Miracles: The Canton Godfather

This is terrific! One of his most lush, great looking, and well-directed (by himself) films, "Miracles" is engaging, charming and absolutely likable! The humor's perfect, along with the setting, and the cast is wonderful! The fighting, though less prevalent, is in my opinion some of his best work! This one pays great attention to story and detail, and not only is it very entertaining, it's really pretty beautiful to look at, as well....

I recently picked up a full, subtitled copy of 'Miracles', and I must say that the original is better than the dubbed version I had previously seen, and that version was also around half an hour shorter than the original version. The dubbed version cut out some not-so-important scenes, but things still got confusing at times, and some very funny scenes which did not make into the dubbed version, and at least one of the fight scenes was significantly edited in the dubbed version.

'Miracles' a very different movie to most of Jackie's work. There is the trademark Jackie Chan action and slapstick, but fights and action sequences are not as frequent as they are in his other movies, as 'Miracles' is more about Jackie proving to critics that he can make a movie with extravagant sets and costumes, and complicated camera shots (Who can blame him? James Cameron did the same thing, but 'Miracles' is a both an enjoyable and a good movie, while 'Titanic' is neither).

The movie is funny, and the action (what action there is) is excellent, and even the acting is great.

9/10 A great movie. Check it out if you're a Jackie Chan fan, but make sure you get the full, subtitled movie (should be about two-hours).

Miracles is Jackie Chan's favourite amongst his movies ,and the one in which he invested the most time and care. The result is, technically, a triumph. The convincing sets, lavish costumes and graceful camera work really hold by western film standards, while the fight scenes boast choreography that is just incredible to watch. They are more like musical numbers than martial arts fights, but the level of invention is just staggering, particularly in the scene where Jackie has to make his way down some stairs, fighting heavies as he does so, and the end battle in a rope factory.

However, elsewhere the film has problems. It attempts to juggle several plot lines with mixed success. The 'gangster'part, with Jackie as a crime boss, generally works well, but Jackie's relationship with singer Anita Mui almost disappears from the film and the Frank Capra 'A Pocketful Of Miracles'copied story is dwelt on at such length and so slowly that the middle of the film drags terribly, with endless dialogue scenes that could have sometimes been shortened or cut without harm to the film {or course, there is a shorter version of this film, but with some of the wrong bits cut}. At least there are some great laughs, such as gangsters and their 'molls' trying to be respectable rich folk, and the Clouseau-like Richard Ng's police captain.

Miracles is certainly not one of Chan's classics like Project A, Police Story or Drunken Master 1 and 2, but there is still a lot to like.

It is well known that 'Miracles' is one of Jackie Chan's favourite

movies, mainly due to the artistic freedom he got to make it.

We're all accustomed to Jackie Chan movies in the style of the

high octane martial arts action thriller, but up until this production

Jackie had little chance to show off his cinematographic skills,

often criticised for being very one-dimensional in his movie

making. 'Miracles' was the answer to all that.

Having secured the largest budget in HK movie history for this film

(which was yet still extremely modest by Hollywood standards),

Miracles was produced slightly differently from HK films we're

used to. The result was a lavish set with excellent costumes, and

most of all, flowing, extravagant shots throughout the film.

Unfortunately though, the storyline is a bit weak.

This is certainly not the traditional Jackie Chan movie we're used

to, but it is nice to see Jackie show off some of his other skills in

movie making, and that he's not just an all-action hero.

I didn't even know that Jackie made this movie for a long time. Lavishly shot with all star cast. This is one fantastic movie.

Kwok (Jackie Chan) arrives in Hong Kong looking for a job. Within hours, he's swindled of all his money by Tung (Bill Tung). Lamenting his misfortune, he meets the rose lady who's selling roses. Kwok buys one rose from her. Next thing he knows, he's involved in a gang chase. The chase has the boss fatally wounded. He murmurs in his last breath pointing to Kwok that "This man is the new head". Overnight, Kwok becomes the boss of a crime family. He declares "No more crime and killing", but the old habits die hard. Kwok is called in by Tiger - an another gang boss for negotiations. Each time he goes about his business, he buys a rose from the rose lady to give him good luck. One day, he doesn't find the rose lady. He searches for her, and she's in distress. Asking her why, she confesses that her daughter in Shanghai is getting married to a wealthy man's son. But she's been telling her that she's rich which is so far from the truth, and is afraid that when the groom and his father gets to Hong Kong, and sees her, they will cancel the wedding. Kwok has an idea to make the rose lady look rich, and invite all of other gang bosses and make them act as dignitaries in Hong Kong for the wedding party. But two other rival gangs, and inspector from Hong Kong police is about to foul up the whole plan.

There's action, romance, and lot of feel good scenes in this movie. The story telling, and timing things happen can only be experienced in Jackie Chan movies. The actors all perform better than usual attesting to Jackie's ability as a director. The choreography of the fight sequence is one of the best also.

Anita Mui plays the role of Ming - a singer for Kwok's club, and Kwok's love interest. She's great. Her talent will be missed.

This is one heck of a movie, and one of the best movie Jackie Chan produced in the '80s.