A Legend: Propaganda on BluRay

How many film critics are in the mood to cheer for colonialists waging war on an indigenous people? That is exactly what you get with this latest fantastical historical from China, except the cultural genocide it celebrates is still going on. In one timeline, it is the Han versus the “Hun,” a.k.a. the Xiongnu people of Xinjiang and the Eastern Steppe. The other timeline features the archeological time excavating the past. Jackie Chan appears in both—sort of. The propaganda might elude dumb Westerners unfamiliar with the region, but it is ever-present in Stanley Tong’s A Legend, which releases Tuesday on VOD and BluRay.

Technically, this is the third film in Tong’s trilogy featuring Chan as archaeologist Dr. “Jack” Fang, following the fluffy Kung Fu Yoga and the earlier, similarly blandly titled The Myth, which A Legend more greatly emulates. As in Myth, Doc Fang and his assistant Wang Jing start having dreams and visions of the Han-Xiongnu Wars, in which they were both young heroic generals for the imperialist Han. However, you might not fully realize Fang is supposed to be part of the historical action. For the flashback scenes, Chan was “de-aged” using AI, rendering him almost unrecognizable and very weird-looking. If A Legend represents the current state of Chinese AI, then America and the West are way out in front of them.

Of course, the noble generals manage to save Mengyun, a Xiongnu princess fleeing a company of fellow Xiongnu soldiers. Conveniently, she and her family pledged their loyalty to the Han conquers, which [understandably] infuriated He Boar, who also covets the princess for himself. In fact, he even killed his moderate brother and their ailing chieftain father to have her.

Apparently, these visions started with the discovery of Mengyun’s shamanic jade pendant. There definitely seems be some kind of strange time-transcending New Agey power at play. A lot of people around Fang who are also interested—maybe too interested—in a rumored cache of Xiongnu treasure.

Throughout A Legend all Xiongnu who are not part of Mengyun’s family are demonized for their barbarity. It is also rather galling to hear to listen to Chan lecture the audience on preserving archaeological treasures when the Chinese Communist occupiers have been literally razing mosques throughout Xinjiang to ground.

Iron Mask: The Russian-Chinese Co-Production Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger

Do You remember the Nikolai Gogol story about the Kung Fu warriors fighting to liberate the dragon who served as the ancient guardian of China’s tea supply? Neither would he. He wouldn’t know Jonathan Green either, the protagonist of Forbidden Empire, the 2014 film vaguely but still recognizably based on his novella, Viy. Green returns, traveling from Czarist Russia to Qing Dynasty China in Oleg Stepchenko’s Russian-Chinese co-production Iron Mask (a.k.a. Viy 2: Journey to China, a.k.a. Journey to China: The Mystery of the Iron Mask), which releases tomorrow on DVD.

Iron Mask should not be confused with Dumas either, but there is a royal stuck inside a piece of iron head-gear. In this case, it is Peter the Great, Emperor of All Russia, imprisoned in the Tower of London. He shares a cell with the Master, a mysterious Chinese warrior, who has sort of taught him Kung Fu. The Master was the leader of a brotherhood serving the patron dragon of China’s tea-producing region, where dark forces have now taken control.

Ironically, that is where Green is headed. He had a tough scrape in Moscow, but the British ambassador managed to facilitate his release from prison, with the expectation the phony Czar’s assassin would permanently silence him. However, Cheng Lan, the Master’s protégé, protects him, while maintaining the guise of a man (Mulan-style). When Green’s wife gets wind of the situation, she helps the Czar escape from the Tower, so they can travel to China, to defeat the imposter witch-queen, fraudulently ruling in the Dragon’s name, exactly the way Gogol would have written it, if he thought Viy needed a Kung Fu-fantasy sequel.

Just trying to write a brief synopsis of Iron Mask is a handy exercise for putting the illogical randomness of the plot into perspective. To make things even nuttier, James Hook, the warden of the Tower of London is played by Austrian Arnold Schwarzenegger, but he doesn’t sound so conspicuously out of place in the Russian and Mandarin dubs.

Forbidden Empire was an inconsistent mess, but it still hung together as a whole better than Iron Mask. On the other hand, Iron Mask boasts more entertaining highlights. Stepchenko and the producers are shrewd enough to deliver a fight scene between their two action icons: Jackie Chan and Schwarzenegger, as the Master and Hook, respectively. It is pretty good fight scene—and the climatic storming-the-castle sequence is definitely cool. A lot of credit goes to Helen Yao Xingtong, who shows off some terrific action chops as Cheng Lan and the imposter witch.

Vanguard, Starring Jackie Chan

China must be feeling the heat from their genocidal (so-called de-radicalization) policies in Xinjiang, because their loyal cheerleader, Jackie Chan is now fighting Islamist terrorists. In this case, it is the super-Middle Eastern-sounding terror group, the Arctic Wolves. They are really more of mercenary gang, but at least they operate from a subjugated ancient walled city inspired by Timbuktu. Fortunately, Tang Huating heads a London-based Treadstone-like security firm that can take them down in Stanley Tong’s Vanguard, which opens this Friday in actual theaters.

In the opener, family man Zhang Kaixuan and his fellow Vanguard agent Lei Zhenyu must leave their Chinese New Year banquet to save a kidnapped client. He happens to be the former business partner of the Arctic Wolves’ chief financial backer. He had a crisis of conscience, right before finalizing a significant arms deal. The wolves want that mega-weapon, so they need the funds he hid from them.

Saving the client is the easy part. They also need to secure his daughter Fareeda, who made plenty of enemies of her own exposing poachers in Africa. Conveniently, the Wolves will hire them as subcontractors. From there, the action shifts to the Middle East, where Vanguard must rescue one of their own, before traveling on to Dubai (where everyone is eager to tell Tang how great China is, even though he lives in England), for the final showdown.

So, there is a lot of globe-trotting in Vanguard, as well as several elaborate action sequences. Wisely, Tong, the HK action veteran (who directed Chan in the Supercop I & II, Kung Fu Yoga, and several others) takes it easy on the Chinese propaganda this time around. Westerners are not the bad guys. Instead, it is the vaguely Arabic Wolves who are threatening world peace. However, there is one conspicuously unnecessary, momentum-killing scene, in which Zhang and his little boy talk about how vastly superior “Captain China” is to Captain America. Yeah, whatever.

