Our second film from the New York Asian Film Festival (got to see a lot less than I wanted, but ain’t that always the case). Can Jackie make up for The Tuxedo, Robin B. Hood, and getting drunk and crashing the stage during some pop idol’s concert?
LITTLE BIG SOLDIER
In 2009, Chan made Shinjuku Incident. It was not the Jackie Chan movie people expected. This movie saw a much grimmer Chan, something more along the lines of the glimpse we got in Ringo Lam’s Crime Story. Here was a Jackie Chan who was no longer trying to deny his age. Here was a Jackie Can who was trying to make a good movie, with a good script and good acting. After years of poopy diaper jokes and Jennifer Love Hewitt striking Karate Kid poses, Shinjuku Incident seemed to be saying that it was time to start paying attention to Jackie Chan again. And then, in 2010, came Little Big Soldier, and Jackie Chan fans, covered in cobwebs and the dust of the wasteland, knew that our time in the wilderness was finally at an end.
#1 by The Rev. D.D. on July 10, 2010 - 9:37 am
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Well, I’m sold. I will have to track this down with a high priority. It sounds like a very different kind of Chan movie, and your words really convinced me of its quality.
From what I hear, I also need to find Red Cliff. Which kind of sucks, because it played here a while back, but by the time I found out anything about the movie it was gone (they had a run of very limited engagements of various Asian movies I’d been previously unaware of).
#2 by KeithA on July 12, 2010 - 11:51 am
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Red cliff is…worth seeing, i guess. It has the feel of a director re-learning his craft, and a director working in a genre with which he does not have a lot of experience. But despite the rough spots and cheesy moments, which I suppose have bee a part of Woo’s work since forever, it’s worth checking out the international version (ie, the 5 hour one). Never saw the theatrical release, so I have no comment on it.
#3 by DamonD on July 13, 2010 - 5:35 am
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Good to hear Jackie’s gotten some of his mojo back. I certainly don’t expect him to be able to match the rubbery athleticism of his youth, and don’t begrudge him an easy paycheque at all, but I’m happier to see him actually channeling his efforts into more worthy projects again.