A few years ago it used to be said that, if an actor did not want to lose prominence in a film, it was better not to put a child or a dog next to him.
Well
Jackie Chan
(who will soon reunite with
Ralph Macchio
for a
Karate Kid
movie ) turns a deaf ear to that axiom in
Action Doubles
, a new proposal by the
Rush Hour
actor in the combination of genres that best fit him: comedy and the action.
Chan was, in his past and among many activities, a stuntman, with a legendary catalog of injuries in real life, so this Chinese-produced film spoken in Mandarin takes him back to those actions he used to perform, be they acrobatics or falls. .
And like a luck or misfortune of swan song, the film contains fragments of films of Chan doing precisely that, because his character, you guessed it, is a stunt double, but he is no longer dedicated to that task, due to a matter of age. and because film techniques, with a green screen in the background, play it safe, even if it is false.
Until he is called to film an action scene with his horse Red Hare.
No one in the film world remembers Luo except the young people he taught and supported, so his return could be complicated.
So Luo is torn between returning to the ring, putting his physical integrity and that of his horse at risk, and reestablishing his relationship with his daughter Bao (Liu Haocun), whom he saw little of since he divorced her mother when she was a child. I was one year old.
Red Hare and Luo (Jackie Chan): one of those relationships.
Photos MB Films
Bao feels like an orphan (her mother died), and sees a chance for reconciliation when Luo needs help from a lawyer: she studies law and asks her lawyer boyfriend Mickey (Kevin Guo) to defend her father (and his horse) in court.
A horse as protagonist as Jackie Chan
Red Hare is almost as much a protagonist as Master Luo (Chan), and as Bao.
Living in a loft above his horse's neglected stable, Luo struggles to keep Red Hare when a debt collector (Andy On) tries to take the horse as collateral.
And then two representatives of a corporation claim the little horse as part of their boss's property, following a complicated lawsuit involving Red Hare's previous owner.
The film has, apart from a director behind the camera, another as “action director”, He Jun. It's not that there are so many hand-to-hand fights between Luo and the bad guys, but the few that are seen are very well shot. , like brilliantly performed choreographies.
Jackie Chan turns 70 on April 7.
In this film there is also a director of action scenes.
Chan, who will turn 70 on April 7, looks like he's 40, including dyed hair.
The fact that he is estranged in real life from his daughter Etta Ng - Chan is very conservative, and strictly supports the Beijing regime: his daughter is homosexual - leads one to think that this film was made to heal or compensate for the damage. .
Who knows if he succeeded.
“Action Doubles”
Good
Comedy/Action.
China, 2023.
Original title:
“Long ma jing shen"
. 125', SAM 13.
By:
Larry Yang.
With:
Jackie Chan, Haocun Liu, Kevin Guo, Yueting Lang.
Theaters:
Showcase Belgrano and Norcenter, Hoyts Unicenter, Cinépolis Avellaneda and Pilar.