Jackie Chan in Police Story 2

This is a true sequel, with the same cast returning to play the same characters from the original film, but things would get much looser in future installments of the Police Story franchise. In New Police Story (#5), Jackie Chan plays Chan Kwok-ming and in Police Story: Lockdown he portrays Zhong Wen, who is a Mainland copper rather than a member of Hong Kong’s finest. Here he is still Chan Ka-kui of the most dedicated, but not necessarily smartest officers on the Royal HK force. A lot has changed since 1988, but the fight scenes will still fire up fans in Chan’s Police Story 2, which opens today in a spiffy 4K restoration at the NuArt in LA.

Chan is a dedicated cop, but his enthusiasm sometimes gets the best of him. That resulted in some spectacular property damage in the first film that temporarily has him busted down to traffic cop, even though he collared (and beat the heck out of) the bad guy, crime lord Chu Tao. Rather gallingly, Chu is granted early release on supposedly compassionate grounds. Not surprisingly, he frequently has his goons stalk our man Chan. He can generally handle them, but it will complicate his investigation into a gang of explosive extortionists. Their thuggish harassment of his girlfriend May will also tax their relationship beyond the breaking point.

Like Police Story Uno, the first sequel features some amazing fights. The playground jungle gym fight scene is absolutely vintage Jackie Chan, but the climatic beatdown (with fire-bombs) at the gang’s post-industrial hideout is a truly a dazzler. However, the second film also has much better straight police procedural material, including a nifty sequence in which Chan and the HKPD’s surveillance team shadow a suspect.

Chan is definitely Chan in PS2, as well as his character, Chan ka-kui. Arguably, the first three films in the Police Story franchise are probably most responsible for his international persona (along with Armour of God). He gives up his body for our entertainment, but he also gives as good as he takes in the classic action sequences. Yet, he also develops greater rapport with Maggie Cheung, who is so sweet and innocent as poor May. This time around, their chemistry together is genuinely endearing.

Of course, it still the spectacularly moves and unbelievable stunts that make Story 2 such an enduring fan favorite. At this point in his career, Chan would do anything to please—and the proof is in this film. Required viewing for any martial arts and HK action fan, Police Story 1 and 2 both open today (3/8) in LA, at the Landmark NuArt.

Jackie Chan in Police Story

Back in 1985, Jackie Chan was a proud Hong Konger, rather than a Mainland suck-up. That year saw the release of his first outing as Chan Ka-kui, a model officer of the Royal Hong Kong Police Force. In fact, his boss will make him the poster-cop for the department’s recruitment campaign, but his subsequent witness protection assignment brings no end of trouble in Chan’s Police Story, which opens today in a shiny new 4K restoration at the NuArt in LA.

Viewers should have an idea of what to expect from PS1 from the opening action scene. Basically, an entire hillside squatters’ camp is leveled to the ground when Chan chases the slimy crime boss Chu Tao through it. However, Chan is just getting started (as director, character, and action star).

Chu manages to elude Chan’s grasp, but his new assistant Selina Fong is not so fortunate. She has no intention of testifying against her boss, but when the HK brass announces her cooperation, they basically force her hand. Naturally, they assign Chan the supercop to lead her security detail. Unfortunately, Fong will not believe the truth about Chu until it is almost too late, but she will create tons of problems for Chan during the second act, when his naïve girlfriend May mistakenly assumes something intimate is brewing between the cop and the reluctant witness.

If you enjoy fight scenes than Police Story 1 is truly your catnip. Although the film has plenty of Chan’s signature brand of goofy humor, the melee gets pretty brutal, with combatants landing hard on pelvises and tailbones. Much glass is broken during the course of the film, but it all culminates spectacularly in a barnburner of beatdown in a shopping mall, which is just so eighties.

Throughout Police Story, Chan is determined to please and entertain, regardless of the wear and tear on his body. He definitely takes a beating and keeps on ticking. This is classic Chan and Chor Yuen is a classic movie villain as Chu. Frankly, Maggie Cheung is a bit under-employed as May, but Brigitte Lin vamps it up old school as Fong, the pseudo-femme fatale.

Even Jackie Chan’s biggest fans will admit the narrative is just whatever and some of the gags are shamelessly shticky. However, the big action centerpieces are still impressive. It is also quite a vivid reminder of how analog the world was during the mid-1980s. In the case of Hong Kong, it was also freer back then. Indeed, Police Story helps us remember how great the eighties were, back before Jackie Chan sold his soul to the Mainland regime. Highly recommended for all action fans, Police Story 1 and 2 both open today (3/8) in LA, at the Landmark NuArt.

Bleeding Steel: Jackie Chan Fights Universal Soldiers

At this point, Jackie Chan has probably replaced all his bones with titanium, but he does not play one of the “bioroid” genetically-enhanced soldiers. It doesn’t matter, he’s still indestructible in Leo Zhang’s Bleeding Steel (trailer here), which opens (again) today in New York.

Dr. James was a Frankenstein-style mad doctor, who created the so-called bioroids, before attempting to defect back to law-abiding society. It is Agent Lin Dong’s duty to escort him into protective custody, which he does, even though his ailing daughter Xixi is slowly slipping away. It is a good thing he is there, because his team is ambushed by a lethal squad of bioroids, led by the sinister Andre, who looks a lot like the MST3K version of the mutants from Beneath the Planet of the Apes.

Sadly, while Lin is getting his butt kicked sideways, Xixi tragically dies, except maybe she doesn’t, if Dr. James manages to pump her up with his super-secret-nano-bio-Macguffin. For a while, the film tries to be coy on this point, but duh, obviously. Lin had made himself scarce to protect the college kid now known as Nancy, but he silently watches over her. He is also investigating the bioroid cabal, as is a punky hacker-thief named Leeson. Of course, they will have to work together and reveal themselves when the ‘roids try to abduct Nancy for her blood.

And then a bunch of stuff that makes little or no sense happens. It is darn near impossible to discuss Bleeding Steel coherently. It is not even worth explaining the title, because that would open up too many other cans of worms. Yet, the film is not without its merits. For one thing, Chan spares us the rah-rah Chinese flag-waving this time around.

