Chandni Chowk to China

If a Bollywood film has an engaging story, I can forgive it running three hours and if a kung-fu film serves up interesting fight scenes I can forgive it pretty much anything at all. Chandni Chowk to China is a Bollywood kung-fu flick that unfortunately doesn't serve up enough story to fill its two and a half hours and some fairly uninspired fighting. The fight scenes are mostly by-the-numbers choreography with a lot of CG sillyness thrown in (think Shaolin Soccer only without being actually funny). The songs, this is Bollywood after all, were mostly played for laughs as well, either turning out to be commercials or being interupted by people slipping on banana peels (honestly).

The film did feature Gordon Liu looking very dapper as a villian weilding a Bowler Hat o' Decapitation. I've been a huge fan of Liu ever since I first saw him in The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and Heroes of the East. I was happy to see him in the film much like I was happy to see Cary Elwes (Westley in The Princess Bride) in Saw, you develop a certain affection for the people involved in creating films and characters that you love and it's nice to see that they're still in a job and haven't been reduced to wrestling hobos for hooch. Also adding a bit of gravis to his scenes was Roger Yuen. I thought I recognized him, but I had to go hit IMDB to find out that he's the guy who played the main villian Lo Fong in Shanghai Noon. He's made a few other movies and done a lot of stunt work and has a very Hong-Kong-Cinema face. While he was on camera I could pretend I was watching a kung-fu movie, for a while at least.

CC2C uses the story of a Indian street cook and general loser who is mistaken as the reincarnation of a Chinese folk hero as a vehicle for a plot about believing in yourself and working hard to obtain your goals. Along the way coincidences pile up like dead teenagers in a slasher film and most of the main characters all turn out to be related to each other. I really wouldn't watch the movie again, and I can't recommend seeing it unless you are really curious to see how Bollywood and Kung-fu play together, or if you're just interested in checking up on Gordon Liu.

This film reminded me of Lagaan, but only because I kept wishing that I was watching that movie instead. It also reminded me of this song. Just cause. It's . . . Indian.