Armour of God
Encyclopedia
Armour of God is a 1987 Hong Kong martial arts
action film
co-directed by, and starring Jackie Chan
. The film features Chan's regular kung-fu, comedy
and stunt
s, with an Indiana Jones
-style theme. Chan came the closest he has ever been to death in this film during a relatively routine stunt; he leaped onto a tree from a ledge, but the branch he grabbed snapped, sending Chan plummeting and cracking his skull. The film was followed by the sequel. Armour of God II: Operation Condor
in 1991.
) and Lorelei (Rosamund Kwan
) before he was kicked out of the band by Alan, who wanted Lorelei for himself. At the beginning of the film Jackie steals a sword from an African tribe that is one of the five pieces of a valuable armour known as the Armour of God. Alan is still a successful singer and Lorelei is a renowned fashion-designer. During the course of the film, Jackie is shown trying to sell the Armour of God via auction. He has a secretly placed artificial bidder whose job is to increase the bids by bidding a few hundred dollars more than the highest bidder. Although unexpected, the armour manages to get an astronomical bid by May Bannon. Happy with his grand fortune Jackie goes back to his hotel where he discovers an entire bunch of messages from Alan informing Jackie of his arrival.
When Jackie and Alan meet, Alan out of desperation (although unwillingly) tells Jackie of an evil cult which has kidnapped Lorelei and are demanding the Armour of God as ransom. Jackie at this sees the opportunity to remind Alan about their past failed friendship.
Jackie decides to aid Alan in rescuing Lorelei from the evil religious cult that has stolen her in hopes of Asian Hawk delivering the last three pieces of the Armor to them as they have the other two. With this information, Jackie is able to convince May Bannon and her father to borrow the three pieces with the promise that Jackie would return with all five to their collector.
.
(1991) did receive a theatrical release under the simplified title Operation Condor.
Armour of God was subsequently released direct-to-video by Miramax Films
, but the title was somewhat confusingly changed to Operation Condor 2: The Armor of the Gods, despite being released before Operation Condor.
A new musical score was created for this release, and English dubbing (with the participation of Chan) was also recorded.
Nine minutes of cuts were made to the Miramax version, including:
These same cuts were evident in the Spanish Region 2 release, but DVD releases in Hong Kong, Australia and the rest of Europe are uncut.
Martial arts film
Martial arts film is a film genre. A sub-genre of the action film, martial arts films contain numerous fights between characters, usually as the films' primary appeal and entertainment value, and often as a method of storytelling and character expression and development. Martial arts are frequently...
action film
Hong Kong action cinema
Hong Kong action cinema is the principal source of the Hong Kong film industry's global fame. It combines elements from the action film, as codified by Hollywood, with Chinese storytelling and aesthetic traditions, to create a culturally distinctive form that nevertheless has a wide transcultural...
co-directed by, and starring Jackie Chan
Jackie Chan
Jackie Chan, SBS, MBE is a Hong Kong actor, action choreographer, comedian, director, producer, martial artist, screenwriter, entrepreneur, singer and stunt performer. In his movies, he is known for his acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, use of improvised weapons, and innovative stunts...
. The film features Chan's regular kung-fu, comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
and stunt
Stunt
A stunt is an unusual and difficult physical feat, or any act requiring a special skill, performed for artistic purposes in TV, theatre, or cinema...
s, with an Indiana Jones
Indiana Jones
Colonel Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., Ph.D. is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Indiana Jones franchise. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg created the character in homage to the action heroes of 1930s film serials...
-style theme. Chan came the closest he has ever been to death in this film during a relatively routine stunt; he leaped onto a tree from a ledge, but the branch he grabbed snapped, sending Chan plummeting and cracking his skull. The film was followed by the sequel. Armour of God II: Operation Condor
Armour of God II: Operation Condor
Armour of God II: Operation Condor is a 1991 Hong Kong martial arts-action film, directed by and starring Jackie Chan. It is the sequel to his hit Armour of God. It was produced by Golden Harvest / Paragon Films....
in 1991.
