Jackie Chan and the Kung Fu Kid

Starring: Yishan Zhang, Jackie Chan, Yihong Jiang,

Synopsis:

Zhang Yi-Shan is a 15 year old second-generation Chinese living in Indonesia. All he thinks about, day and night, is his idol Jackie Chan, and how he might one day meet him. When he starts failing his Chinese language class, his grandmother threatens to send him to Beijing to live with his Chinese grandparents for a year. Yi-Shan hates the idea, until he learns that Jackie Chan will also be in Beijing, making a movie. Yi-Shan’s journey takes him on a number of adventures, where along the way he might pick up a couple of life’s lessons, and maybe, just maybe, meet his idol...

Review:

Despite the rather exploitative re-titling, Jackie Chan and the Kung Fu Kid isn’t merely a cash-in on Jackie Chan’s regaining popularity with his recent role as mentor in the Karate Kid remake. Instead, this is a rather charming coming of age tale blended with some sterling martial arts fantasy.

The film centres around young Zhang Yi-shan, a 15 year old dreamer who’s letting his daydreams of Jackie Chan get in the way of reality. It reminds me of an early 90’s action movie called Sidekicks, in which a young kid kept daydreaming of adventures with Chuck Norris. When his classmates ridicule him for his dreadful Chinese essay, it makes him all the more determined to meet Jackie, but the reason for meeting him gets a little warped on the way.

Zhang Yi-shan is a typical 15 year old, and as such isn’t going to gain much sympathy from adult viewers who are more likely to tell the kid to stop dreaming and get on with his life! He has that underlying stubbornness though that he is right and everyone else is wrong, so is unlikely to listen. However, Yi-Shan meets a lot of people on his quest to meet Jackie – a young woman studying at a temple who becomes an extra in Jackie’s movie, a film studio security guard who although sympathetic, has seen hundreds of kids like Yi-shan, trying to see their idols, and a woman mixed up with some crooks who befriends Yi-Shan because he’s the spitting image of her dead son. All of these people help Yi-Shan grow a little, but none more so than the female police officer who takes him under her wing. His predicament with her showing him that perhaps there are more important things in life than meeting a film star. She also provides some kick-ass moments of her own in a couple of excellently delivered fight sequences.

Jackie Chan’s involvement is full-blooded too, and his role is much more than just an extended cameo. He can be seen throughout the running time, kicking the film off with a fight scene reminiscent of Steven Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle. Jackie plays himself, naturally, but he also embodies the character role he is performing on the film set. Jackie Chan is involved in two big fight scenes, which effectively top and tail the film. First is the afore-mentioned big street-fight as he and his character’s sister battle an army of badguys. Then there is a scene where Jackie rehearses a fight sequence with his “disciples”. Both are lengthy, elaborate scenes which see Jackie punch, kick and flip his way out of danger. Jackie also has a number of significant dialogue scenes as well. This certainly wasn’t a flash-in-the-pan, available for one afternoon affair.

There are a couple of interesting underlying contexts to the film . Firstly there is the message to all Chinese kids living abroad – Hey Kids, don’t forget you’re Chinese! Do your homeland proud! Second, Yi-shan’s classmates bully him because they are ashamed of his low test scores in his Chinese class. Just how topsy turvy is that concept going to be to a UK audience?

Verdict:

I’ll put my hand up – I thought that this was going to be some horrid cash-in on The Karate Kid remake, without Jackie’s official involvement. How wrong and pleasantly surprised I was to discover a warm-hearted coming of age tale that will appeal to Jackie’s fans of all ages.

7 out of 10 (MikeOutWest)

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