Hollywood director Renny Harlin on his China career, directing Jackie Chan, and new film Bodies at Rest
- Harlin moved to China five years ago to direct Jackie Chan in the hit 2016 release Skiptrace and has since made the country his home
- He has tasted both success and failure since the move. Here he tells the Post all about his experience so far
Renowned internationally for directing such popular action thrillers as Die Hard 2 (1990) and Cliffhanger (1993), Renny Harlin is now better known in the Chinese-speaking world as that rare Hollywood filmmaker who uprooted from Los Angeles and moved to China on a full-time basis.
It is five years since he arrived to direct Jackie Chan in the hit 2016 release Skiptrace. Since then, the Finnish veteran has founded his own company, based in Hong Kong and Beijing, to develop a range of feature films and TV shows for the China market. He has also had tasted failure: his second film after moving, last year’s Legend of the Ancient Sword, was a flop.
His third film since he relocated, Bodies at Rest, is a Hong Kong-China co-production. Set in a morgue on Christmas Eve, the story revolves around the attempts of a forensic expert (played by Nick Cheung Ka-fai) and his assistant (Yang Zi) to fend off a trio of masked criminals (headed by Richie Jen Hsien-chi), who have broken into the premise to look for a particular body.
The filmmaker recently sat down with the Post to reflect on his China experience.
Your new film, Bodies at Rest, is set on Christmas Eve. Does this setting remind you of Die Hard 2?
Yeah, I think it’s funny to go for Christmas! At least in the Western world, Christmas is a peaceful time when families come together and everything is perfect. So the setting of a dramatic, explosive story during that time has always felt like a good idea to me.