns the lady has a daughter who lives elsewhere. Mom and daughter communicate by letters, and mom has pretended to be a wealthy socialite who lives in an expensive hotel. She sends her letters on stationary stolen from said hotel.

When the daughter wants to visit her mother with her fiance and prospective father-in-law, the gangster learns of Apple Annie’s story and comes to her rescue by setting her up in digs her daughter expects to see her in.

I like Capra – Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Lost Horizon, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (particularly poignant in the Trump era), Meet John Doe, It’s a Wonderful Life – but the two Apple Annie movies are too syrupy for me, even when peopled with the eccentric characters that populate Capra movies, which must be why the Runyon story appealed to him. Runyon’s stories are nothing if not character driven.
But it is really fun to see Jackie Chan reimagine it all in a very bright and colorful Hong Kong, with a rose seller in place of Apple Annie. 

What was it that caught his eye enough to write, direct and star in a Hong Kong remake?

I think Jackie Chan loved the spectacle of 1930s Hollywood. And I think he liked dressing himself and his team up in ‘30s American gangster style, although I have to wonder if wearing Western clothing in the Hong Kong of 1930s was really a thing. I thought it was a few decades later that wearing Western clothing became the norm for HongKong residents. Doesn’t matter. The gangster get-ups are groovy.

And as one would expect from a Runyon-based story, colorful characters abound.

Chan plays a country bumpkin who comes to the big city and, after reluctantly buying a “lucky” rose from a poor rose seller with the little he had left after being duped by city slickers upon his arrival, he is accidentally named by a dying gang leader to become the new leader. As in the Capra movies, the gang boss becomes the rose seller’s protector. When the rose seller’s daughter decides to bring her wealthy fiance to visit her mother at the fancy hotel where she steals stationary from to send to her daughter, Chan’s character sets her up inthe hotel and his his crew help to put over the illusion that the young woman’s apple-selling mother is really a wealthy Honbg Kong socialite with all the best connections.

I’ve seen reviews that say there’s not enough action Chan in this movie, but I say to that, what film are you watching? Chan seems to be at his peak in the stunts performed, including a jaw-dropping multi-story fall. The speed and dexterity he shows in stuntmanship in this movie is some of the best I’ve seen of his always amazing acrobatic style.

Do not miss the end credits, with extensive painful footage of shots going wrong for Chan, which makes all the moves you’ve seen before count that much more.