Shanghai Noon is a
2000 action-
adventure-
comedy-
western film starring
Jackie Chan and
Owen Wilson. Directed by
Tom Dey, it was written by
Alfred Gough and
Miles Millar. The movie, set in
Nevada and other parts of the west in the 19th century, is a juxtaposition of a
western with a Jackie Chan
Kung Fu action movie with extended
martial arts sequences. It also has elements of
comedy and the "
Buddy Cop"
film genre, as it involves two men of different personalities and ethnicities (a Chinese imperial guard and a Western outlaw) who team up to stop a crime.
The title (a pun on the
Gary Cooper classic
High Noon) and several names used in the film pay homage to earlier westerns. Chan's character, "Chon Wang" is meant to sound like
John Wayne, and the antagonist, Nathan Van Cleef, is an homage to
Lee Van Cleef, who played "the Bad" in
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, among other roles in major westerns. In addition, Roy O'Bannon (Owen Wilson's character) reveals at the end that his real name is
Wyatt Earp, which Chon laughingly dismisses as "a terrible name for a cowboy".