Plot
Jackie aka Asian Hawk (Jackie Chan) is an adventurer with a mercenary streak. Jackie used to perform in a band with his friends Alan (Alan TamAlan Tam
Wing Lun Alan Tam, MH is an award-winning Hong Kong Cantopop and English pop singer and actor. During the early 1980s he played a major role in developing the cantopop scene as he was known for singing romantic ballads with modern arrangements. As of 2008, he is still active in the music...
) and Lorelei (Rosamund Kwan
Rosamund Kwan
Rosamund Kwan Chi-lam is a Chinese actress born in Hong Kong with ancestry in Shenyang, Liaoning in China on her father's side and from Shanghai on her mother's side. She is the daughter of Shaw Brothers star Kwan Shan and actress Cheung Bing Sai...
) before he was kicked out of the band by Alan, who wanted Lorelei for himself. At the beginning of the film Jackie steals a sword from an African tribe that is one of the five pieces of a valuable armour known as the Armour of God. Alan is still a successful singer and Lorelei is a renowned fashion-designer. During the course of the film, Jackie is shown trying to sell the Armour of God via auction. He has a secretly placed artificial bidder whose job is to increase the bids by bidding a few hundred dollars more than the highest bidder. Although unexpected, the armour manages to get an astronomical bid by May Bannon. Happy with his grand fortune Jackie goes back to his hotel where he discovers an entire bunch of messages from Alan informing Jackie of his arrival.
When Jackie and Alan meet, Alan out of desperation (although unwillingly) tells Jackie of an evil cult which has kidnapped Lorelei and are demanding the Armour of God as ransom. Jackie at this sees the opportunity to remind Alan about their past failed friendship.
Jackie decides to aid Alan in rescuing Lorelei from the evil religious cult that has stolen her in hopes of Asian Hawk delivering the last three pieces of the Armor to them as they have the other two. With this information, Jackie is able to convince May Bannon and her father to borrow the three pieces with the promise that Jackie would return with all five to their collector.
Production
- This film was shot in former YugoslaviaYugoslaviaYugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
: in ZagrebZagrebZagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
(Dolac Central Market, Upper town, TrnjeTrnjeTrnje is a district in the City of Zagreb, Croatia. According to the 2001 census, the district had 45,267 residents. It is located in the central part of the city, south of Donji grad across the railway , east of Trešnjevka , west of Pešćenica , and north of the river Sava...
(near the then-unfinished building of Croatian Radio Television), CroatiaCroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, GrazGrazThe more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...
and in Predjama CastlePredjama Castlethumb|right|250px|Predjama CastlePredjama Castle is a Renaissance castle built within a cave mouth in southwestern Slovenia. It is located approximately 11 kilometres from Postojna.-History of the castle:...
near PostojnaPostojnaPostojna is a town and a municipality in the traditional region of Inner Carniola, from Trieste, in southwestern Slovenia. Population 14,581 .-History:...
, SloveniaSloveniaSlovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
. - During filming, one scene called for him to jump from a wall to a tree branch. On his second jump, the branch broke and he fell 15 feet to the ground below. His head hit a rock, cracking his skull and shooting a piece of bone up into his brain. Chan was flown to the hospital and was in surgery 8 hours later. As a result, he now has a permanent hole in his head, filled by a plastic plug, and slight hearing loss in one ear.
Reception
At the Hong Kong box office, Armour of God was Chan's biggest hit up to that point and broke all records in Hong Kong, grossing HK $35,469,408 in its theatrical run. The film received positive reviews, with a rating of 75% on review aggregator Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
.
