Little Big Soldier

[GeneChing]

As soon as JC settles on a title, I'll change the post heading.

Jackie Chan Goes Big on 'Soldier
After keeping a tight lid on the project for months, Jackie Chan has unveiled the details of his $25 million picture "Big Soldier".

Chan produces, stars and wrote the screenplay, which focuses on three people and a horse.

Cast includes Chan, singer-turned actor Lee-Hom Wang, previous unknown Lin Peng and South Korea's Yoo Seung-Jun. Ding Sheng is the director.

"The film is set during the Warring States Period," Chan told a news conference on Tuesday. "It's an action picture with black humor plus a bit of romance."

"The budget of $25 million is big for the times that we live in, but this is a Jackie Chan film," Yu Dong, prexy of co-investor and distributor PolyBona, told Daily Variety.

Jackie soldiers on

Superstar Jackie Chan's next project after the now-in-theatres Shinjuku Incident will be a period epic entitled Big Soldier.

According to The Press Association, Chan is producing, scripting and starring in the US$25mil film, which the actor described as "an action picture with black humour plus a bit of romance".

He will play a veteran soldier while Wang Lee Hom appears as a young, raw soldier. It's a story of three people ... and a horse.

[GeneChing]

Go to the site for pics

Big Soldier Small General Begins Production
By cfensi

This is a week late, but I’ve got about half a dozen half-written articles, more I want to write but no time for, and thus nothing actually gets published, because I don’t finish writing one before starting on the next one.

Jackie Chan showed off his cast for his new movie “Big Soldier Small General” (with a script that he himself penned) at a press conference about a week ago. The movie is set during the Warring States Period and is an action-comedy road movie about an old solider who kidnaps the younger general played by Leehom.

I mentioned the possibility of this pairing a long, long time ago, when Leehom was simply offered the role, and was worried that I was getting everyone’s hopes up because he hadn’t accepted it yet. But I needn’t have worried, because Wang Leehom is Asian-American and there are few Asian Americans who would turn down the chance to work with Jackie. Besides Wang Leehom however, the cast seems extremely randomly picked…mostly unknowns without much acting experience.

First there’s Lin Peng, who was at the Beijing Opening Ceremonies as the teacher who lead the students. She apparently caught his eye there with her looks. In my opinion, if he wanted to choose someone in the Olympics for their looks he should have chosen the “conductor” in the Paralympics performance with the little ballet girl Li Yue. She was really mesmerizing and the camera was fixated on her as well.

Then there’s Yoo Seungjun, a Korean-American, who launched a very sucessful career in Korea as a singer, until he was to be sent into military service, and then he became a US citizen, and was banned by the Korean government from entering South Korea ever again. He then launched a singing career in China, although not as successful as his Korean one. I get when Koreans/Japanese are picked for Chinese films in order to market them towards a greater audience, but if he is banned from even physically entering South Korea, then it doesn’t seem he’ll pull in those foreign viewers. I guess Jackie Chan just really likes him because he’s got a 15-year contract with Jackie’s company.

And finally, there’s Xu Dongmei, who’ve I’ve mentioned was one of the top sixteen from Jackie’s reality show contest “The Disciple”. Jackie must like her too giving her a role in one of his projects before his top three from that show. She’s also as you may remember, starring in Le Huo Nan Hai as “the girl with the braids” (dubbed this until I know her character’s name in the movie). I think she looks cooler with braids, but she’s very pretty without them too.

The randomness of the cast worries me a bit. It seems as if besides Leehom, Jackie just took random people from his company and then watched the Olympics for inspiration, and thought, hey, she could work as my lead. Recently, Jackie Chan has been increasingly diving into new projects and forming new ideas, and I’m not sure how many of those ideas are truly well-thought out or just whimsies of his. Jackie, please don’t screw Wang Leehom over like Ang Lee did with Lust, Caution by giving Leehom a crappy meaningless role.

I also wonder at the casting, because it was originally said there were four main stars, one of which is a horse. Who amongst these people is the horse? Which star is not even getting the role of the horse? (there’s five actors here by my count). Ah…questions to ponder.

Ding Sheng, of the Underdog Knight, is directing. The Underdog Knight was dark and completely different from a Jackie Chan comedy so it’ll be interesting to see how this movie will turn out. Good luck to Leehom and everyone else in the cast.

Source (Actually the source for this is not just one, but a bunch of articles I read a week ago, bunch didn’t save and don’t remember. Sorry.)

[GeneChing]

I remember looking forward to the JC New Year's releases. Nice to have a fresh one.

