The movie entitled Rumble in the Bronx is an action comedy featuring the story of a Chinese visitor in the Bronx, New York. The story revolves around Keung who visits his Uncle Bill in America in time for his wedding. Later, he got involved with a biker gang when he attempted to stop their bike race from destroying the car that his Uncle borrowed from his friend. During the course of the on-going brawls with the group, one of its member, Angelo stole a diamond from larger syndicate group led by White Tiger. Angelo escaped the syndicate and hid the diamonds on the cushion of the wheelchair of a paralytic Chinese boy named Danny, which is the brother of Nancy. Nancy is one of the members of the minor gang group who earlier chased Keung into a brawl. After failing to find Angelo, the major syndicate killed one of the members of Tony’s bike group. With the help of Keung, Tony and his member promised to reform and cooperate to bring justice to their. A climactic battle ensued between Keung and the member of White Tiger’s group as they fought on the Hudson River. Keung managed to get the information of white Tiger’s location and headed towards the golf course where he was playing. He managed to run-over White Tiger with his hovercraft, which ended the story of the film.
The movie positively reinforces the values of Chinese community in upholding justice and fighting crimes. The incorporation of martial arts in the film allows the character of Keung to denote a clear intention on his attempt to help others. Unlike the other characters in the film who uses guns and other weapons, Keung’s character is non-aggressive with his preference to use his hands on his marital arts. Martial arts are seen as less aggressive unlike other types of action movie techniques (Gentz & Kramer, 2006). His quick wit on using his environment to fight against the antagonist demonstrates intelligence and superiority of his values as Chinese. Additionally, the movie also presents the cultural difference between Eastern and Western cultures. Keung is new to America and seen differently inequalities around his environment. There is a disparity between the urban development between Manhattan and the Bronx as they display the economic gap between the two areas (Florida, 2013). The Bronx area is also depicted as a crime-infested neighborhood with the proliferation of gang-related activities. Moreover, Keung realizes these threats when their supermarket has been victimized by vandalizing and shoplifting. The traditional values of Keung helped him step-up and fought back with the aggressors inside their supermarket, which symbolizes his true intention of changing the area.
On the other hand, the movie generalizes the naïve characters of Asian immigrants in their encounter with the United States. It presents Keung being surprised with the interracial relationship of his Uncle with an African-American woman. He also has high reverence for the conservative feature of Asian women when he mistaken Nancy as naïve and not involved with the criminal activity of his gang. The character of Keung was also characterized with difficulty in conversing in English, which is not necessarily a disadvantage for other Asian visitors. Some Asian visitors have the capacity to converse well in the English language. Although, it might be difficult to eliminate any cultural difference between the two cultures, Asian visitors are well informed of the different American culture present in the area. These stereotyping may not be necessary in the plot of the movie. The association of martial arts film to Asian characters and actors also enforces the restrictions of Asian portrayal on different media (Manaa.org, 2008).
References
Florida, R. (2013). Class-Divided Cities: New York Edition. CityLab. Retrieved from http://www.citylab.com/housing/2013/01/class-divided-cities-new-york-edition/3819/
Gentz, N., & Kramer, S. (2006). Globalization, cultural identities, and media representations (1st ed.). Albany: State University of New York Press.
Manaa.org. (2008). Restrictive Portrayals of Asians in the Media and How to Balance Them. MANAA. Retrieved from http://www.manaa.org/asian_stereotypes.html
