1905 movie network feature A movie starring and starring in a special role, focusing on a generation of Dragon and Tiger martial artists. Since the release of the first batch of materials, the popularity has continued to rise, making it the most noteworthy kung fu movie in 2023. The kung fu superstar has come out again, and the sincerity of his debut for 60 years remains the same. Is the new team and new theme still a familiar taste?
"It’s time to start work. I was on crutches at that time, so I’ll go right away, close it here, close it there, nine stitches!"
"When I first saw the trailer, I didn’t feel like it was a Jackie Chan movie," said Ye Hang, an associate professor at the Beijing Film Academy and a veteran kung fu film enthusiast and researcher. "In the past, the trailer of Jackie Chan movies could not wait to cut all the essence of the action scenes, because this is the biggest selling point, but this time it is just a conversation between Jackie Chan and,. If you look closely, you will find that there is still a familiar taste of Jackie Chan in it."
Comedy effect
In the trailer, you can still see the shadow of the past kung fu comedies. At first, Jackie Chan sat upright, as if he was interviewing his prospective son-in-law.
"Why are you so nervous?"
"Not nervous."
But as soon as his daughter came in, all of a sudden, Jackie Chan became very nervous, restrained, and even a little cowardly, which is a common technique in comic effect.
Fight effect
With a comic effect, it is natural to have kung fu martial arts. In the film, Jackie Chan asks Guo Qilin’s character if he can fight and if he can protect his daughter.
In Jackie Chan’s early kung fu comedies, the purpose of his action scenes was to punish evil and promote good, but in this line in "Dragon Horse Spirit", he has changed, and the purpose is to protect his family. In that sense, it is still a Jackie Chan movie, but there are indeed many differences.
"The Spirit of Dragon Horse" is a work on the 60th anniversary of Jackie Chan’s debut. From the time Mr. Chan first appeared in a movie at the age of 8 to the age of 24, he started the era of kung fu comedy. Now he returns to the public eye with "The Spirit of Dragon Horse", playing the father of a "daughter slave". Jackie Chan has been active for 60 years on the big screen, sometimes laughing and sometimes desperately. This is a very difficult thing, and he has been able to stand for so many years. It is not by one trick that he eats the sky, but by advancing with the times and making positive changes.
When Jackie Chan was filming in 2004, he had already begun to try to change, not to play the hero who could never be beaten to death, but to play the ordinary person with blood, flesh and tears, and even kneel in some films. From the previous "fist" to the current "emotion", Jackie Chan has increasingly tried to play the father in the past decade, and the Jackie Chan-style father image is often very Chinese, with traditional Chinese virtues, external rigidity and internal softness, and special attention to rules.
Ye Hang put forward his own speculation about "Dragon Horse Spirit" based on the analysis: "Maybe the relationship between father and daughter will take the characteristics of’outer battle and inner love ‘, because there are many differences in thinking logic and way of doing things between the two generations. For example, in the choice of a mate, Jackie Chan’s father shows a kind of distrust, but the daughter likes it and even takes the initiative; for example, Jackie Chan’s character is in the business of dragon and tiger martial arts, and it is completely possible that the daughter, as a young man, does not agree or understand it. No matter how many conflicts there are outside the film, in the end, it will still fall to this point where the father and daughter are deeply in love, to form an emotional sublimation."
Last year, there was a documentary called, interviewed,, and other big names, which attracted widespread attention. The spirit of the Dragon Tiger martial artist is the spirit of striving for perfection and the ultimate, which is in the same vein as the spirit under the Lion Rock in Hong Kong society as a whole. In the 1980s in Hong Kong, the director made a film with many plots and details to show how difficult it is to be a Dragon Tiger martial artist. Jackie Chan is the most typical life-fighting action star. In it, he leaps deep from the bell tower; in the series, he hangs an umbrella on the roof of a Hong Kong bus. His film history can even be called a person’s injury history.
Wu Jing’s willingness to appear in "Dragon Horse Spirit" is based on his admiration for Jackie Chan’s eldest brother, which well reflects the cross-generational inheritance, and on the other hand, because they have the same growth experience as Dragon Tiger Martial Artists. The spirit of Dragon Tiger Martial Artists has a certain time distance from now. How to re-inspire vitality in the new era depends on whether the film creators can combine this spirit with the current story, plot and characters.
In addition to "Ryoma Spirit", other kung fu movie stars are also in full swing to shoot their own works, such as self-directed and self-starred, and have also released the first trailer, which is expected to be released next year.
"Everyone thinks that Wang Baoqiang rarely comes out this year. In fact, I have been doing this for six years."
Looking at it as a whole, the 2023 kung fu films have new characteristics and new atmosphere that are different from 2022. There are more innovations in the choice of themes and the integration of genres. For example, "In the Octagonal Cage" combines kung fu action elements with sports sports themes. Action movies, as a type of hard bridge and hard horse, also need creators to pay attention to plays. The selling point of martial arts as a genre itself is very important, but literary opera cannot be ignored either. It needs to be able to tell a good Chinese story through the film to make this film more contemporary. The current action genre films are constantly developing, and I believe that the majority of audiences are also looking forward to more innovations and breakthroughs in Chinese kung fu movies.