Rush Hour/Headscratchers

"You just assumed."

• Seriously, we're meant to be all "Zing! Didn't he just demonstrate your underlying prejudice and automatic stereotyping!", but it's just a cheap shot. Carter asks him if he speaks English, and he replies with nothing but a goofy uncomprehending grin. Any reasonable person would take this as a no; in all actuality, Lee is lying. It's like if someone asked you if you were awake and you replied with a snore -- you haven't said no, but you have given a response which means no better than the word would. Then of course it's revealed at the end that Carter speaks Chinese. Which means that when he found out that Lee "didn't" speak English, he could have spoken with him in Chinese but chose not to. Essentially he decided "If this Chinese man who has been brought into this country at short notice for a specific purpose doesn't happen to know our language, screw him". What a pair of assholes.
  • Also, didn't Carter fail to understand a conversation in Chinese in the second movie? The one with the contact in the restaurant? "Because his mouth is open 24 hours a day."
  • Carter only knows a few phrases in Chinese and can't speak it fluently. Watch the sequel, he goes to China and mangles Chinese very badly, even with a Chinese-English dictionary in his hand. As for Lee, it was obvious Carter didn't like him at all from the first time they met, so Lee decided to be a dick to him.
  • First thing Carter says to Lee is "please tell me you speak English", then he asks him if he speaks English in a condescending and slightly racist way. Its no wonder Lee decided to get his own back with him.
  • If you pay attention, Lee is right. He says Carter just assumed he didn't speak English... and Carter says "Please tell me you speak English" in a bitchy way that obviously translates "You don't even fucking speak English, do you". Lee responds by tilting his head and smiling a bit... which could be taken as not understanding, or as him silently saying "Of course I speak English, you asshole, I'm an educated detective from Hong Kong."

Being able to figure out the villain of the piece, in each case, about 2 minutes after he comes on screen.

When Tucker says 'it's always the rich white dude' he's not kidding...

• Because we've never seen a Genre Savvy character before.
  • It's not just confined to the conventions of the genre. In Real Life, in the United States, who is behind most everything? Rich white guys.
    • Funny, that's usually what I hear white supremacists say about Jews...

Steven Reign

In part two, he just turns on Ricky Tan for no clear reason.

• Simple. He doesn't want to share.
• Money, Dear Boy

What was up with the phone call Consul Han received just before Soo Yung's kidnapping?

The phone call I'm referring to is the one Han answers, and the person on the other end just hangs up the phone. It's never mentioned again. Red Herring?

• As I recall, he got the phone call just as she was leaving, so it might have been to make sure he wasn't in the car with her or something.
• Yeah; it was just a ruse to get him away from the car. They probably had someone watching the house and hung up just as the car left. One has to wonder what would happen if he asked the car to wait for him (unlikely, since he didn't know how long he'd be on the phone, but still possible).
  • Try again another day, or move on to Plan B that would involve having her sent away from school with another fake call or somesuch thing.

Why did Sang wink at Lee during the standoff at the climax of the first film?

• It's to show off the scar he got from Soo Yung's necklace. Still doesn't make sense, though.
• It's a mock "Hey, hows it going" between two old enemies. Sang and Lee know each other, and Sang is bemused that, even if he isn't allowed to just shoot him, he still has a gun to Lee's head, to the head of the detective how keeps getting in his way. He winks because he's enjoying that idea.