For Cameron, the comical, free-spirited nature of “Shanghai Knights” gave license to create designs with unfettered imagination and few practical restraints.
“We were able to have fun with this period by introducing elements that didn’t necessarily exist at the time,” he says. “David wanted to give the film a contemporary sensibility, so we took that idea to the hilt.”
The Dragon Pavilion sequence begins with an exterior scene that opens the movie. Cameron built the pavilion exterior on the same studio backlot that hosted several other large sets, including the enormous exterior of the Big Ben clock. As the scene begins, Chon Lin crosses the serene snow-covered grounds on her way to the pavilion wearing a striking red leather coat, made all the more visible by the contrast of her silhouette against the white snow.
Says costume designer Anna Sheppard, “Red is a wedding color in China, which represents the purity and innocence of Chon’s protected upbringing in the Forbidden City.”
Though Sheppard created some 3,000 period wardrobes for the large supporting cast and extensive roster of extras, Fann Wong wears only four costumes throughout the movie, as do Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson. Sheppard gave the actors’ outfits nicknames for identification. Wilson, for example, wears what she calls a Bob Dylan costume (cowboy with urban feel), a James Bond (glamorous white tux), a Robert Redford (think “Out of Africa”) and a Jimi Hendrix (a somewhat psychedelic, ‘60s era velvet coat). Chan wears mainly green, and also has, of course, his iconic Western outfit, which he wears in the film’s early scenes.
Says Sheppard, “When I first got on the project, I went into a panic when I discovered few of the original costumes or designs had been kept from ‘Shanghai Noon.’ Jackie saved the day when he told me he had held on to his cowboy outfit in case a sequel was made.”
Sheppard’s largest costumed scene occurs during a formal ball at the mansion of Lord Rathbone, in which the several hundred guests are dressed in proper Victorian garb, with plenty of pale pastels and creams. In the scene, Chan wears a hilarious Indian maharaja disguise, replete with a gold elephant necklace and an ostrich feather hat with enough plumes to make a peacock proud. “We had great fun making the outfits the boys wear in this scene,” says Sheppard. “They are wildly over-the-top, just as outrageous as their attempt to crash the party.”
Sheppard also made duplicate costumes for everyone involved in each fight scene. “With Jackie, you have to expect a lot of the outfits are going to get damaged. We might go through two or three in a week. Or day.”
Sheppard wasn’t the only filmmaker who needed to prepare for the destruction of Jackie Chan’s singular art. As mentioned earlier, the props and art department quickly learned that anything at hand, regardless of its cost or rarity, was in danger when in the vicinity of Jackie and his stunt team.
“I wish we would have had a camera rolling when our set dresser Peter Young walked through the Rathbone mansion set with Jackie’s stunt team and saw them talk about using some of the furniture and props in their fight,” says first AD Chris Newman. “You could see the apprehension on Peter’s face as he tried to explain how most of the items were on loan from England, and were quite expensive. They just looked at him quizzically and went back to planning the destruction of the room.”
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