Little Big Soldier

Ding Sheng

The story: A foot soldier from Liang (Jackie Chan) and a general from Wei (Wang Lee Hom) are the sole survivors of a bloody battle between the warring states in China (3rd to 5th century BC). The soldier plans to take the wounded general back to Liang for a reward but he soon finds that there are others on their trail.

After the dismal Hollywood detours of recent years – some griped that The Tuxedo (2002) was a limp rag – it is a pleasure to see that the Jackie Chan of old is back.

It used to be that having his name above the title of a movie would guarantee healthy returns at the box office. Each new movie from the action-comedy superstar was eagerly awaited in the 1980s and early 1990s, as he sought to outdo himself with ever more elaborate death-defying stunts.

The daredevil fell from a clock tower and crashed through a series of cloth canopies in Project A (1983), and leapt into the air and slid down a pole of twinkling Christmas lights in Police Story (1985). But he always sprang back no matter what he was put through.

Just as important as the action was the comedy. Chan’s goofy underdog persona endeared him to one and all and had audiences rooting for him.

So meeting the Liang soldier Chan plays in this movie feels a little like meeting an old rascally friend.

He is a bit of a trickster and he survives the battle by pretending to get shot by an arrow, a gag that gets recycled to better effect later on in the film.

The pragmatic fellow seizes the opportunity when he comes across the wounded Wei general and decides to lug him back to Liang for a reward.

One wonders what could have been if Chan had acted opposite his own son Jaycee, a casting choice that was nixed by Mrs Chan, 1970s Taiwanese screen idol Lin Feng-chiao, as they were too similar in character. She may be right as there is some engaging odd-couple chemistry between Chan and actor-singer Wang Lee Hom, happily much improved in his first big-screen outing since the racy espionage thriller Lust, Caution (2007).

At first, there seems to be little in common between the principled general and what he sees as a snivelling foot soldier who dreams only of having his own plot of land where he can grow crops and settle down with a family.

But the two bond, inevitably, as they try to escape from the general’s dangerously ambitious brother Prince Wen and when they fall into the hands of a fierce tribe of warriors.

And by the end of the film, the yearning for peace and domesticity achieves an unexpected poignancy.

The movie, by China director Ding Sheng, moves along fairly briskly. This also means that discordant elements – the lines of Korean actor Steve Woo (Prince Wen) are not dubbed over – do not get too annoying.

Do stay for the out-takes, which are something of a Chan trademark. He may no longer be risking life and limb to thrill audiences but it still takes precision and ingenuity to choreograph a seemingly simple scene of him and Wang fighting over a sword.

Perhaps it is time to start looking forward to Jackie Chan movies again?

(ST)