＂Dragon Horse Spirit＂ failed. Has Jackie Chan fallen off the altar？
Jackie Chan’s new work "The Spirit of the Dragon Horse" was released last Friday, April 7th, which was Jackie Chan’s 69th birthday. However, this so-called "film that embodies Jackie Chan’s life experience" doesn’t seem to shoulder this heavy responsibility. After the film was opened with a score of 6.7 on Douban.com, the score has dropped to 6.5. Its first weekend box office was only 80 million yuan, and movie platforms such as Cat’s Eye predicted that the final box office of this film would stay at around 200 million yuan. What story does this film tell, and what’s wrong with it, which makes the audience unable to empathize and accept it? Does Jackie Chan still have box office appeal?
"Dragon and Horse Spirit" is also the spirit of Dragon and Tiger Martial Masters.
The film Spirit of Dragon and Horse is interwoven by two lines: one is the career line of Lao Luo (Jackie Chan), which tells how Lao Luo, as the "martial artist of dragon and tiger" on the set, made a comeback with his partner "Red Rabbit" when he was old and out of breath. The other is the family line. In his early years, Lao Luo was busy with his career and neglected his family. Even his wife’s funeral was late. Lao Luo needed to rebuild his relationship with his daughter Xiaobao (played by Liu Haocun) whom he had not seen for many years, and he also needed the help of his future son-in-law Naihua (played by Guo Qilin).
In the play, Jackie Chan plays Lao Luo’s character setting, which is exactly the same as Jackie Chan’s own experience outside the play. Audiences who are familiar with Jackie Chan’s movies will soon get the message. The film has also restored Jackie Chan’s classic style in previous movies several times through the play-in-play, and even copied several behind-the-scenes tidbits from Jackie Chan’s past movies. Watching Jackie Chan’s high-risk moves in the film, the audience can sympathize with the pain and sweat.
As a special type of work created by Hong Kong movies, "Dragon and Tiger Martial Masters" are not big stars who can play the leading role. More often, they are in charge of body double, special effects, walk-on, or play the roles of thugs and minions in some martial arts films. The documentary "Dragon Tiger Martial Arts" once mentioned that Hong Kong films had no technology and capital at that time, so for the sake of visibility, they had to rely on these martial arts teachers. "The martial arts teachers at that time were all fighting for their lives, but they were actually forced out."
Born in poverty, even if they appear in big movies, they are more likely to play unknown people hidden in the light. Therefore, Lao Luo, played by Jackie Chan in Dragon Horse Spirit, is a down-and-out martial artist, and that beautiful horse named "Red Rabbit" is the embodiment of the martial artist in the golden age of Hong Kong movies.
Similar to the humble martial artist, "Red Rabbit" was born weak, not only with a disabled leg, but also with congenital deficiency of lungs, which doomed it to get sick frequently. It was Lao Luo who insisted not to put him to death humanely. He not only adopted him, but also cultivated him into a BMW with strong body and humanity. On the set, "Red Rabbit" accompanied Lao Luo to make dangerous moves: when being besieged by dozens of groups with axes, "Red Rabbit" took Lao Luo to "break through"; In the case of insufficient run-up distance, "Red Rabbit" still ventured to complete the action of jumping over the cliff. It can be said that the spirit and experience of "Red Rabbit" horse can better represent the martial arts actors in most Hong Kong films. The film has added this fine horse, which is also more comic and viewable.
Awkward family line, unbalanced father-daughter relationship
Body double, a martial artist in martial arts movies, made an indelible contribution, and Jackie Chan’s film career was also an undisputed glory. However, the film not only laid out this line about the Dragon and Tiger Martial Arts Master, but also a family line between Lao Luo and his family, and the story of this line was not smooth and reasonable enough.
After Lao Luo was deeply involved in the lawsuit, the "Red Rabbit" horse was taken away by the court as someone else’s "property". Lao Luo, who doesn’t know the law and is desperate, can only turn to his daughter Xiaobao (played by Liu Haocun) who is studying law and her lawyer boyfriend Naihua (played by Guo Qilin). Daughter Xiaobao lived with her mother since she was a child. She was always prejudiced against her father because of the lack of father’s love, but suddenly she was forgiven for witnessing Lao Luo’s struggle on the set. What is confusing is that in the later story, the father and daughter have repeatedly argued and reconciled.
The father and daughter, who should have understood each other and went in two directions, did not put down their bodies to respect their daughters, while the daughter understood her father at the speed of light. When the postures of the two sides are not balanced, they are full of embarrassing sensationalism and preaching. When the emotions are not paved, they repeatedly freeze and break the ice. It can only be said that the construction of this film is a failure.
This may reflect from another side that movies don’t know how to show the private lives of successful people like Jackie Chan and their families. Because there is no proper reason and way to praise Lao Luo and show his human feelings, it is impossible to establish a credible emotional bond with his daughter.
In recent years, with the box office and word-of-mouth of Jackie Chan’s movies being unsatisfactory, the audience has repeatedly asked: "Jackie Chan is old, can he still fight?" On the surface, this film is about Lao Luo, but in essence, by telling the story of Jackie Chan, it expresses nostalgia for the old Hong Kong movies and pays tribute to the Dragon and Tiger Martial Arts. But for now, the film can’t afford such a burden. Perhaps in a film like Spirit of the Dragon Horse, Lao Luo doesn’t need to prove how to be a martial artist and a father. Instead, he can admit that he is old, that the hero is dying, that the hero has fallen off the altar, and that the Hong Kong mark he carries is blowing in the wind.