Little Big Soldier-- the only Jackie Chan movie that got me (& the audience I was with) laughing AND crying-- is easily the best of the Jackie's "legacy" projects, where he makes a point of taking on more mature/dramatic roles and working with more industry novices/newcomers. And despite a nondescript trailer lacking in any visual/action eye-candy and lukewarm previews from critics who didn't know what to expect, audience word-of-mouth has slowly but surely carried the movie to box-office success.
Based on Jackie's concept for a war-time "frenemy" road-movie, this is the closest he has ever come to making an "Indie" comedy, where the communication of the story/concept always takes precedence over the presentation of visual/action set-pieces. There is no doubt that Jackie's effortless acting and antics carried the film-- but it is also sensibly supported by a story/script from the newcomer director-cum-writer Ding Sheng, who knew how to flesh out the concept (& so earn his place as director) by adopting the setting of China's "Warring States" era.
As a TV commercial-turned-movie director, Ding Sheng instinctively trusted himself (& the audience) to get a "point/beat" within a precisely-framed 3-second shot (instead of those wide, sweeping or lingering shots done-to-death by cinematographers or MTV-producers turned directors)-- making much of the "foreshadowing" and "reveals" strangely subtle for an action-comedy. So much so that some critics will inevitably lose the plot... because true to the road-movie convention, there are many "pop-up" cameo-roles whose appearance/plot-lines are NOT explained-- except maybe with a 3-second shot (or a one-liner)-- all of whom are inconsequential on their own, but serve to add spice as well as depth to the story/characters.
Not to mention that readers of sub-titles might also miss the bits of cultural references/symbolism littered throughout the film... like the irony of a royalty who quotes classical poetry from memory, but doesn't know the plant from which rice is grown-- or the fact that calling someone a "little person" is one of the oldest/gravest insults in Chinese culture.
The hodgepodge of characters and plot-points sounds like a recipe for disaster, but the "low-tech" animation of some opening-titles and a flurry of short opening-scenes quickly and firmly sets the tone for a light-hearted fable/satire of a dark age-- so much so that the apparently rambling dialog and wildly varying accents (including one unintelligible language) seemed quite natural to it. In fact, a result of this movie following the "action-in-service-of-story/character" principle was that I frequently wanted to get past the action sequences and get on the story/dialog (a prequel/sequel would be nice...)-- so here is an "advanced warning" with spoilers: don't watch this movie if you don't want to see Jackie Chan as...
*SPOILERS START SPOILERS*
...a brazen coward who can't fight to save his own life. The only thing Jackie Chan hurt making this movie was his finger-- and the most impressive skill Jackie Chan showed was his singing.
But Jackie Chan is also the only one who could have made a bumbling rogue so endearing and hold this poignant period action-comedy together-- even edging out similar fare from Stephen Chow (who is more wacky than endearing) and wanna-bes like Zhang Yimou (who is more theatrical than comical) simply in terms of "laugh-tears". So much so that the whole theater burst out laughing even as his character breaks down for the only time in the movie-- because it was just such a "common/banal" result of war. In fact, there wasn't a single gag or joke that didn't add a little more to the story/characters-- so another thumbs-up for applying the "gags-in-service-of-story/character" principle.
And the "turnabout" ending of the movie is just icing on the cake-- being gently foreshadowed (it is pretty obvious that this is a "message" movie), it provides even more food for thought... and brings to fore the existential question faced by the Little Big Soldier: "to live in peace, or die with dignity"? But whether you agree with the ending/choice of the Little Big Soldier, the "out-takes" presented during the end-credits (a feature of most Jackie Chan movies) are there to help you "deconstruct" the movie with further hilarity-- and no one in my theater even tried to leave, until we were sure that the end-credits were absolutely over.
*SPOILERS END SPOILERS*
There isn't anything revolutionary in Little Big Soldier (except maybe personally for Jackie Chan as well as the novices/newcomers involved), but thanks heavens that the current generation of Chinese/HK directors is not asking audiences to condone shaky story-telling for the sake of some shiny set-pieces (like Hollywood-wannabes Zhang Yimou, John Woo, etc.). And I'll willingly pay to watch any movie that does NOT need me to switch off my brains before it can make me laugh/cry.
