Who Am I?
Fight now. Ask questions later.
我是誰 (1998)
Revenue
$19 154 137
Director
Scenario
Composer
Nathan Wang
Producer
Barbie Tung Wan-Si
Actors
Jackie Chan
Who Am I
Michelle Ferre
Christine
Mirai Yamamoto
Yuki
Ron Smerczak
Morgan
Ed Nelson
General Sharman
Ton Pompert
C.I.A. Chairman
Glory Simon
C.I.A. Secretary
Fred van Ditmarsch
Airforce
Short description
A covert CIA team is sent into the African jungle to seize a new and devastating energy source. The operation is betrayed from within by Morgan, a corrupt agent who arranges for the team to be eliminated in a helicopter crash. One man survives, but the fall leaves him with no memory of his identity. A local tribe nurses him back to health and gives him the name "Who Am I," after the only question he can ask. Returning to the outside world, he is helped by a reporter, Christine, as he tries to work out who he is and to find the people who left him for dead.
Jackie Chan stars as the amnesiac survivor and also directs, with Benny Chan, in a story Chan wrote with Lee Reynolds and Susan Chan Suk-Yin. For Chan the director this was the eleventh of fourteen films, following Operation Condor and preceding Jackie Chan: My Story. Michelle Ferre plays Christine, Mirai Yamamoto plays Yuki, and Ron Smerczak, Ed Nelson and Ton Pompert appear as Morgan, General Sharman and the CIA chairman.
Released in January 1998, the film mixes action and adventure with comedy and thriller elements across a runtime of two hours. It took about 19 million dollars worldwide, a modest return. On IMDb it holds 6.8 from 46,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 7.2 from 1,043 votes. A critics' rating of 6.2 from nine reviews places it below the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- During the rooftop fight scene, Bradley James Allan doubles for Rona Smuerenburg during the footwork. And in the scene with alternating high and low kicks, the high kicks were performed using a dummy leg.
- The height of the Rotterdam house that Jackie Chan slid down was 23 floors. Jackie dedicated his jump to his teacher – Master Yu Jim Yuen.
- The car in which Jackie Chan and two girls escape the chase in South Africa is a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IV.
- The scene in which Jackie Chan rides a rhinoceros was not included in the film because a mistake was made by the dubbing operator during filming. Jackie was extremely dissatisfied with this, because there was no opportunity to reshoot the scene, and he also sustained an injury after falling from a very active animal.
- The name of the city of Aggrahba is derived from a Bushman phrase meaning "place of great noise." It is associated with the powerful Orange River, which flows through barren landscapes and then plunges with a huge waterfall into a deep gorge.
- The name of the town of Kakamas means "place of the fierce cow." It is primarily an agricultural region where peaches and other hardy fruits are grown. The territory is arid, with only 100 millimeters of precipitation per year.
- The song that plays during the credits is performed by Jackie Chan himself.
- A hotel room with the number 1954 can be noticed in the film. 1954 is the year Jackie Chan was born.
- During the siren chase scene, the car sirens of the Dutch police in Rotterdam do not sound as they actually do.
- Immediately after the car with Jackie and two women rolls onto its side and tears up the ground, it is shown without a single scratch.
- The stain on the front of Jackie’s t-shirt changes in the scene with the laptop (in Rotterdam).
- During the street fight in Rotterdam, Jackie loses his shoes. He puts on a pair of shoes to finish the fight and escape, but throughout the rest of the film after that scene, he wears the same shoes as at the very beginning. The Hong Kong version includes a scene that explains this.
- At the beginning of the film, when Jackie and his men attack the convoy, they first observe it using a special infrared binocular and see the people inside the cars by their thermal radiation. However, when showing the truck with three scientists inside, there is no visible driver, and the heat emitted by the truck's engine is also not noticeable.
- During the car chase, Christina’s handcuffs, which are attached to the car door handle, become undone when the car rolls onto its side. But in the next shot, they are fastened again.
- When Jackie fights with South African police officers, his hands are tied. But the moment he enters the office, his hands are untied, and in the very next scene, his hands are tied again.
- When Jackie fights the second assassin on the roof, the assassin's shoes are different in various shots.
- When Jackie runs up the hill and shouts, “Who am I?” a member of the film crew can be seen under the bridge. Later, he is seen looking at the camera and trying to hide, returning under the bridge.
- Much of the car chase in Africa was actually filmed in Rotterdam. At one point, the Erasmus Bridge (the bridge used for the final scene) is visible. The scene where they drive down the stairs was filmed on Beurstravers, known as Koopgoot. This is also a very well-known location in Rotterdam.
- During the chase scene, the rally driver engages the handbrake and then uses the rear wheels to throw stones at the attackers. The parking brake locks the rear wheels. Furthermore, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IV is an all-wheel-drive car, and therefore the front wheels would also be spinning.
- When Jackie falls from the helicopter, a safety wire can be noticed. The safety wire is also visible when he slides down the building.
- It is obvious that an Asian stuntman was used instead of a European killer on the roof, especially noticeable when he gets covered in cement powder. The Asian stuntman also plays in the final scene instead of Morgan.
- When Morgan tries to shoot Jackie in the head, the slide on the gun is out of battery, meaning it's non-functional. When he racks the slide, it returns to battery. However, Jackie specifically disengaged the slide before handing the gun to Morgan.
- In the opening minutes of the film, we see titles stating 'Agrabha, South Africa.' This is debatable, as the city should be located in the Kalahari Desert. The same is true for the city of Kakamas, which also appears in the credits. Agrabha and Kakamas are located close to each other and the border with Namibia.
- The tribe that helped Jackie Chan regain his health actually speaks three different languages, but not the language that should be spoken in the location where the film’s events are supposed to take place. The subtitles in scenes where tribe members speak are inaccurate. Furthermore, there are inconsistencies in the Northern Sotho dialect. For example, the word “morena” does not mean “big boss” or “mister.”
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