You also have to give Zhang, stunt coordinator Max Huang, and the JC Stunt Team credit, because the opening ambush-fight sequence is a knock out. People will re-watch this movie on DVD repeatedly, just for that scene. The climatic battle isn’t bad either. Chan also goes a few rounds with Andre’s cape-wearing femme fatale lieutenant on the roof of the Sydney Opera House. It is definitely a cinematic spectacle, but Zhang should have let it play out longer.

Unfortunately, there are just as many misfires in Bleeding, particularly the embarrassing scene in which Nancy visits her fortune-teller in a blighted housing project that is apparently home to every paroled sex offender in Australia. It also seems like Leeson’s only purpose in the film is to annoy the audience.

Frankly, Chan looks his age and then some in Bleeding, but he still has the moves and the high pain tolerance. Everything about Show Lo’s Leeson is unnecessary. There is no great need for the character of Lin’s cop buddy Susan either, but at least Erica Xia-hou shows some real action chops. Plus, she gets to drive a sports car no honest cop could afford and never ages a day over the film’s thirteen years.

It is hard to say which is worse, the hodge-podge screenplay or the continuity-challenged editing. Yet, Chan remains steadfastly committed to the chaos, every step of the way. As a result, it is all sort of fun, in a stupid, meathead kind of way. If this sounds familiar, you maybe remember the first time Bleeding Steel opened in New York. Heck, the small specialty distributor even took out a Times Square billboard for it (immortalized on YouTube here). You have surely seen dopier movies (some of them also from Chan), but with the New York Asian Film Festival in full swing, you can probably wait on Bleeding Steel until the next distributor takes a shot with it. For Chan super-fans, Bleeding Steel opens today (7/6) in New York, at the Cinema Village.

Namiya: Jackie Chan and a Little Magical Realism

In the early 1990s, they still wrote letters in this provincial Chinese town, but when they might be delivered was anybody’s guess. This was especially true of Papa Namiya’s mail chute. One fateful night and one night only, it will serve as a time portal, connecting correspondents three decades apart. Perhaps it is made of the same stuff as the mail box in Il Mare. Regardless, people seem to receive their letters exactly when they need them in Han Jie’s Namiya (trailer here), which opens tomorrow in New York.

Kindly old Papa Namiya was so full of helpful advice, he institutionalized his position as the local “Agony Uncle.” Advice seekers dropped off their notes and letters through the mail slot at the front of his corner store and he left his replies for the more private cases in the milk delivery box in back. Seeking his counsel became a local ritual until old age and a crisis of confidence forced him to retire. However, several years later, he had his faithful nephew announce his special one-night return, but even Papa Namiya does not know how special it will be.

Back in the present day, Ah Jie, Tong Tong, and Xiabo, three grossly disadvantaged orphans take refuge in the mothballed Namiya store, after a bit of mischief crosses the line into criminality. Much to their surprise, time nearly stands still for them in the store, but that allows them to start responding to letters meant for Papa Namiya. In flashbacks, we see how life unfolds for the musician they sort of encourage to follow his dreams. We also watch the results of the advice Papa N. offered to a young Michel Jackson fan disillusioned by the King of Pop’s molestation accusations and his own father’s mounting debt and chaos, as well as the fate of a desperate bar hostess, who starts to follow Jie’s prescient investment strategies. Eventually, all four strands will mostly come together, thanks to Old Papa’s subtle guidance.

Namiya is based on a novel of magical realism written by Japanese mystery master Keigo Hagashino that was also recently adapted for film in his native land. It very definitely stands comparison to the Korean film Il Mare (ill-advisedly remade as the Sandra Bullock vehicle, The Lake House), but it is exponentially more hopeful. Frankly, the basic premise never makes much sense and it is easy to get confused by all the flashbacks and call-backs, but viewers will still leave Namiya feeling strangely great about life in general.

Namiya also holds the distinction of being the first strictly dramatic, no fighting and no martial arts performance from Jackie Chan (with the possible exception of a few jokey cameos) as old Papa Namiya. He is heavily made-up, but still instantly recognizable. Basically, he acts like what his body should feel like after all the beatings he took—and he is terrific. It is some of his best work, up there with The Foreigner, but that old charisma from his glory years still twinkles through.

Dilraba Dilmurat is the strongest by far of the punky orphans, but Hao Lei outshines everyone as the naïve but resilient bar hostess. However, the rock-solid Chan is both the glue that holds it together and the X-factor that makes it all click so well. Namiya the film isn’t shy about its melodramatic inclinations and neither are many of its cast-members, but it pays off in a big way, earning its sniffles and sighs. Refreshing and invigorating, Namiya is a super way to start the New Year. Highly recommended for fans of light fantasy, Namiya opens tomorrow (1/5) in New York, at the AMC 34^th Street.

The Foreigner: The Jackie Chan Crossover We’ve Been Hoping For

Jackie Chan is sixty-two and has broken more bones than most people knew they had. The same is true of Quan Ngoc Minh. The Chinese-Vietnamese Navy SEAL-trained commando lost nearly everything after the fall of South Vietnam, but he was content to watch his young daughter grow up safe and happy in London. When she is cruelly murdered in an IRA splinter group’s terrorist attack, Quan will stop at nothing to avenge her. Of course, he will need names, which he assumes the former IRA deputy minister for Northern Ireland Affairs can supply (and not without reason). A violent cat-and-mouse game thusly commences in Martin Campbell’s The Foreigner (trailer here), which opens tomorrow in New York.

Quan and his family were part of the Vietnamese boat people exodus, but his first two daughters were murdered by Thai pirates before they reached Singapore. From there, Quan managed to immigrate to England and establish legal citizenship, but his wife died giving birth to Fan. When the so-called “Real IRA” blows up the dress shop she was patronizing, Quan’s American training kicks in.

Hardnosed Commander Bromley is leading the investigation. He doesn’t seem to have many leads or any love for the IRA, so Quan keys in on the super-slick Liam Hennessy, who is essentially deputy minister for keeping a lid on the hotheads. There was a time when he was the one planting the bombs, but now he is “reformed.” Hennessy is playing a dangerous game, trying to extract more concessions from the British in exchange for intel on the terrorists. Naturally, he patronizes and grossly underestimates Quan, until the grieving father starts leaving warning bombs of his own. He also seems to be more than Hennessy’s former IRA thugs can handle, but just barely.

