Thirty years ago Jackie Chan was the biggest movie star in the world. Films like Police Story, Project A, and Supercop were international blockbusters. They changed the face of action films everywhere.
Now pushing 69 (I only know because we were born days apart), Chan is no longer the daredevil hero of his youth. Stunt doubles, wires, and special effects figure heavily into his current work, which you detect during the traditional closing credits outtakes of Ride On.
Chan’s recent films like Railroad Tigers and Kung Fu Yoga were essentially “greatest hits” vehicles that repackaged situations and stunts from earlier movies. Chan admitted his age, letting younger performers carry most of the dramatic and physical weight. They were uneasy hybrids at best, especially since Chan insisted on a brightly lit, antiseptic production design.
Which leads to Ride On, a highly sentimental tale of an aging stuntman and his best friend, a horse named Red Hare. Chan is back in Miracles territory, milking his soap opera encounters with estranged daughter Bao (Liu Haocun), former costars, the billionaire who wants his horse, the hapless crooks he owes money.
Every now and then some action erupts, mostly comical. A fight in a street market. A fight on a restaurant balcony. (How many of these has he done over the years?) A fight on the balcony of the stable where he lives. Ride On unfolds in a soft, easygoing, artificial world that never tries to approach reality.
The plot has Jackie (as stuntman Luo) train Red Hare to perform in movies. Because he’s so driven, he could injure the horse and sever new ties with Bao. “Real stunt men never say no,” he tells Bao (in English no less), even though that life’s led him to penury and eight months in a coma.
Approached by an old-time friend to appear in a prestigious production, Luo insists on doing stunts the old-fashioned way, in person and without help. “Do it for real,” as he says, a false argument as Chan has been using tech for years. When it time to shoot, Luo changes his mind, saving his life and that of Red Hare.
One of the hallmarks of a Chan film was his closing action scene, usually a chase with tremendous and frightening stunts. Here Luo won’t do action, and then cries for 20 minutes while the plot works out behind him.
I don’t want to harp on one of cinema’s great figures, or bring up his increasingly problematic politics, or ask him to endanger himself. What I would like is a film with some bite, a story that actually addresses something concrete, and a style that realizes that filmmaking has changed since 1992.
There’s a moment when Bao and Luo watch clips from Chan’s old movies. In a blurry background we see bits from Police Story and First Strike and Rumble in the Bronx, those unbelievable, death-defying stunts that place him with Keaton and Canutt and cinema’s other great action stars. Chan watches with tears in his eyes, earned from decades of devotion to his craft. If only the rest of Ride On reached that level.
Written and directed by Larry Yang. Released theatrically by Well Go USA April 7. Soon to be streaming. Photos of Chan, Liu Haocun and Red Hare courtesy Well Go USA.
