Apparently the transition Jackie Chan from action actor to “Asian Robert De Niro” is a bit of a drag. Indeed. Five years ago, when it appeared on the screens «Chinese zodiac», who had a very strong advertising campaign (Jackie even came to Russia), Chan claimed that his career as an on-screen fighter was coming to an end, and in the future he was going to focus on more serious roles. Many fans then almost cried, categorically refusing to believe it, at the same time calling Jackie “the best actor in the world” and tearing apart anyone who tried to prove to them that this was not entirely true. But to their great happiness, Jackie was immediately unable to break with his past (or was simply disingenuous in order to create more hype around the new “Armor”). But be that as it may, with each subsequent film the action scenes became less and less. The fights were staged more primitively, their duration was sharply reduced, and “no-cable” tricks were almost non-existent. And age has already begun to take its toll; after all, the man is almost 63 years old, plus all sorts of injuries he received over many years of filming in films. And there really were a lot of them, even if we exclude all sorts of fan theories and inventions on this matter.
В "Railway Tigers" There is essentially no action as such, if by this word we mean battles. And everything that can be seen is filmed in the spirit - a poke here, a kick here, they flew on ropes, laughed, ran away. There were also no serious tricks noticed, this is not exactly a minus, just a statement of fact. The film is a historical comedy, without much tension, so to speak, and in places even without much meaning. The first hour and a half can be described as follows: “Jackie and his team jump on trains and along the way intrigue the Japanese military, not forgetting to make jokes with or without reason.” It’s very long, sometimes boring, to watch all this...
And only at the end, when you don’t expect much from the film, the music suddenly changes to something more dramatic, and the characters stop (well, almost) fooling around. There are echoes of drama in the film. Completely different people appear. Or rather, the actors are the same, but shown differently, who begin to do what they should have been doing from the very beginning. We can safely say that the final 20 minutes are many times better than what came before. It is also worth noting that in this film Jackie played together with his son - Jaycee Chan, whom I haven’t seen on screen for a long time, especially paired with my father. And in the film, the relationship between their characters is very warm, a kind of reference to life. You can also watch Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, many know him as the “Japanese general” whom he fought against Yip Man in the film of the same name. Here he also has the role of an antagonist who will resist the “tigers” throughout the film, or rather “try.”
The film's budget is quite large, especially by Chinese standards ($50 million). Therefore, during the viewing process, perhaps one of the most important questions in the entire film arises: “How can such terrible special effects be made with such enormous money and were they even needed?” Well, seriously, it was extremely unpleasant to watch. Terrible shooting, terrible picture. Although the director seems to be smart - Ding Shen, who has produced at least a good historical drama - "Big Soldier", with the participation of the same Chan. "Police Story 2013", which, although it turned out to be a very controversial film, at the same time had a very original (for Chan) fight staging. But in “Tigers” the director has apparently completely exhausted himself and this is very bad. Especially given the fact that the film had all the makings of becoming, if not a masterpiece, then at least just good. So other than the aforementioned ending, a few jokes and a few action moments throughout the film, I personally wasn't impressed by anything else. Fans of Jackie Chan will certainly watch the film anyway. And to be happy or disappointed is everyone’s choice. Well, I personally will continue to wait "Foreigner", which I have high hopes for in terms of a serious and interesting film.
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Tags: Railroad Tigers, Jaycee Chan, Jackie Chan, Ding Sheng, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi
Tags: Railroad Tigers, Jaycee Chan, Jackie Chan, Ding Sheng, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi
In general, judging by the review, it’s not necessary to watch, and not even because there is no cool action, stunts, and fights.