Jackie Chan's "Mystery of the Dragon Card" with Schwarzenegger was released yesterday. Unexpectedly, the big production of the two international action superstars joined hands, but the box office on the first day was less than 10 million, almost no splash, and the reputation was not ideal. Some people question whether Jackie Chan will become the next "king of bad films"? However, if you take a closer look, I am afraid that this is not to blame on the dragon head.
Some action directors have said that Jackie Chan and Schwarzenegger are legendary figures, they are the representatives of Eastern and Western action stars, in the film's footage, you can see Jackie Chan returning to traditional Chinese kung fu, decomposing the action one move after another to show the audience the dragon's claw fist; on the other side, the tall, extremely powerful Schwarzenegger uses strong and powerful Western boxing... This duel is not only the strongest collision between Jackie Chan and Schwarzenegger, but also a strong PK of Oriental Kung Fu and Western boxing, which is very much expected by fans.
However, the final action effect is greatly reduced due to the chaotic editing and the superficiality and ambiguity of the plot.
In fact, a closer look can be found that although in the publicity, this movie uses Jackie Chan as a gimmick, but there is a hint of "hanging sheep's head to sell dog meat". Because you can open the IMDB page of "The Mystery of the Dragon Card", you can find that this is actually a sequel to a Russian movie, and Jackie Chan only starred in one of the supporting roles, not as the big male protagonist.
In 2014, a Russian 3D horror film "Devil's Spirit" was released, which became a box office dark horse at that time. And "The Mystery of the Dragon Card" is the sequel to this movie, but the second part is co-produced with the Chinese team in order to face the Chinese market, and adds Chinese elements such as tea leaves and dragon kings, and Jackie Chan also participates in it.
From the Russian version of the poster, the difference in "painting style" can be clearly felt. How high the degree of completion of the integration of the aesthetics of the two sides is a matter of opinion.
On the other hand, "The Mystery of the Dragon Card" itself also has a hint of "innate deficiency". Although its first "Devil's Spirit" was a box office success, it did not pass the rating on the film review platform, mainly relying on special effects to win, and the script was not the strength of his team.
When shooting the sequel, the producers wanted to cater to the tastes of a wider audience, adding elements that they didn't quite understand, and failed to fully overcome the problem of cultural differences. In particular, the setting of "the eyelashes of the Dragon King can become tea leaves" in the film has been "complained about" by many viewers.
In addition, although the influence of Jackie Chan was amplified as much as possible when the film was promoted, many viewers walked into the theater and found that there were not many scenes between the two in the play.
Jackie Chan himself once said that he wanted to make some attempts and breakthroughs, fight down, and fight until he could not fight. In "The Mystery of the Dragon Card", he is more than 60 years old, for the best lens effect, he does not care, even hanging Weiya upside down, head congestion does not care, knowing that it is likely to fall, or unremittingly completed the shooting of each shot, continue to be young "desperate Sanlang" momentum. This spirit is admired by Schwarzenegger, and indeed worthy of admiration. However, the aesthetics of the audience in the film market are constantly improving, and I hope that Jackie Chan can protect his "golden signboard" more when selecting scripts in the future, and promote more international teams to understand Chinese culture and Chinese elements.
Editor: Wu Yu