Independent Films, Film Profiles

The Medallion

The Medallion is a 2003 action/comedy film directed by Hong Kong filmmaker Gordon Chan, and starring Jackie Chan, Lee Evans and Claire Forlani. It was released in 2003 and was much less successful than Chan's other North American vehicles such as the Rush Hour film series, Shanghai Noon and its sequel, Shanghai Knights.Eddie Yang is a Hong Kong police officer cooperating with Interpol in the capture of a crimelord named AJ "Snakehead" Staul. The operation is headed by the officiously paranoid Agent Arthur Watson and also involves a former girlfriend of Eddie's, a British agent named Nicole. The investigation leads the team to the kidnapping of a young boy named Jai, who holds the secret to a powerful medallion that gives its possessor superhuman powers and immortality. After a near-death rescue of Jai from drowning, Eddie is given supernatural martial arts powers, which assists him in tracking down Snakehead and putting an end to the arch-criminal's scheme.As noted in the trivia section, the working title of the film was "Highbinders." In the original plot of the film, those who were given power by the medallion became a Highbinder. Snakehead's original goal in the film was to create an army of Highbinders to join in his crime organization.According to the commentary by the editors of this film, "The Medallion" was not an American-made film, although Columbia Tristar bought the distribution and editing rights worldwide except in Japan, France, and Hong Kong (but these three countries retain the American cut of the film, the only cut ever made). The original cut was meant to be around 108 minutes, and the plot of the film explained Snakehead's crime organization of human smuggling, and the deaths that occurred from it, as well as his desire to create an army of Highbinders to aide his crime organization. All of this, however, was cut to center on the medallion.Over 20 minutes of these deleted scenes can be viewed on the US Columbia Tristar DVD.