MOVIERAPTURE

Miracles (Qiji) (1989)
Directed by Jackie Chan

Artistic & Entertainment Value
* * ½

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Synopsis
Shortly after arriving in Hong Kong, an ignorant but decent young man, Cheng Wah Kuo (Jackie Chan), is cheated out of his money, buys a rose from a street peddler appropriately named Madame Rose (Gua Ah Leh), and is accidentally appointed the successor to a dying mob boss. Having taken over that man's gang, Cheng decides to turn their organization into a legitimate business and opens a club. Fortunately for him, he soon thereafter meets a young performer, Luming Yang (Anita Mui), who owes the gang money. He puts her to work so that she can repay her debt and quickly falls in love with her. Troubles, however, develop when Madame Rose learns that her daughter, who is studying at a university in Shanghai, will be coming to Hong Kong with her fiancé, who is the son of a rich industrialist. Madame Rose then reveals to Cheng that she has misled both her daughter and her future in-laws, having told them that she is wealthy. She is, consequently, afraid that her daughter will be rejected by her fiancé if he learns the truth. Cheng, being the good man that he is, immediately sets in motion an elaborate plot to make it seem that Rose really is rich.

Analysis
Jackie Chan's Miracles is often slow moving and uninspired, but its exhilarating action sequences and generally likeable characters do give it enough appeal for it to be watchable.

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Most of the film is dominated a series of comic routines which make use of misunderstandings, tricks, deceits, and slapstick. Sadly, few of these sequences are especially funny. One or two of them may make the viewer smile, but it is unlikely he will find himself overcome by their humor. He will, instead, probably eventually find himself bored by these tired, rehashed efforts.

Fortunately, Miracles does have a number of virtues in addition to such flaws. The film's production values are surprising good and the performances of the actors do give the movie a genuine charm. While a number of the players overact with glee, their efforts are more entertaining than they are annoying. Chan, in particular, is wonderfully energetic and consistently amiable, as he always is, and is, consequently, easily able to involve the viewer with his character. These elements are not, however, sufficiently appealing to compensate for the film's shortcomings.

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Even Miracles' action scenes are unable to make the movie truly enthralling. While each of the fights the director has included is skillfully performed and delightfully thrilling, they are so infrequent that they are capable merely of rousing the bored moviegoer from the stupor into which the film's tired comic skits have reduced him. If he is so made to stir himself from his lethargy, however, the viewer will find much to enjoy. Chan, for example, invariably displays an incredible athleticism and an impressive ability to perform remarkably complex and lavishly choreographed fights with a variety of different opponents. In one sequence or another, the viewer is thus given the chance to watch the protagonist battle an army of his foes in a sumptuous club, flee from them through the crowded streets of Hong Kong, leap about a rope factory like a monkey jumping from one limb of a tree to another, and more. There is not one of these routines that is not well realized. They simply are not frequent enough to make the whole movie captivating.

While I certainly cannot say that Miracles is Jackie Chan's best work, it is not so bad that it should be avoided.

Review by Keith Allen

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