Wu Jing and Jackie Chan represent two kinds of "Chinese heroes" | Yangtze River Review

Yang Yuze, commentator of The Yangtze River Daily

The just-concluded 6th Jackie Chan International Action Film Week has a topic around Wu Jing and Jackie Chan: Wu Jing has become the first person in China to become the first person at the Chinese film box office with the total box office of several blockbusters such as "Wolf Warrior" series, "The Wandering Earth" and "Changjin Lake". Jackie Chan sighed at the Movie Week: "It took me decades to perform films to raise more than 20 billion yuan at the box office, and Wu Jing can achieve it with only four plays." ”

Wu Jing's four films are worthy of jackie Chan's box office in decades, which is obviously a measure of art by box office, and some are partial to the whole. For mainland audiences, Jackie Chan appeared as a Hong Kong movie star, so the images he portrayed in "Drunken Fist" such as Wong Fei Hung and The Hong Kong policeman Ma Hanqiang in "Red Fan District" left a deep impression on people. In contrast, Wu Jing's films are characterized by grand scenes, and the characters he plays are inferior to Jackie Chan in terms of the skill of the action. Jackie Chan's artistic achievements in character shaping are not easy to surpass.

The characters created by Wu Jing and Jackie Chan are typical of two kinds of "Chinese heroes": Jackie Chan plays most of the chivalrous soldiers with "Chinese kung fu", who fight mainly against some bad people, such as enemies and street bullies; while Wu Jing portrays heroes who carry out combat tasks on behalf of the country, such as the Chinese special forces soldiers in the "Wolf Warrior" series and the Chinese astronaut Liu Peiqiang in "The Wandering Earth", who are the real "Chinese heroes".

Jackie Chan's era and Wu Jing's era seem to be far apart, Jackie Chan's "Chinese heroes" are generally lone heroes, through single-handedness and justice; Wu Jing's roles generally represent the will of the country, carry out national tasks, the film narrative is based on the country as the background, "Chinese hero" is essentially a national symbol. The era of Jackie Chan's films is mostly the era of weak and poor countries, and the country in Wu Jing's films is a rising power, contemporary China.

Cinema is a reflection of the spirit of the times. China in Wu Jing's films is on the rise, and justice is coming towards us. If people in Jackie Chan's films can only seek more blessings for themselves and rely on chivalry and loyalty to uphold justice, then the characters in Wu Jing's films are already relying on the motherland and defending national security and interests.

The reason why Wu Jing has gone through Jackie Chan's box office road for decades by relying on four movies fully shows that a new era has been unveiled. The country is strong, the people are rich, and today's Chinese film market is not comparable to the era when Jackie Chan was popular, which is the reason why Wu Jing's films have quickly reaped returns. Audiences like Wu Jing's films because his films and the characters he portrays exalt the national spirit. What resonates more with people today is the narrative of national heroism, rather than the chivalry of Huang Feihong.

【Editor: Ding Fei】

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