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Black Dragon (aka Miracles)
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List Price: $14.94
Our Price: $12.99
Your Save: $ 1.95 ( 13% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Starring: Kenny Bee, Yuen Chor, Ah Lei Gua, Kara Hui, Ricky Hui
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Sony
EAN: 9781404939929
Format: Anamorphic
ISBN: 140493992X
Label: Sony Pictures
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Region Code: 99
Release Date: 2003-12-23
Running Time: 127
Studio: Sony Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: 1989
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Editorial Reviews:
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Directed by and starring Jackie Chan, and set in 1930s Hong Kong, Miracles is a gangster film that is equal parts comedy and action film, with a touch of melodrama thrown in for good measure. Chan stars as a young man who rescues a dying crime boss in 1930s Hong Kong. When the boss passes away, he is tapped to become the new leader. He attributes his good luck to an old rose seller and the roses he buys off of her. To pay her back for all of his good fortune, he helps her pretend to be a wealthy socialite, just as she had described herself in letters to her daughter in order to help impress her daughter's wealthy fiancé and not queer their upcoming marriage. The plot is lifted from Frank Capra's Lady for a Day (1933), which Capra remade in 1961 as Pocketful of Miracles. Of course, like all Jackie Chan films, this movie contains more--and more innovative--fight scenes than Capra could ever dream of. Two set pieces in particular are stunning: A big fight in a restaurant and the final battle in the warehouse of a rope factory. Along the way, Chan throws in a musical number inspired by Busby Berkeley and a whole lotta heart, making this a well-rounded and entertaining film, which Chan himself has allegedly referred to as his favorite. --Andy Spletzer
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Less than miraculous
Comment: 1987's Miracles was one of Jackie Chan's biggest flops, and it's not that difficult to see why. A lavish Hong Kong reworking of the Frank Capra-Damon Runyon classic Lady For a Day set in a lovingly recreated Twenties Hong Kong, you can see where the money's been spent, but too often the film feels like it's all window dressing. Director-star Chan is so enamoured of the project that he loses sight of the story and the audience and it constantly tips over into drawn-out self-indulgence even in the two hour version, so it's hard to imagine how slow Chan's original unreleased and reportedly lost three-hour cut must have been. Chan's a down-on-his-luck chancer who, after buying a lucky rose from an old woman, finds his luck changing, quickly working his way to the top as a gangster-cum-gambler-cum-club owner (of the kind who never kills anyone, naturally) and repays the favor by roping in his gang and various IOUs to masquerade as the cream of high society when the flower seller's daughter - who believes her mother to be a rich socialite - comes to visit. Action is thin on the ground until the elaborate ladder-fight finale, but that's less of a problem than the fact that neither the film nor the characters really engage your sympathy or much of your interest along the way. There are some good sequences, including a virtuoso single-take shot of making over a gambling den into a fancy restaurant with several nods to Buster Keaton along the way, but there just aren't enough of them.
As others have noted, this DVD includes the 127-minute subtitled version that was released in Hong Kong theaters.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Get the facts right, this DVD has the Uncut version.
Comment: Again, unfortunately someone has been jumping the gun and accusing every DVD released in America to be cut. Usually a warning is apropriate, as foreign films are often cut, however, you should know whether or not that's true before you write a bad review. Not only does this film have both the original dialogue/ uncut version & the english dubbed(on one double-sided disc), but it lists it right in the features above. Please do your research or at least read the description before you continue to make these harsh allegations.
That being said, the audio and video quality on this DVD is very poor. The other R1 version by Tai Seng is the 22 minutes shorter cut, so avoid that one. So, region free player? Hong Kong Legends version, if not, either this one, or some cheaper HK import that will probably also have subpar quality.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Original is BETTER
Comment: If you want UNCUT ORIGINAL version, ALWAYS look for ORIGINAL LICENSED Production. NOT US Release. Its a foreign film, it should not be US version to begin with~! HELLO!!!?? Why settle for LESS with US Version where they edit and cut so many excellent scenes especially with Jackie's Fighting Scenes. And US Release ruins the speed and sound as well. I have been collecting Jackie Chan's movies both HK and US Release Version for quite some time now. I found HK Version to be MUCH MORE in enjoyable, and HIGHER in Quality. American Market always like to "Americanize" and "Control". Regional Code Regulation thing is one of the example to CONTROL the Market. Why not let everyone enjoy the same HK Original Release move the same way ENTIRE WORLD enjoys it ?? No one makes Hollywood American movies to "French version" or "Chinese Version" ~! This what Americans are doing~! Well, enjoy the cheap "American version" then~! LOL
Customer Rating:
Summary: miracles
Comment: its a pretty good movie. very touching but the quality isnt perfect and the acting and stuff isnt that awesome either. other than that, the action's great. jackie chan does a good job.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Chan's best work as a director!
Comment: The movie, which I won't bother summarizing since it's been done in other reviews, is a feel-good-story sprinkled with some awesome action. If you're just out for an action fix, you may want to pick up another Chan movie instead. Although the fight scenes have quality work in choreography, execution, and creativity (beautiful fight in a rope-factory), it focuses on plot and dialogue for good chunks of time. If you don't mind a balanced movie between plot and action, you might want to jump on this one.
Jackie Chan did a nice job in both directing and starring the movie. He played the naive poorboy with a heart of gold perfectly. The comedy in the movie didn't evoke the laughter Chan movie's usually get out of me, but it's still abit humorous nevertheless. It's a shame Anita Mui didn't get much development throughout the movie. Her love-relationship with Jackie in the movie seems strained, out of place, and unnecessary. I guess since there were so many things going on in the plot at once, their relationship was underdeveloped and took a back seat.
Chan's directing throughout the movie is, in my opinion, his best effort as a director yet. He did a great job organizing the hectic mess of plotlines that consistently intervened and conflicted with each other, while ultimately leading it up to a climatic finish with the different plots being intertwined and combined.
Note: I only viewed the movie through Cantonese dubbing w/English subtitles. English dubbing WAS included in this version, but I just prefer to view movies in their original, intended format.
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