Chan is not a superman in The Foreigner. Frankly, he acts his age and maybe a little extra, taking some beatings nearly as bad as those in the bizarrely under-appreciated Police Story: Lockdown. It is somewhat surprising how much screen time he concedes to the rest of the cast, but this still might be his best straight-up dramatic performance. Still, the fights and stunt work is first-rate, so fans will not be disappointed on that score.

Just as the dour, angsty Chan will be new for most fans, the sleazy, venal, self-pitying Hennessey is a Pierce Brosnan we haven’t seen before either. He is such an unpleasant character, we quite enjoy watching him take flak from all sides. Orla Brady makes a spectacularly evil Lady Macbeth type as Hennessy’s slightly disappointed wife Mary, while Ray Fearon’s Bromley swaggers with authority.

Screenwriter David Marconi also deserves tremendous credit for updating Stephen Leather’s Troubles-set novel to the post-Good Friday era. Frighteningly, the hidden IRA weapons caches that are frequently mentioned are very real. Marconi and Campbell also clearly establish the factional rivalries and alliances within the IRA and its subsidiaries that they suggest still persist to this day. Sure, this is an action thriller, but it leaves viewers convinced the current peace remains perilously fragile.

Frankly, a lot of the IRA infighting material would still work in a movie without Jackie Chan, but adding him as the destabilizing fuse kicks it up to another level. This really is the kind of polished crossover production Jackie Chan fans have been hoping. Campbell has had a few misfires, like Green Lantern, but The Foreigner should re-establish him as one of the top action directors in the business (along with Casino Royale). Very highly recommended for general audiences, The Foreigner opens tomorrow (10/13) in several New York theaters, including the AMC Empire.

Reset: Directed by Chang and Produced by Jackie

This film is a Chinese movie studio’s dream come true, because it has multiple Yang Mis, the glamorous star of the smash-hit Tiny Times franchise. However, instead of an editorial assistant at a fashion magazine, she plays Xia Tian, a dedicated theoretical physicist and single-mother. That is true of all the Xia Tians. To save her son, the research scientist will jump back in time more than once in Chang (a.k.a. Yoon Hong-seung)’s Reset (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

There are two labs competing to develop alternate dimension wormholes as a means of time-travel. The one in America recklessly cut corners, resulting in wide-spread psychosis in its test subjects, who basically burned the joint to the ground. By the way, did we mention Reset was produced by Jackie Chan? It isn’t hard to see his influence, is it?

Of course, the Chinese lab is proceeding in a Steady-Eddie fashion, so the Western consortium hires Tsui Hu, a former guinea pig, to steal the NeXus group’s data and bomb their Metropolis-esque facilities back to the stone age. To circumvent security, Tsui Hu kidnaps Xia Tian’s son Doudou to force her to be the inside person. Being a real piece of human sludge, Tsui Hu kills Doudou as motivation for Xia Tian to complete the time travel experiment. That turns out to be a little too motivating. Escaping from Tsui Hu’s crew, Xia Tian comes back in time on her own, becoming a migraine-inducing loose cannon. Yes, this process will repeat again.

When it comes to logic, Reset simply couldn’t be bothered. Frankly, they never attempt to explain how Evil Corp hopes to make money off time travel. Seriously, are they spending all this time and effort to game the stock market or to pick every day’s trifecta at Aqueduct? It doesn’t really matter though, because Chang just carries us along with his lunacy. Yang has first class action chops (check her out in Wu Dang if you doubt it), which she gets to start exercising when the third Xia Tian comes along. We’ll admit it, watching bunch of Yang Mis running, jumping, and fighting bad guys is pretty much our idea of a good time.

To his credit, Wallace Huo also makes a surprisingly sinister villain. Honestly, you can practically see the black smoke coming out of Tsui Hu’s ears. Plus, Chin Shih-chieh is terrific in scenes that would be spoilery to explain.

Korean filmmaker Chang has an affinity for action (catch up with The Target for an armchair roller coaster ride) that never fails him in Reset. Granted, there is a lot of fudging and hocus-pocus in Cha Muchun’s screenplay, but it still presents a relatively fresh take on time travel that it then takes delight in complicating to high heaven. It’s a ton of unruly fun, but Yang still does some credible thesping as the distraught and driven parent. Highly recommended for fans of action and time travel movies, Reset opens this Friday (6/30) in New York, at the AMC Empire.

Kung Fu Yoga: Jackie Chan Goes Bollywood

It is a martial arts film deliberately crafted to support Beijing’s “One Belt, One Road” neo-Silk Road-sphere of influence policy. It is also a tomb-raiding film without tomb-raiding, Instead, world famous archaeologist “Jack Chan” risks life and limb to recover lost artifacts for the greater glory of China. In addition to physical danger and extreme elements, he must also deal with deceptions and double-crosses in Stanley Tong’s Kung Fu Yoga (trailer here), which opens today in New York.

When a highly regarded and impressively limber Indian archaeologist requests Chan’s help tracking down a treasure lost during the Journey to the West era, he can hardly say no. Along with his teaching assistants and Jianguo an old crony who specializes in remote petroleum drilling, Chan globe-trots off the China-India border, to follow the clues on an ancient map. Unbeknownst to them, the well-heeled descendant of the rebel Magadha army lies in wait to ambush Chan’s team. It was his ancestor who lost the fabulous treasure, so he intends to steal it back to restore the family honor.

However, the real treasure remains buried somewhere deeper within India. To find it, both parties will have to acquire the artifact stolen by Jones, the son of Chan’s late friend and colleague. Unfortunately, Jones has put it up for auction in Dubai, the conspicuous consumption capitol of the world.

Granted, KFY is a little wacky, but it is not a full-on goofball spectacle in the mode of Chuen Chan’s 1979 Kung Fu vs. Yoga. Arguably, the sequence in which Jack[ie] Chan pursues a car chase with a not so tame lion in the back seat of his appropriated SUV harkens back to the madcap spirit of vintage Chan movies. Tong also makes Dubai look like an absolutely horrible, nauseatingly shallow place to visit and an even worse place to live.

Chan mostly acts two-thirds his age in KFY, even checking into the hospital at one point. Aarif Rahman’s Jones displays some solid chops, carrying a disproportionate share of the martial arts load, while Eric Tsang is about as shticky as you would expect as Jianguo. Disha Patani is certainly a good sport flirting with Chan as the secret Indian princes Ashmita. However, Mu Qimiya matches and maybe exceeds her yoga flexibility and screen appeal as Chan’s assistant Nuomin.