Miramax version
In the United States, Armour of God did not get a theatrical release. The film's sequel, Armour of God II: Operation CondorArmour of God II: Operation Condor
Armour of God II: Operation Condor is a 1991 Hong Kong martial arts-action film, directed by and starring Jackie Chan. It is the sequel to his hit Armour of God. It was produced by Golden Harvest / Paragon Films....
(1991) did receive a theatrical release under the simplified title Operation Condor.
Armour of God was subsequently released direct-to-video by Miramax Films
Miramax Films
Miramax Films is an American entertainment company known for distributing independent and foreign films. For its first 14 years the company was privately owned by its founders, Bob and Harvey Weinstein...
, but the title was somewhat confusingly changed to Operation Condor 2: The Armor of the Gods, despite being released before Operation Condor.
A new musical score was created for this release, and English dubbing (with the participation of Chan) was also recorded.
Nine minutes of cuts were made to the Miramax version, including:
- The concert scene of Jackie's band, 'The Losers', an allusion to '70s CantopopCantopopCantopop is a colloquialism for "Cantonese popular music". It is sometimes referred to as HK-pop, short for "Hong Kong popular music". It is categorized as a subgenre of Chinese popular music within C-pop...
band The WynnersThe WynnersThe Wynners are a Hong Kong pop band formed in the 1970s. The five-piece is made up of Alan Tam , Kenny Bee , Bennett Pang , Danny Yip and Anthony Chan .-History:...
. - Jackie's dream sequence.
- The scene in which May (played by Lola FornerLola FornerLola Forner also known as María Dolores Forner, is a Spanish actress. She was crowned Miss Spain in 1979...
), disguised as a prostitute, encounters a monk who wants to sleep with her. - An extended version of the slapstick sequence in which Alan (played by Alan TamAlan TamWing Lun Alan Tam, MH is an award-winning Hong Kong Cantopop and English pop singer and actor. During the early 1980s he played a major role in developing the cantopop scene as he was known for singing romantic ballads with modern arrangements. As of 2008, he is still active in the music...
) hides in May's room. The scene also includes Lorelei (while under the cult's spell) attempting to seduce Jackie.
These same cuts were evident in the Spanish Region 2 release, but DVD releases in Hong Kong, Australia and the rest of Europe are uncut.
Cast
- Jackie ChanJackie ChanJackie Chan, SBS, MBE is a Hong Kong actor, action choreographer, comedian, director, producer, martial artist, screenwriter, entrepreneur, singer and stunt performer. In his movies, he is known for his acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, use of improvised weapons, and innovative stunts...
- Jackie aka Asian Hawk - Alan TamAlan TamWing Lun Alan Tam, MH is an award-winning Hong Kong Cantopop and English pop singer and actor. During the early 1980s he played a major role in developing the cantopop scene as he was known for singing romantic ballads with modern arrangements. As of 2008, he is still active in the music...
- Alan - Lola FornerLola FornerLola Forner also known as María Dolores Forner, is a Spanish actress. She was crowned Miss Spain in 1979...
- May Bannon - Rosamund KwanRosamund KwanRosamund Kwan Chi-lam is a Chinese actress born in Hong Kong with ancestry in Shenyang, Liaoning in China on her father's side and from Shanghai on her mother's side. She is the daughter of Shaw Brothers star Kwan Shan and actress Cheung Bing Sai...
- Lorelei - Bozidar Smiljanic - Count Bannon
- Ken Boyle - Grand Wizard
- John Ladalski - Lama
- Robert O'Brien - witch doctor
- Boris Gregoric - Jackie's representative at auction
Awards and nominations
- 1988 Hong Kong Film Awards
- Nomination: Best Action Choreography (Jackie Chan Stunt TeamJackie Chan Stunt TeamThe Jackie Chan Stunt Team , also known as Jackie Chan's Stuntmen Association is a group of stuntmen and martial artists who work alongside Jackie Chan.-History:...
, Lau Kar-wing, Danny Yuen)
- Nomination: Best Action Choreography (Jackie Chan Stunt Team