Twin Dragons (1992)

Twin Dragons (also known as Shuang long hui and Brother vs. Brother)[2] is a 1992 Hong Kong action comedy film directed by Ringo Lam and Tsui Hark, and starring Jackie Chan in a double role as identical twin brothers separated at birth.

Twin Dragons (1992)

In 1965, a Hong Kong couple (Sylvia Chang and James Wong) are doting on their newborn identical twin boys. Meanwhile, a dangerous gang leader named Crazy Kung (Kirk Wong) is being transported as a captive in the same hospital. Crazy Kung escapes and attempts to take one of the twins hostage, and in the ensuing chaos the twins are permanently separated. One of the twins, named Ma Yau, is taken to America by his parents and grows up to be a concert pianist and conductor. The other twin, Ma Wan, is found and raised by an alcoholic woman named Tsui (Mabel Cheung), and becomes a street racer and martial artist named Bok Min. For years, neither of them is aware that he has an identical twin brother.

26 years later, the twins' (Jackie Chan) lives intersect again: Bok Min and his best friend Tarzan (Teddy Robin) get mixed up with a dangerous gang, while Ma Yau prepares to conduct a major concert in Hong Kong. In addition, the twins gain romantic interests: Bok Min meets Barbara (Maggie Cheung), a club singer Tarzan is interested in, and Yau becomes acquainted with Tong Sum (Nina Li Chi), a young woman from a respectable family who has a secret passion for fighter types. Eventually, the twins meet and discover that they share a strange connection with each other. As a result, a string of comedic mix-ups ensues when Ma Yau is accidentally enlisted by the gangsters to participate as an escape driver in the liberation of none other than Crazy Kung; Bok Min in turn is forced to conduct Yau's concert (which becomes a smash hit despite him having absolutely no musical talent); and the two of them end up with the other's girl as their respective love interest.

Eventually, things come to a head when the gangsters kidnap Tarzan to make Ma Yau surrender a briefcase meant for Crazy Kung, which Ma Yau had accidentally nabbed. The twins join up to defeat the gang that has turned their lives upside down, and in a showdown in a vehicle testing center Crazy Kung dies in a runaway crash test car. The film ends with the impending double wedding of the twins to their girls and Bok Min's introduction to his real parents; but when Bok Min gets cold feet and Ma Yau goes looking for him, a final gag falls into place when the wedding guests catch the two twins together and are unable to tell them apart.

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 54, based on 15 reviews.[9] The Austin Chronicle gave the film a positive review of three and a half stars out of five, noting that the film is "only for those who are fully on the bus with Jackie's approach...and who won't let a little bad (okay, execrable) English-language dubbing get in the way of their movie enjoyment."[10] The A.V. Club gave a positive review, but noted that it "probably won't make anyone forget Dragons Forever, Wheels On Meals, Project A, or any number of other excellent Chan films"[11] Some reviews critiqued the special effects, such as in Variety which noted "the camera trickery is glaringly cheesy in some shots, greatly undercutting the illusion of twin brothers in the same frame. When the two brothers first meet in a hotel lavatory, it's easy to see how two shots have been overlapped."[12] TV Guide gave the film one star out of four, noting that it "suffers from some very dicey twinning effects when the brothers are in frame together. Only die-hard and undemanding Chan fans need apply."[13] Jackie Chan was unhappy with how Twin Dragons came out to be primarily based on the special effects. Chan stated that he worked with Tsui Hark who he felt would provide the film with better special effects. Chan was so soured with the results of the special effects that he decided he would only attempt more special-effect based work in his American productions.[3][14]

I'm sure this is a controversial opinion, but I think Twin Dragons may be one of Jackie's funniest films. Obviously the premise - dissimilar duo who don't know each other find out they're twins with a pseudo-supernatural connection - has been mined before, most famously by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. Yet Jackie injects infectious levels of buffoonery into every improbable incident, with riotous results.

One is (or maybe "two are") reminded of the secret to any elaborate magic trick, which is to make the trick's secret so complicated that it would no longer seem worth the trouble to anyone who sees how it's done. That would be the case with Twin Dragons, if it didn't have so much excellent stuntwork - the twinning sequences go beyond mere split-screen and into shots that are ostentatious at the expense of believability. And I wouldn't swear to it but I'm pretty sure there are a couple of shots with Chan inserted into a scene through visual trickery when none is necessary, as if to acclimate the audience to the weird-looking shots during scenes with both Chans.

