On a higher level this fight inspired many of us that a non-Chinese could work himself into Hong Kong action. But on a lower level I never watched this on repeat the way I watched First Strike or New Police Story's finale on repeat. Boxing gloves, even MMA gloves, reduce movement options, yet the flurry of attacks reduces the impact. The kicks are great, but they're tit for tat and not as domineering. It feels that everything Brad does, Jackie has an answer that's less out of the box and more "I can do that too".
What never felt right was the entire "Let's just be happy" gag, inspired by some packaging Jackie's character finds in the location. I don't wanna get too tabloid-like, but the year before Gorgeous, he had an affair with Elaine Ng. The entire "just be happy" guise always felt like a projection, and I never bought it, but now it makes sense at least. Jackie always had interesting ways to turn fights, but this was hack.
I'm not dissing my hero, I swear. I had the tiniest of fame in the early 2010s, and with that came literally dozens of opportunities to ruin my life, get an STD, destroy my marriage, say something that would get me killed. I have no idea how anyone would navigate moderate fame, let alone global fame like Jackie. When I was going through rough patches, my decisions were also less-than-creative, more projection than anything. It's super hard to create an interest setup and resolution to a fight scene; most people do it terribly. Jackie had done it flawlessly for two decades, so for him to slip up and make an otherwise technically great fight less-than-spectacular doesn't soil his record at all. It just shows that he's human like all of us. He's still my hero and always will be.
Jackie Chan and Brad Allan in Gorgeous (1999) fight with this weird mix of competitiveness and mutual respect that makes the whole sequence feel playful instead of angry.