* February 22, 2010, 3:12 PM HKT
Jackie Chan Premieres ‘Little Big Soldier’

Jackie Chan is off to a lightning-fast start in 2010. With the year not even two months old yet, the kung fu star already has a second movie hitting cinemas: “Little Big Soldier,” his first film for the packed Chinese New Year season in nine years.

In what in all likelihood is the first Warring States Period comedy-action buddy road movie, Chan plays a soldier who captures a general (Wang Leehom of “Lust Caution”) from a rival state and intends to exchange his prisoner for a peaceful life as a farmer. The two develop a cautious friendship as they battle against common enemies.

Chan has been heavily promoting the Chinese-language movie — showing up at the premiere in Hong Kong on Friday night just a few days after presenting the movie at the Berlin International Film Festival. For Chan, it’s a fine display of his signature comedic-athletic style after his dramatic turn in last year’s “Shinjuku Incident.”

The 55-year-old actor had been kicking around the idea of “Little Big Soldier” for 20 years, and his mark on the project is conspicuously apparent: He’s credited with the original story as well as producer, executive producer, action director and, of course, star. His enthusiastic efforts appeared to have paid off: The movie has been getting generally favorable reviews.

“Little Big Soldier” follows the opening last month of the English-language action comedy “The Spy Next Door” in North America and some markets in Asia. That movie wasn’t as well-received, but fans can look forward to his next film this summer — a remake of the modern-American classic, “The Karate Kid.”

– Dean Napolitano

[GeneChing]

Asia gets this and Shinjuku Incident. America gets The Spy Next Door.

Review: 'Little Big Soldier' innovative starring vehicle for Jackie Chan
By MIN LEE AP Entertainment Writer
HONG KONG February 26, 2010 (AP)

We've seen Jackie Chan, the nimble action hero who takes down the bad guys. Enter Jackie Chan, the timid soldier who will do anything to avoid fighting, even using a prop arrow and artificial blood to fake his death during major battles.

In the veteran action star's new Chinese-language release, "Little Big Soldier," Chan plays a farmer-turned-reluctant soldier in ancient China whose survival strategy is feigning injury.

After escaping unscathed from another battle through trickery, he stumbles upon his biggest prize — a surviving general from a rival state. The general becomes his hostage — the hope being that turning in the wounded soldier to the king of his state will win him riches and exemption from military duty.

The treacherous journey back to the farmer's home state, fending off assassins and indigenous bandits, and the comical interplay between Chan's happy-go-lucky farmer and the fearless, snobbish general who looks down on his opportunistic kidnapper drives the 96-minute film.

At first glance, Chan and co-star, singer Leehom Wang are hopelessly miscast. How can the world's biggest ethnic Chinese star pass for a small-time soldier? And how can a Chinese-American pop sensation raised in Rochester, New York and known for his good looks convincingly play a brash general from ancient China?

Wang's portrayal is indeed tenuous — he still speaks Chinese with a noticeable American accent. But Chan shines in his offbeat role, bringing a lovable folksiness to his lowly character. He's infectiously carefree and upbeat, putting a positive spin on the most desperate of situations. "Things are going pretty well" is his mantra.

And the chemistry between Chan and Wang is obvious, their awkward attempts to thwart their attackers reminiscent of Chan's successful comic pairings with Chris Tucker in the "Rush Hour" series and Owen Wilson in "Shanghai Noon" and "Shanghai Knights." The biggest running joke is the farmer's utter lack of kung fu prowess. Chan is shown pointlessly waving his wooden baton when facing down more competent opponents.

The two leading men are helped by the superb and tightly written script by Chinese director Ding Sheng, who beautifully teases out the personalities and personal histories of the two characters.

"Little Big Soldier" also reinforces Chan's trend of taking greater creative risks in his Chinese-language work than his Hollywood productions, where he rarely strays from action comedy. It's his second innovative Chinese-language role in a row. In one of his darker roles of late, Chan played an illegal Chinese immigrant who becomes a hit man for the Japanese mafia in his last Chinese film, "Shinjuku Incident." In a departure from his usually wholesome image, Chan is shown committing murder and paying for sex.

Chan's new movie also shows that it's possible to be creative within the often-soulless genre of the big-budget Chinese epic that has come to dominate the local industry. Superficially, "Little Big Soldier" is another action-packed war movie featuring grand battle scenes set in the vast Chinese outback. Except it's anything but. It's a lovely story of friendship and humanity in the face of endless warfare and destruction.