In 1965, a pair of twin boys are born as heirs of a wealthy family. Unfortunately, the boys are inevitably separated when a lunatic escaping from the police bursts into the hospital where they are born, and tries taking the babies hostage. Eventually, only one of the baby boys, John (Jackie Chan) is recovered, who grows up into a musician and conductor. But unbeknownst to the family, the other baby is found by the roadside and raised by a lonely woman, who names him Boomer (Jackie Chan) and raises him as a foster child, eventually growing up becoming a mechanic and street-fighter.

In this high-impact action-comedy, Chan plays a pair of long-lost twins: John was raised in the United States and is a famous classical musician, while Boomer is a rowdy mechanic who likes to race cars.

On holidays in Hong Kong, Mrs Ma gives birth to identical twins. A criminal in the same hospital attempts to escape, taking one of the twins hostage. The child is lost during the confusion, and Mr and Mrs Ma return to New York with one child. Years later, John Ma is a famous conductor and pianist, unaware that his twin brother 'Boomer' is a mechanic/race car driver/bodyguard in Hong Kong. When John travels to Hong Kong to give a concert, the twins get caught up in each other's business, about which they are anything but experts.(Source: TVProfil.com) Edit Translation

Welcome everyone to Episode 74 of the Tubi Tuesdays Podcast and this episode is also the TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL! Yes if you can believe it, Super Marcey, Bede Jermyn and Prof. Batch have been doing the show for two years! To celebrate the occasion your three hosts decided to let fate decide the film, each host submitted four film entries and one from each was randomly picked for the final draw! The final draw was done on the show and the winner for the Two Year Anniversary Special was Twin Dragons (1992)! Did the fates smile kindly for your hosts? Listen on and find out!

Separated-at-birth twins find themselves fighting off bad guys together in Hong Kong. Jackie Chan stars as both. With Maggie Cheung, Teddy Robin Kwan, Sylvia Chang, Chu Yuan, Nina Li Chi and John Keung.

Please note--this review is for the English-dubbed version. It's about 11 minutes shorter than the original film and I have no way of knowing how close it stuck to the original vision. It seemed to be dubbed reasonably well, but having never seen the original Chinese version, I am only guessing.The idea of making a Corsican Brothers-like film with two Jackie Chans sounded pretty dumb when I read about this movie. And, while in parts it is awfully silly, the overall effort was far better than I expected and was one of the better Chan movies I have seen.The movie begins with a prologue which shows how two twins were accidentally separated just after birth. The parents cannot locate the lost child and are forced to raise the remaining child. The second is fund by what appears to be a prostitute and this child is raised in a poor household. Many years later, when the rich and privileged Jackie returns to Hong Kong, he accidentally is mixed up for the poor one--the one that the local mob wants to kill! Now had this just been an action film with fight scene after fight scene, I think it wouldn't have worked as well. But, given that Jackie Chan did the movie a huge amount of comedy and clever situations involving two separate girlfriends were infused into the plot. Several times, I found myself laughing at some of the silliness of it all, but I also was impressed by how well the film all worked together pretty seamlessly.There were only two complaints about the film. First, the poor Jackie snorted a lot. Why? Couldn't there have been a better way to distinguish between them than making one of them sound like he's a pig or has a really bad cold? Secondly, the film seemed to go on a bit too long--particularly at the action-packed conclusion. Knocking five or ten minutes off would have probably made the film a bit better--as the fight scene just went on and on and on. Still, this is a decent martial arts film and is worth a look and a laugh.FYI--The film's second billing went to Maggie Cheung--a relatively famous Asian actress who has made a variety of excellent films. However, her role was no bigger or more prominent than the other lady in the film who didn't appear until much further in the credits. Bummer.

Jackie Chan comedy that was made as a fundraiser for the Hong Kong Directors' Guild. Jackie plays twin brothers separated at birth who's paths cross years later when one brother, a concert pianist, visits Hong Kong for a show, is mistaken for his criminal street-wise brother. Comedy and martial arts ensue! My main disappointment with the film is that there weren't enough fight scenes. A majority of the film is a farcical door slamming sex comedy (though mostly a family friendly sex comedy since this IS a Jackie Chan film), involving lady friends (Maggie Cheung and Nina Li) mistaking the brothers for the other and liking what they find. That part of the film is mildly entertaining, but not funny enough to make it worth recommending. However, the climactic fight sequence in a car testing plan is terrific and makes this film absolutely worth watching. Co-directed by Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam, Hark directed most of the comedy and Lam took care of the action. There's also some fun HK director cameos, including John Woo as a priest at a wedding, Ringo Lam plays a mechanic, Tsui Hark plays a card player, Gordon Chan plays a violinist, and Kirk Wong plays a thug. 041b061a72