There is a good deal of corn in KFY, but there are also a handful of gleefully outlandish action scenes, including one set in a cage full of hyenas (beasts are definitely beastly in this Chan outing). It closes with a Bollywood number which is a cliché, but it is still good, clean fun. It can get silly, but never in the way that makes loyal fans gag. Recommended as a fluffy, harmless romp, Kung Fu Yoga opens today (1/27) in New York, at the AMC Empire.

Railroad Tigers: The Jackie Chan Stunt Team Rides the Rails

Wouldn’t it be nice if Chinese cinema devoted one fiftieth of the time and attention they spend on the Japanese occupation to the events of the Tiananmen Square Massacre and the Cultural Revolution instead? At least the war and the resistance offer opportunities for good action sequences, which is all we’ve really asked of Jackie Chan. To his credit, Chan has found ways to act his age and still be an international action movie star, most notably in collaboration with director Ding Sheng (including Little Big Warrior and the bizarrely under-appreciated Police Story: Lockdown). Produced with the Mainland market in mind, Ding’s Railroad Tigers (trailer here) opens this Friday in New York.

Ma Yuan is the grizzled leader of a gang of petty thieves ostensibly working various jobs related to the railroad. They regularly pull off small-scale capers targeting the Japanese authorities and collaborators as best they can. However, they get the call-up to the big leagues when Ma Yuan shelters a wounded Eight Army commando charged with blowing up a critical supply-line bridge. The dedicated soldier isn’t going to make it, so Ma Yuan and his tigers adopt his likely suicide mission.

Of course, they will need help, so they manage to recruit Fan Chuan, a Rick Blaine-like noodle shop owner, who was once the sharp-shooting bodyguard of a Nationalist warlord. Unfortunately, the Japanese also get reinforcements when legendary Inspector General Yuko Nakashima arrives. She is fierce (played by Lanxin Zhang, a frequent femme fatale henchperson in Jackie Chan films), but one could argue her high rank makes the occupying Japanese look weirdly progressive.

Once again, Chan largely (but not entirely) acknowledges his sixty-some years during RR Tigers. Throughout most of the film, he is the terse-speaking center of the team, sharing the action duties with the rest of the ensemble on equitable terms. Of course, he takes over the big climatic set piece sequence, but by that time many characters will be dead, in accordance with the conventions of Dirty Dozen-style big mission movies. Old Man Chan also develops some truly appealing chemistry with Fan Xu, glammed down to look at least ten years older as his love interest, the widowed Auntie Qin. Frankly, it would have been nice to see more of them together.

The first two acts have their share of entertaining stunt work, but nothing that will really dazzle fans’ minds. However, the climatic blowing-the-bridge sequence is a doozy. It is nice to know JChan can still get the job done. It is also always good fun to watch Zhang Lanxin throw it down.

RR Tigers has also garnered attention for the unheralded return of Chan’s son Jaycee after his pot conviction. They even share a scene together that Mainland-HK audiences have read considerable irony into. You have to feel a little for Chan fils. If he grew up in the Hollywood establishment, nobody would care about a minor pot bust. He’d working again after a quick “mistakes were made” non-apology. It also seems tough that he was transparently named after his father, but does not have the benefit of being a “junior.” As a further Easter Egg, look out for a fleeting cameo from one of the world’s biggest movie stars in the wrap-around framing device.

If you are already a JChan fan, you can watch RR Tigers without any cringing or regrets. The Jackie Chan Stunt Team aims to please and their skills are admirable. It is not bad, but for those who are not rabid Chan loyalists, this latest outing from Chan, Ding, Zhang and company is probably too uneven to win over ardent converts. Recommended for the faithful, Railroad Tigers opens this Friday (1/6) in New York, at the AMC Empire.

Skiptrace: Harlin Directs Chan, Knoxville, and Fan

This film was made possible by the global economy. It was directed by a Finn famous for blowing things up and stars a Hong Konger beloved for giving up his body and a Tennessean who made a name for himself getting racked in the jewels on MTV. As an added bonus, it also features probably the world’s most popular actress in a supporting role. Jackie Chan and Johnny Knoxville bring the buddy movie action-comedy in Renny Harlin’s Skiptrace (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Connor Watts is a conman who has no problem with the “ugly American” label. Unfortunately, he scams the wrong hotel casino in Macau. The business manager happens to be Samantha, the goddaughter of Hong Kong’s most obsessive cop, Benny Chan. Chan will not rest until he brings Watts to justice, but the Yank has good reason to keep his distance. As fate would have it, he happened to witness a murder committed by shadowy businessman Victor Wong, whom Chan has long suspected of being the drug lord who murdered Samantha’s father, his former partner Yung.

Watts even has potential evidence locked in the cell phone the murdered woman lifted from the so-called “Matador.” Of course, the cop and the robber have diametrically opposed goals and motivations, but Watts will eventually get with the crime-stopping program after a few close shaves. He would also like to impress the lovely Samantha, assuming he can avoid a Russian mobster’s shotgun wedding plans.

The pairing of Chan and Knoxville might not inspire much confidence, but they play off each other quite well. There is no shortage of bickering and bantering in Skiptrace, but fortunately there is just as much fighting. You could say both co-leads are unusually experienced when it comes to physical comedy—and have the scars to prove it. That flexibility and high tolerance for pain serves them well in some vintage Jackie Chan fight scenes. One sequence in particular choreographed around an assembly line clearly evokes Chaplinesque echoes.

Chan finds a terrific sparring partner in WWE veteran Eve Torres, playing Dasha, the Russian enforcer, whom his character ironically resists fighting because she is a woman (right, good luck with that). Eventually, Torres also quite entertainingly takes on Zhang Lanxin cast as the Matador’s chief henchperson. The luminous Fan Bingbing manages to elevate the underwritten role of Samantha through her sheer start presence. She didn’t get to be the biggest name in the business by sheer accident. Serious HK action fans will also enjoy seeing Eric Tsang and Michael Wong appear as Chan’s late partner and his crooked police captain (of course, he is corrupt, he is played by Michael Wong—no spoiler alert necessary).

