Review | Film review: Jackie Chan's Dragon Blade
Not so long ago, Lunar New Year celebrations would not have felt complete for Hong Kong film fans without taking in a festive Jackie Chan movie (think 1992's or 1995's ).
Starring: Jackie Chan, John Cusack, Adrien Brody
Director: Daniel Lee Yan-kong
Category: IIB (English, Putonghua and many others)
Not so long ago, Lunar New Year celebrations would not have felt complete for Hong Kong film fans without taking in a festive Jackie Chan movie (think 1992's or 1995's ).
But while 2015 saw the action star's latest film open on the mainland and other selected territories on the first day of the Lunar New Year, Hong Kong cinema-goers have had to wait four extra weeks to check out this "East-meets-West" period blockbuster, which sees Chan sharing action as well as dramatic scenes with John Cusack and Adrien Brody.
At the start of , the claim is made that "this story is inspired by true events". Still, it's easy enough to see many people looking upon a tale that involves Romans interacting and clashing with Chinese and other Asian peoples on the Silk Road as way too fanciful to take seriously; and having "present day" scenes featuring a couple of not particularly credible archaeologists (Vanness Wu Jian-hao and Karena Lam Ka-yan) bookending those which take place in 48BC do not help make matters seem any more plausible.
But if you cast aside any inclination to think this unlikely yarn is rooted in reality, you will find it entertaining, intriguing and, at times, even moving.
Taken in isolation, the story of Huo An (Chan), a Hun orphan inspired by a legendary Han general to become the commander of the Silk Road Protection Squad that endeavours to keep the peace between 36 different nations, can be affecting. Heart-warming, too, is the unlikely friendship that forms between Huo An and Lucius (Cusack), a Roman general who has led his legion and the child prince Publius (Jozef Waite) far from home to escape the clutches of the boy's evil older brother, Tiberius (Brody).
The two Hollywood stars are fairly believable as Romans — if one can accept that the ancient Romans spoke English with American accents while every other ethnic and national group supposedly spoke in their real native tongues. Meanwhile, Chan tries to have his cake and eat it by mixing his trademark bumbling humour with attempts at playing a statesmanlike warrior given to pronouncements such as "You train kill people. We train save people".
At times when viewing , it can feel like producer-star Chan and director-writer Lee had duelling visions of what this film ideally should have been. Yet even while the result of their collaboration is uneven and definitely has some ludicrous low points, there also are occasions when it soars — and one's spirit along with it.
Action-wise, the large-scale battles are visually impressive but the less-bloody sparring duels between members of Huo An's Silk Road Protection Squad and Lucius' Roman legionnaires are more interesting. And as unlikely as it may sound, the most emotionally powerful act of all in the film may have been the singing of a Roman anthem that actually was composed by Hong Kong's Henry Lai Wan-man.
