The twins don't look French to me, they look Polish or Russian, does anyone know what they are? How come they don't talk? Don't they speak English?
If I recall right one of them did ask if the big bad wanted Jet dead, so yes they speak english, but I got a feeling that they're from Germany
My question is are they supposed to be identical or just regular twins?
They weren't biological twins...they were just called "twins" due to their having the same hair cut/color, clothes, roles etc.
Cyrill Raffaelli and Didier Azoulay (the twins) Both actors were born in France and are native French speakers, but I am not sure if either of them are English speakers.
They were brought in for their fighting skills, just like the huge kickboxer who fought Jet Li in his "uncles" shop, was brought in for his fighting talents. The kickboxer (Colin Prince) didn't have any lines in the film (and he *does* speak English-- he's British). Not all actors in films (need to) have speaking parts.
They aren't German....Raffaelli is an Italian name and Azoulay is a Jewish-Morrocan name (BTW - Azoulay means blue (eyed)). Both are bottle blondes.
In this day and age on can not judge/ascertain nationality/national origin on looks alone.
Though it is an American made movie(assuming), but I thought that all of them speaking English look retarded to the setting. To make it more real and to show how the main character is totally outside his element and lost, they all should have spoken their own languages. That's my only riff to the movie. It also could have made some unique difficulties to the story.
Maybe in your next life, you'll believe the Zodiac when it tells you to cut the red wire.
It's a fact that films with subtitles (especially if they are action films) do badly at the US box office because people are to lazy/dumb to read subtitles. Subtitles in the USA equate to 'art house'. I know of Americans who confess to getting up and leaving the cinema when they discover a film is subtitled saying "If I wanted to read a story I'd get a book"
It's called the willing suspension of disbelief. Richard spoke French but no Chinese...Li speaks English but no French. It would make sense for them to converse in English..a 'mutual language' they both knew.
However I assume that when talking to his own men Richard spoke French (but this would have meant subtitles for the English speaking audience) and when Jet Li and Bert Kwouk are talking it's logical to assume they speak in Cantonese..(but again this would mean subtitles for the English speaking audiences).
So to avoid all that all the main dialogue is in English..so as not to tax the reading skills of the US audiences
..ok that was a cheap shot but my point is valid.