The Accidental Spy (Dak miu mai shing) directed by Jackie Chan, again has the amiable kungfu artist leaping from tall buildings and crashing through open markets in endless chase scenes, with the eye candy of his nude body (rear but not pubic) on display for several minutes. The story is, as always, incidental, but the cinematography is excellent, including Hongkong as well as Istanbul. Orphaned, Chan (playing himself) is informed that his birthfather is on his deathbed in Korea, eager to see him. After a scene in which thugs try to gain access to his father, his father dies. Chan's inheritance is a comfortable sum of money, a cross, and a key to a safe deposit box at a bank in Istanbul. After flying to Istanbul, he opens the box and finds a large amount of cash as well as a clue about other possessions at a church in town. Among the possessions left in the rectory are two vials containing an opium-based product. Three gangs want the opium. One is from Korea, a second from Turkey, and the third consists of CIA agents. There are plenty of fight and flight scenes, and a pretty girl strikes Jackie's fancy. Chan survives, and the opium goes to the highest bidder, and as always the film ends on hilarious outtakes. The film never played at moviehouses in the United States; American distributors may have been nervous about a portrayal of the CIA involved in the drug trade after 9/11, though such involvement has been documented in Indochina during the 1960s and Central America in the 1980s. Nevertheless, the DVD is readily available, in seamlessly dubbed English. MH
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