“’RUSH HOUR 1’ REFLECTION PAPER”

The movie “Rush Hour” is centered on Hong Kong Detective Inspector Yan Naing Lee,
who teams up with LAPD Detective James Carter to rescue the Chinese diplomat’s kidnapped
daughter. Yan Lee was played by Jackie Chan, and James Carter by Chris Tucker. In the movie,
Jackie Chan is a Chinese inspector with a modest and self-effacing personality. He was not
known for his effortless ability to speak English. Chris Tucker, on the other hand, is an American
detective with a shameless self-promoter personality. He was best known for having a motor-like
mouth. He talks so fast and straight to the point, while Chan keeps his composure and focused.
After I carefully watched the movie, I found some cultural differences between the two
detectives. The first time Carter and Lee met at the airport, Carter assumed that Lee cannot speak
or understand English which was mainly the reason why they cannot stand each other. This
shows how Western people think about Asian people. They think that Asians don’t know how to
speak English which clearly shows language discrimination. Just because English is not the first
language of Asian people, doesn’t mean that they don’t know how to speak English. Yes, there
are Asian who can’t speak English, but it doesn’t mean that ALL Asian don’t. Let’s stop
generalizing people based on their ethnic group, and let’s stop language discrimination.
Furthermore, Carter is also the type of person who treats people the same. He doesn’t care about
how he speaks and whom he speaks to. Just like how he speaks to his boss, calling his boss by
his name only with no honorifics. He’s just being himself, and positions or hierarchical structures
don’t concern him. This shows how Western people specifically Americans always expect that
all people are equal and deserve equal rights. Meanwhile, Asian people specifically Chinese, are
sensitive when it comes to a hierarchical structure, especially in terms of age, position, wealth,
and so on. They are very disciplined and respectful, especially to the people with positions.
Following or not following the hierarchical structure will always depend on the situation. It’s a
fact that people deserve equal rights but they also deserve to be respected especially if their
position or power is beyond yours. However, if this power is used against other people is already
a different case.
In conclusion, the movie “Rush Hour” provides us with some cultural differences
between Westerners and Asians which help us understand each other’s cultural concepts.
Although at first, Carter and Lee didn’t get along with each other because of their cultural
differences, eventually, they got together because they have the same goal which is to save the
kidnapped daughter. Even if we have different cultures, this doesn’t signify that we should not
interact or connect. Cultural difference is just a matter of variety, not a matter of superiority.