We have been down this road of beatdowns and gags with Jackie Chan before, but it all works pretty well this time around. Harlin shows wise restraint in some scenes, like the Mongolian Adele sing-along, just going for a fun vibe rather than yuckety-yuck laughs. Fun really is the apt word to describe Skiptrace. It never transcends genre (would we even want it to?), but it just clicks. Recommended for martial arts and Jackass fans, Skiptrace opens this Friday (9/2) in New York, at the AMC Empire.

Monkey King: Hero is Back—Sun Wukong in Some Highly Animated Animation

All things considered, it is rather encouraging to see Sun Wukong, a.k.a. the Monkey King is more popular than ever in China. He compulsively rebelled against authority, leading his notorious “uproar in Heaven” before becoming a disciple of Buddhist monk Xuanzang, protecting him on his quest in search of sacred texts. Following hit live-action films starring Donnie Yen and Aaron Kwok, Sun Wukong gets the animated treatment in Tian Xiao Peng’s Monkey King: Hero is Back (trailer here), which opens this weekend in select cities.

There will be no Journey to the West for this Monkey King—at least not yet. Instead, young Liuer inadvertently frees the mischievous hero from his five-hundred-year imprisonment. It turns out the orphan could use some help. After his parents were killed in an ogre attack, Liuer was adopted by Fa Ming, an itinerant monk. Unfortunately, the lad was separated from his surrogate father when he rescued a toddler from ogres commanded by the Saruman-like Hun Dun, who is in the market for child sacrifices. Enter the Monkey King.

Except the newly released Sun Wukong will need some convincing before he decides to play the hero. Liuer will have some help from the Monkey King’s fellow Journey to the West Disciple Pigsy, who is also conveniently reanimated. However, their once and future comrade Sandy the Sandman will not be joining them this time around. Given Pigsy’s ineptitude, most of the heroics will be left up to the Monkey King, with occasional assists from the boy and the monk.

MK’s CG-animation is perfectly presentable and some of the classically-inspired design work is downright cool, such as the White Dragon and Hun Dun’s cliff-face lair. Liuer can be a bit of a pain, but the action sequences are surprisingly cinematic. It is also absolutely bizarre how much the animated Sun Wukong looks like the painstakingly made-up Kwok in The Monkey King 2 in 3D, or vice versa. Yet, there is something arguably more appealing about the wiry, hardnosed animated Monkey King than the twitchy recent live action portrayals.

Ironically, Jackie Chan provides the Monkey King’s voice in the English dub, but not in the original Mandarin. It definitely sounds like him, for what that’s worth. For additional class and cred, James Hong dubs the righteous old butt-kicking Fa Ming. Frankly, the production values are considerably higher than you might expect. However, there are several scenes that are probably too intense for most young viewers, but Monkey King-Journey to the West fans will appreciate their integrity.

Over the years, the degree to which Sun Wukong has been depicted with primate or human features has swung back and forth like a pendulum. Like the live action blockbusters, Hero is Back doubles down on his Simian-ness. It is not as visually striking as Wan Laiming’s classic Monkey King—Uproar in Heaven, but it respects the character and delivers the action. Recommended for young but relatively mature wuxia viewers, Monkey King: Hero is Back opens tomorrow (7/29) at the Cape Ann in Gloucester, MA and has a number of special weekend matinee screenings at participating Landmark Theaters.

Dragon Blade: Jackie Chan, Centurion

The ambitions of a corrupt Roman consul would belittle Alexander’s conquests if he could realize them. He intends to assert control over the entire Silk Road, starting with the sleepiest stretch in western China. However, the impossibly upbeat captain of the Silk Road Protection Squad and a band of maverick centurions will stand against him in Daniel Lee’s Dragon Blade (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Huo An always tries to avoid physical violence. Yet, despite his status as a heroically departed general’s only true protégé, he has been banished to the provincial Wild Geese Gate due to trumped-up corruption charges. Apparently he is quickly rehabilitated, because he has already re-assumed command of the Silk Road forces when a Roman remnant arrives in all their glorious belligerence. First they fight, but they quickly forge a wary truce. Real camaraderie between the Han Silk Road forces and Roman soldiers follows soon after.

When word arrives Huo An’s men must rebuild the crumbling city in fifteen days, the Romans agree to help in exchange for assistance reaching the legitimate Roman authorities in Parthia. Combining Roman engineering with good old fashioned Chinese slave labor, they do indeed rebuild a shining city on a hill, throwing in a few extra aqueducts just because they enjoy building them. Unfortunately, the villainous Tiberius does not appreciate Han do-gooders aiding his enemies. After all, he has a young brother to kill in the astonishingly annoying Publius, who has thus far been protected by the world weary Lucius and his band of brothers, which now includes the honorary centurion Huo An.

Dragon Blade is not terrible, even though it has nearly all of the shortcomings you would fear. Of course, it starts with casting of John Cusack and Adrien Brody as Lucius and Tiberius. Probably no actors have looked or sounded more out of place in a classical antiquity setting since Edward G. Robinson appeared in the Ten Commandments. While Cusack seems to be trying to slouch through the film unnoticed, Brody is conspicuously dull in role that requires serious flamboyance.

Chan is hardly blameless either. Although he thankfully reins in the shticky comedy, Dragon Blade is a perfect example of his burgeoning martyr complex, which he shamelessly indulges. It also reflects his increasingly problematic Mainland-centric China chauvinism. According to Huo An, Westerners are trained to kill people, whereas Chinese soldiers serve to protect. Okay, while you’re at it, why don’t you explain to the emperor how the common people would like more say in issues of governance—or try telling it to Beijing today. Tens of thousands of Hong Kongers came to the Admiralty to do exactly that, but Chan didn’t want to hear it.

Yet, one of the coolest things about Dragon Blade is the democratic idealism represented by Wild Geese Gate, as well as the massive CGI awe of the place. There are also some pretty spectacular warfighting scenes that inventively combine the styles of the two rag-tag forces united against Tiberius’s armies. Old Man Chan can still handle himself in a hand-to-hand scene, when he is not lecturing his audience and Lin Peng similarly makes the most of her limited screen time as the Hun warrior princess Lengyue. Costume designer Thomas Chong also takes full advantage of the opportunity to create costumes in the traditional styles of at least a dozen distinctive nationalities.

