![[box cover]](../../reviewimgs/g/gorgeous.jpg)
Gorgeous (Bor lei jun)
An interesting change of pace from Jackie Chan, Gorgeous is a romantic comedy about a young woman named Bu (Shu Qi) who lives in a small Taiwanese fishing town. When she finds a bottle containing a romantic note from someone named "Albert," she travels to Hong Kong in search of the man she is sure is her soulmate. Unfortunately Albert (Tony Leung, memorable from John Woo's Hard Boiled) is gay — the note is intended for his boyfriend — but they strike up a friendship and Albert takes Bu along on a fashion shoot on a yacht. But when Bu witnesses Bruce Wayne-like millionaire businessman C.N. Chan (Jackie Chan) scuffling with his archrival's lackeys on a neighboring boat, she rushes to his rescue in a pretty adorable Cute Meet. Albert then advises Bu of Chan's playboy status, so she pretends to be the missing girlfriend of a gangster (a plot device that goes nowhere, but is easily ignored), and she helps Chan train to take on a professional fighter hired by his business rival in the hopes of humilating him. The mood of Gorgeous makes sudden jumps from the self-aware absurdity of movies like Strictly Ballroom to the clean, classic feel of modern romances like French Kiss, yet it remains charming and eminently watchable. The light plot creates a good opportunity for Chan's obligatory fight scenes and, at 46 years old, he is still amazing to watch. While Jackie certainly has taken greater risks and done far more elaborately choreographed and dangerous stunts than seen here, in action he is as compelling as ever, and his two scenes with Australian fighter Bradley James Allen (last seen in a small role in Mr. Nice Guy) offer a rare opportunity to watch Chan demonstrate his skills one-on-one, with a minimum of gags, against someone even smaller and quicker than himself. Good anamoprhic transfer, and while Columbia Tristar's DVD edition snips 22 minutes from the original Hong Kong release of Gorgeous, some of these scenes can be glimpsed during a "making-of" supplement.
—Dawn Taylor