Based on Jackie's concept for a war-time "frenemy" road-movie, this is the closest he has ever come to making an "Indie" comedy, where the communication of the story/concept always takes precedence over the presentation of visual/action set-pieces. There is no doubt that Jackie's effortless acting and antics carried the film-- but it is also sensibly supported by a story/script from the newcomer director-cum-writer Ding Sheng, who knew how to flesh out the concept (& so earn his place as director) by adopting the setting of China's "Warring States" era.
As a TV commercial-turned-movie director, Ding Sheng instinctively trusted himself (& the audience) to get a "point/beat" within a precisely-framed 3-second shot (instead of those wide, sweeping or lingering shots done-to-death by cinematographers or MTV-producers turned directors)-- making much of the "foreshadowing" and "reveals" strangely subtle for an action-comedy. So much so that some critics will inevitably lose the plot... because true to the road-movie convention, there are many "pop-up" cameo-roles whose appearance/plot-lines are NOT explained-- except maybe with a 3-second shot (or a one-liner)-- all of whom are inconsequential on their own, but serve to add spice as well as depth to the story/characters.
Not to mention that readers of sub-titles might also miss the bits of cultural references/symbolism littered throughout the film... like the irony of a royalty who quotes classical poetry from memory, but doesn't know the plant from which rice is grown-- or the fact that calling someone a "little person" is one of the oldest/gravest insults in Chinese culture.
The hodgepodge of characters and plot-points sounds like a recipe for disaster, but the "low-tech" animation of some opening-titles and a flurry of short opening-scenes quickly and firmly sets the tone for a light-hearted fable/satire of a dark age-- so much so that the apparently rambling dialog and wildly varying accents (including one unintelligible language) seemed quite natural to it. In fact, a result of this movie following the "action-in-service-of-story/character" principle was that I frequently wanted to get past the action sequences and get on the story/dialog (a prequel/sequel would be nice...)-- so here is an "advanced warning" with spoilers: don't watch this movie if you don't want to see Jackie Chan as...
*SPOILERS START SPOILERS*
...a brazen coward who can't fight to save his own life. The only thing Jackie Chan hurt making this movie was his finger-- and the most impressive skill Jackie Chan showed was his singing.
But Jackie Chan is also the only one who could have made a bumbling rogue so endearing and hold this poignant period action-comedy together-- even edging out similar fare from Stephen Chow (who is more wacky than endearing) and wanna-bes like Zhang Yimou (who is more theatrical than comical) simply in terms of "laugh-tears". So much so that the whole theater burst out laughing even as his character breaks down for the only time in the movie-- because it was just such a "common/banal" result of war. In fact, there wasn't a single gag or joke that didn't add a little more to the story/characters-- so another thumbs-up for applying the "gags-in-service-of-story/character" principle.
And the "turnabout" ending of the movie is just icing on the cake-- being gently foreshadowed (it is pretty obvious that this is a "message" movie), it provides even more food for thought... and brings to fore the existential question faced by the Little Big Soldier: "to live in peace, or die with dignity"? But whether you agree with the ending/choice of the Little Big Soldier, the "out-takes" presented during the end-credits (a feature of most Jackie Chan movies) are there to help you "deconstruct" the movie with further hilarity-- and no one in my theater even tried to leave, until we were sure that the end-credits were absolutely over.
*SPOILERS END SPOILERS*
There isn't anything revolutionary in Little Big Soldier (except maybe personally for Jackie Chan as well as the novices/newcomers involved), but thanks heavens that the current generation of Chinese/HK directors is not asking audiences to condone shaky story-telling for the sake of some shiny set-pieces (like Hollywood-wannabes Zhang Yimou, John Woo, etc.). And I'll willingly pay to watch any movie that does NOT need me to switch off my brains before it can make me laugh/cry.