Regardless of Chan’s ideological baggage, director-co-screen writer Lee takes viewers on a rough narrative ride. There are more conspicuous gaps in Dragon Blade than Hillary Clinton’s email archives. Reportedly, twenty-some minutes were cut from the Chinese version for the American theatrical print, including a modern day framing device featuring Karena Lam. That was probably one of the easiest parts to lose, but as it is currently cut, characters’ allegiances will change drastically and considerable geographic distances will be traveled all quite suddenly without anyone taking any notice. That is just life on the Silk Road.

A chaotic mixed bag, Dragon Blade lacks the mature and engaging heft of Chan’s work in the unfairly dismissed Police Story: Lockdown and The Shinjuku Incident. For diehard fans, it opens this Friday (9/4) in New York, at the AMC Empire.

Police Story: Lockdown—Jackie Chan Takes the Franchise to Beijing

Those wondering just how much Jackie Chan has shifted his focus from Hong Kong to the Mainland need only look at the evolution of his hit Police Story franchise. What started as comedic action romp revolving around Chan’s Royal Hong Kong Inspector Chan Ka-kui is now a moody thriller-morality play that might just break its anti-hero-ish Beijing Police Captain Zhong Wen. Chan is older and wearier, but it is still nearly impossible to keep the old cat down in Ding Sheng’s Police Story: Lockdown (trailer here), which opens this Friday in San Francisco.

Old Zhong is already nearly done in when meets his daughter Miao Miao at a hipster night club. Their relationship has been strained since her mother died. Frankly, this get-together is not even her idea. She agreed to set-up the meeting to humor her older pseudo-lover, the club owner Wu Jiang. In retrospect, that was a mistake.

When he comes to, Zhong learns in no uncertain terms he and his daughter, along with twenty-some other patrons and employees are hostages in Wu’s concrete fortified club. Thanks to his modifications, it will be hard for Zhong’s colleagues to shoot their way in. Instead of ransom, Wu offers a baffling ultimatum, demanding small time criminal Wei Xiaofu be brought to the club. Zhong was the responding officer who arrested Wei, so this case is clearly personal, especially since several witnesses to the incident (in which a young girl died) are among Wu’s other captives.

Frankly, Zhong blames himself so much, he just might be the only cop Bill de Blasio would approve of. Needless to say, the events of that fateful night are considerably murkier than Wu realizes, but rightly or wrongly, Zhong still carries around a mountain of guilt. Lockdown is a drastic departure from its predecessors (arguably, this is more of a title appropriation than a reboot), but it is still a reasonably effective showcase for Chan’s mature acting chops. Yes, there is still more spring in his step than most fifty-nine year olds, but the centerpiece action sequence mostly involves him getting pounded by Wu’s Filipino henchman.

While Chan and Jing Tian forge some respectable father-daughter chemistry, the latter is never given a chance to exercise the monster action skills she displayed in Special I.D., which is a most unfortunate lost opportunity. It is a real shame, because most genre fans would be totally psyched to watch the extremely telegenic newcomer fighting side-by-side with the old rubber-boned veteran.

Although Liu Ye was impressively fierce as the Emperor in The Last Supper, he is frustratingly bland as the tortured and tormenting Wu. Despite their diverse nationalities, none of the secondary villains are distinctive to any appreciable degree either. However, Zhou Xiaoou adds a surprising potent element of pathos as the sad sack Wei.

Everyone will duly note Lockdown’s “Die Hard in a night club” concept, with liberal elements of Lethal Weapon’s Sgt. “Too Old For This” Murtaugh thrown in for good measure, but its borrowings were maybe not be so conspicuous in its target market. That is fair enough, considering Hollywood’s magpie tendencies. In fact, it is a slick looking production, thanks to the metallic neon set design and Yu Ding’s noir-ish cinematography. The weak bad guys are a drawback, but action fans will still enjoy watching a new and largely credible outing from Chan. Recommended for his fans, Police Story: Lockdown opens this Friday (6/5) in San Francisco at the 4-Star Theatre and in Los Angeles at the Arena Cinema.

Chinese Zodiac: Jackie Chan, Relic Repatriation Specialist

Jackie Chan’s Asian Hawk character from Armour of God is back—sort of. He is known as a “JC” now (a heavy set of initials if ever there was), but he is in the same treasure hunting business. Such details hardly matter. Either way it is Jackie Chan giving his all to please audiences as action star, action choreographer, co-writer, and director of Chinese Zodiac (a.k.a. CZ12, trailer here), which releases today on DVD, Blu-ray, and digital platforms from Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

During the Second Opium War, the French and British largely razed the Old Summer Palace. (Time, civil wars, and the Cultural Revolution would eventually finish the job.) On that day of Imperialistic excess, twelve Chinese Zodiac statues were indeed plundered. Lost for well over a century, they have suddenly hit the market one-by-one. At least, that is the MacGuffin that swings JC/Hawk into action. The antiquities holding firm MC Corp hires JC and his team to track down the seven heads they have not yet auctioned. They are also the bad guys. No, it does not make much sense, but it gives Chan plenty of opportunity to scamper across roofs, get chased by dogs, and fight pirates.

Whatever, nobody is going to watch CZ12 for the intricate plotting. The whole attraction is the acrobatic action and elaborate stunts Chan can evidently still pull off at a youthful fifty-eight years. He may have slowed down a little, considering most of the painful outtakes shown during the closing credits come from previous films, but he still looks like the real deal leaping and fighting.

The opening sequence, involving JC’s getaway from a Russian military base through the use of a luge-like human roller-ball suit, might sound a little goofy, but the execution is extremely cinematic (and suddenly timely). It also memorably introduces former Chinese taekwondo champion turned actress and model Zhang Lanxin as CZ12’s secondary action figure. There is also plenty of cat burglary, a huge action spectacle involving a massive shipwreck that serves as the centerpiece, and a climatic skydiving throwdown that looks cool but ends a bit precipitously. However, the best sequence is a good, old fashioned rumble between JC and a small army of henchmen.

When Jackie Chan mixes it up, CZ12 is on solid ground, even though the villains (led by Oliver Platt) are a bit weak. Since they frequently assure JC they have no intention of killing anyone, it rather minimizes the stakes (but at least as movie businessmen go, they are only mildly nefarious). Chan’s periodic soap-boxing to advocate restitution of national relics is somewhat more distractingly problematic. It all seems a little ironic considering his notorious assertion that the Chinese people are too anarchic and “need to be controlled.” In that case, would not China’s dynastic treasures be better off in a stodgy western institution, like the British Museum?

