Jackie Chan is most known for his Martial Arts comedy or light hearted action films. The guy is just downright likable. But not all his films are so squeaky clean, just most North American releases. In fact the most recent project he is working on, Shinjuku Incident is so violent that the Chinese Language film will not be released in most of China.
Hong Kong director Derek Yee said Monday that he considered toning down the violence in “Shinjuku Incident” so it could pass censorship in China, but decided not to because he thought it would hurt the integrity of the movie.
Yee said the $25 million Chinese-language movie, in which Chan plays a refugee who escapes to Japan and becomes a killer for the mob, has scenes that show characters getting a hand chopped off and pierced with knives.
Chan is insistent that this has nothing to do with political censorship or cultural boundaries, but that it is purely the violence in this film that is his motivation.
Removing the violence might have been an easy out, but Chan (who also invested in this film) and his director both agree that to cut it out would take something away from the movie. I can respect that.
So Jackie Chan fans will have to be in Hong Kong, Japan or Southeast Asia this spring to see it.
