With the release of "Dragon Horse Spirit", the problem of Chinese action actors not picking up has made many fans worry.
Action movies are undoubtedly the best business card for Chinese movies to go to the world, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Donnie Yen and other actors have international influence from action movies, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Hero" are the highest-grossing Chinese films in North America until now.
But in recent years, the older generation of action superstars can't be moved, the middle generation of action actors is difficult to come out, and not many new generation actors are willing to endure hardships to make action movies. This has led to the decline of Chinese-language action films.
Jackie Chan Donnie Yen box office hit the street, Jet Li retired, Chinese action movies face the darkest moment?
Mainland audiences have not seen a very wonderful action movie for a long time, Donnie Yen ended the "Ip Man" series, and even announced that he would not make kung fu films in the future, although he quickly broke his word, but it also shows that Donnie Yen knows that the market for kung fu films is really thankless. Even transformed into "Search and Rescue", such a movie with almost no action scenes.
The result was less than 20 million at the box office. This year, Donnie Yen starred in "Fast Pursuit 4", the global box office exceeded 400 million US dollars, such success may make Donnie Yen embark on the road of Michelle Yeoh, and then focus on Hollywood. At present, Donnie Yen's next work is most likely to be the spin-off drama "The Legend of Kane" of "Fast Pursuit 4". And Donnie Yen is also 59 years old, how many more years can be expected from Chinese action movies?
Jackie Chan and Jet Li, as the two most influential kung fu superstars at present, have been at two extremes in recent years.
Jet Li basically retired, over the years has made a guest appearance in "Mulan", there are almost no action scenes, Jackie Chan is more prolific than before, 69-year-old Jackie Chan brother even scheduled for 2027, but unfortunately in recent years, "Dragon Horse Spirit", "Pioneer", "Mystery of the Dragon Card", "Detective Pu Songling" and so on have hit the street at the box office.
Once action movie fans were looking forward to Zhao Wenzhuo's rise.
It's a pity that this action actor who was called a righteous body by netizens, the movies he made are basically lost, and in recent years, the transformation of the shooting network is also intermittent, after the release of the self-directed and self-acted "Counterattack" network in 2021, Zhao Wenzhuo has no new film plans, but variety shows are constant. Obviously, Zhao Wenzhuo is not interested in action movies.
It can be seen that almost all action actors have lost their box office appeal, and Chinese action movies seem to be facing the darkest moment, but at this time, there are still many actors who insist on making action movies, even if they lose repeatedly!
"Wolf Pack" lost 90 million, Zhang Jin was unwilling, and brought 4 raw new films in one go.
Although it is becoming more and more difficult, there is still good news for Chinese action movies, first of all, Wu Jing is finally returning to action movies, as the first person in the current Chinese box office appeal, although Wu Jing is from an action movie, but the three series of "Wolf Warrior", "The Wandering Earth" and "Changjin Lake" are not real action movies, and many fans still hope that Wu Jing can continue to make action movies.
After "The Wandering Earth 2", Wu Jing announced that he would shoot action films such as "Hell's Angel" and "Knife", as well as a blockbuster film directed by Andy Lau and cooperated with Jackie Chan's big brother, I believe that Wu Jing's return to action movies this time will allow more audiences to recreate this once brilliant Chinese genre film.
There is also Zhang Jin, who has always insisted on making action movies.
Zhang Jin, who is 48 years old, is actually not young, but he is still a good year among the action actors who do not pick up the green and yellow.
Over the years, Zhang Jin finally has the opportunity to be a male protagonist, but unfortunately, like Zhao Wenzhuo, the audience is good, but the box office of the movie is average, the box office of "Wild Beast" as the male protagonist for the first time is 67.81 million, which is passable, but "Kowloon Undefeated" in 2019 has only 18.77 million box office, and "Wolf Pack" that rubbed the popularity of "Wolf Warrior 2" in 2022 was released, with a box office of only 28.67 million.
The production cost of the film exceeded 100 million, and the loss exceeded 90 million according to the 37% box office of the photo party.
For such a result, Zhang Jin is definitely unwilling, and Zhang Jin will bring 4 raw new films in one breath in 2023.
The first is the completed "Twinkle and Twinkle", this movie is Zhang Jin's transformation work, this time Zhang Jin will not beat people, but to participate in dance competitions, is a rare song and dance film in Chinese films, Zhang Jin with martial arts skills dancing believes that there is a special flavor.
There is also "The Siege of the Kowloon Walled City", in addition to Zhang Jin, there are Koo Tianle, Sammo Hung, Ren Xianqi, Lin Feng starring, can be said to be one of the most anticipated action films in Hong Kong, but Zhang Jin should not have many scenes.
The third and most important "Zhang Tianzhi 2", 2018 "Zhang Tianzhi" is Zhang Jin's first movie with a box office of more than 100 million, but also Zhang Jin's masterpiece, this time "Zhang Tianzhi 2" is fully upgraded, the director changed from Yuan Heping to Yip Wilson, the screenwriter is also Huang Zihuan of "Ip Man", it is obvious that after the end of "Ip Man 4", Wilson Yip will personally control this gaiden series.
Some time ago, Zhang Jin was injured and hospitalized while filming, which should be in the crew of "Zhang Tianzhi 2", which shows the high intensity of this action scene.
The fourth part is the latest officially announced "Strange Road Crazy Knife", although this film is a large network, but the lineup is quite dazzling, director Li Wei used to be Zhang Yimou's assistant director, participated in the production of "One Second" and "Above the Cliff" two blockbusters, and then independently directed "Eliminate Evil: Speeding Party", the online box office exceeded 15.2 million, is the seventh in this year's online box office list!
There are also guest appearances of stars such as Liu Ye and Zhu Shimao, telling the chivalrous story of a swordsman facing the chaos of the world.
I hope that these four new films can take Zhang Jin to another level, after all, there are really not many actors who can insist on making action movies now.