Regardless of Chan’s muddled politics, he remains a ridiculously likable screen presence. He clearly wants to entertain and continues to take a fall to do so. Frankly, he is probably the one man on Earth who takes more back pills than Chevy Chase, but he still does his thing with verve. Shu Qi also looks radiant but understandably confused in her blink-and-you-missed-it cameo, while Zhang definitely earns her shot at a leading action role in the future. Recommended for Chan fans, Chinese Zodiac is now available for home viewing from Universal.

1911: Jackie Chan Hits the Century Mark

Dr. Sun Yat-sen is revered as “the Father of the Nation” in both Chinas. Of course, the PRC has largely ignored the second of his Three Principles, that of Mínquán or democracy, in their attempts to co-opt Sun’s legacy. Those efforts are reflected in Zhang Li’s 1911 (trailer here), perhaps more notably distinguished as Jackie Chan’s 100th film, which opens tomorrow in New York.

In the early Twentieth Century, the Qing Dynasty, nominally ruled by the boy-emperor Puyi, was in disarray. Corruption was rampant and foreign powers were increasingly belligerent, despite the half-hearted reforms instituted by the Empress Dowager Longyu, the real power behind the throne. Sun Wen, as he was originally known, was tired of talking about revolution to the Chinese Diaspora, wanting to take a more direct role in the fighting. However, his comrades, most notably the combat-tested Huang Xing, persuade the good doctor his diplomatic and evangelical abilities were too valuable to risk in questionable military ventures.

Reluctantly convinced, Sun gives the Imperial government fits on the world stage, while Huang brings the battle to the Qings. To help him foment rebellion, Huang reluctantly accepts the help of Xu Zhonghan, who assumes the role of his wife. Of course, such pretend intimacies will inevitably become the real thing.

Though most certainly a man of action, Huang is an appropriate role for the fifty-seven year-old not-as-rubber-boned-as-he-used-to-be Chan, who is also credited as 1911’s general director (a title that sounds largely honorific). Most of his battle scenes involve desperate charges or falling shells, rather than super-heroic acrobatics. Still, he has one old school fight scene taking out a pair of would-be assassins that should have played out much longer.

Apparently accepting a new hardnosed middle-aged on-screen persona (a la The Shinjuku Incident), Chan completely sheds his comedic shtick, playing Huang with steely grit. Having previously portrayed Sun in two films and one Chinese television series, former Ang Lee regular Winston Chao convincingly returns to the familiar part, subtly hinting at the multi-faceted man beneath the statesman. While strangely under-utilized, Lee Bing Bing (as she is billed here) has an undeniable screen presence as Xu.

Unfortunately, the film rather unsubtly shoehorns in a considerable amount of PRC propaganda. In fact, the concluding titles literally claim the Communists finished the job Sun, the Confucian Christian convert, started. Of course, nobody mentions democratic republican government per se. Instead, 1911’s Sun advocates revolution in vague people power terms. Traditionally, the PRC has also emphasized Sun’s third principle of Mínshāng or social welfare, but that one no longer makes the cut either. Fortunately, Mínzú, or Chinese nationalism, never goes out of style.

Though there are some nicely produced battle sequences, 1911 is a generally stiff and talky film. It has its ideological points to make and it will make them. As a result, though perhaps of interest to Chan fans happy to see him begin to age gracefully on-screen, 1911 is pretty skippable overall. For the faithful, it opens this Friday (10/7) in New York at the Regal E-Walk.

Shaolin: Respect These Monks

The Shaolin monks of the early twentieth century Chinese Republic were highly skilled practitioners of the martial arts. Brothers of charitable mercy, they believed in turning the other cheek. However, they could only be pushed so far, as one power mad warlord learns in Benny Chan’s Shaolin (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

When Hou Jie’s vanquished rival took refuge in the Shaolin monastery, the warlord went in after him. Hou Jie’s hubris told him he was on the brink permanently consolidating his control over the region, but karma will say otherwise. Expecting to betray a key ally at the dinner celebrating their young children’s arranged marriage, Hou Jie finds himself triple-crossed by his lieutenant, Cao Man. Escaping with his life, the fallen warlord finds sanctuary with the very monks he so lately dissed.

Mourning his daughter, Hou Jie shaves his head, finding solace in the life of a novice. Of course, his former “little brother” is still out for his head, but Cao Man is also busy colluding with the evil westerners, using up and discarding desperate workers in their malevolent public works projects, which at least have the merit of being “shovel-ready.” A spectacular showdown is inevitable, especially considering the monks Robin Hood relief work.

A richly detailed period production, Yee Chung-man’s design team meticulously recreated the imposing Shaolin Temple on Mount Song, for the express purpose of watching it all eventually come crashing down. In fact, the audience is so thoroughly immersed in the ancient sets, it is difficult to get an accurate bead on the film’s exact timeframe. Action director Corey Yuen (who served a similar role on little films like The Expendables, X-Men, and Red Cliff) choreographs some impressive fight sequences, including both the sweeping macro battles and the hand-to-hand combat at the micro level.

It is also entertaining to see Jackie Chan as Wu Dai, the Shaolin cook, still mixing it up, but in ways appropriate to his advancing age and battered body. His big fight scene is arguably more closely akin to the work of Jacques Tati than Bruce Lee. Wu Jing however, is all business as senior brother Jing Neng. Looking his nearly fifty years as well (particularly when sporting the Picardian look), Andy Lau is appropriately intense as Hou Jie, convincingly handling the action sequences as well as his characters transition to Zen-like resignation, if not full enlightenment. As an added bonus, Fan Bingbing is as radiant as ever portraying his grieving wife Yan Xi.

Aside from the clichéd white devil imperialist villain (an already tired convention of Chinese popular film), Shaolin is quite a rich martial arts morality play. Frankly, it is refreshing to see a film with genuine respect for religious service that also takes themes of redemption profoundly seriously. It also delivers ample spectacle and a generous supply of beat-downs. Enthusiastically recommended, Shaolin opens this Friday (9/9) in New York at the Cinema Village and in Colorado at the Denver Film Center/Colfax.