Although tempering his anti-U.S. rhetoric in public appearances since, Chan celebrated the initial success of his movie, “Warcraft” last year by announcing to a crowd of mostly Chinese viewers that it may mark a transition away from the popularity of American movies around the world.
“Warcraft made 600 million RMB [$91 million] in two days — this has scared the Americans,” Chan said. “If we can make a film that earns 10 billion [$1.5 billion], then people from all over the world who study film will learn Chinese, instead of us learning English,” he added.
Chan’s movie “Kung Fu Yoga” that was released early in 2017 also drew criticism for its use of an Indian character shown repeatedly praising President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which is a Chinese led “connectivity project” the Indian government has thus far declined to join. The movie, which was released in India as well as China, has been called “brazen political propaganda” by critics in both states.
“Kung Fu Yoga” was so heavily laden with pro-Chinese propaganda that Maggie Lee, chief Asia film critic for Variety magazine, wondered if the movie could have survived in its current form if Indian investors originally tied to the film hadn’t pulled out.
“However, co-producer Viacom 18, one of Bollywood’s biggest studios, soon pulled out. If the partnership had worked, one wonders if Tong [the film’s director] would still get away with Chan’s character preaching incessantly to Indians about their history to the point where the villain yells, ‘Stop teaching me about my own country!’ Or such brazen promotion of China’s political agenda as having the Indian protagonist exonerate the One Road, One Belt policy,” she wrote in her review.
All of this begs the question: is Chan’s presence in this new Hollywood movie another attempt at marketing Chinese propaganda to foreign audiences? Well, the trailer certainly seems like there’s the potential for it.
In the trailer, Jackie Chan plays a highly trained Chinese operative turned London Chinatown restaurateur who loses his daughter in an IRA bombing. Chan’s character then takes on Brosnan, who plays a corrupt British government official, for his involvement in the attack.
Without seeing the film, the plot allots significant opportunity for Chan to play the role of Chinese patriot facing off with Western corruption. The book the movie is based on is, after all, called “The Chinaman.”
The trailer goes on to show Chan bombing a government building and setting assorted traps for the British official and his men, accompanied by the tagline, “Never push a good man too far.”
Now, it is important to note that lots of great action movies are based on the premise of a corrupt government official (or body) targeting an innocent individual or trying to keep their nefarious deeds under wraps – that in itself isn’t what’s troubling about Chan’s presence in this new film, but rather it’s how closely that plot seems to echo Chan’s own sentiments about the West that warrants concern. As a man who’s faced repeated criticism for using his movies as a mouthpiece for Chinese interests, depicting a “good man” that’s forced to take on Western governments because of their corruption makes it hard to ignore his own statements regarding the “corruption” of the United States.
To be fair, this movie could be a great action ride, and may even be entirely on the level when it comes to its representation of the governments and nations depicted within it… but even if it is, do you want your money to go toward funding a resurgence in Chan’s American career?
Should people who live in the country Chan refers to as “the most corrupt” in the world go see a movie starring a man that uses his notoriety to claim that he’s “not sure if it’s good to have freedom?”
Sure, plenty of Americans in Hollywood have ridiculous political beliefs too, but few (if not none) of them also hold an appointed office within the Chinese government, nor have they demonstrated such a proclivity for incorporating those politics into their work in a manner intended to benefit a foreign government.
For my money, I’ll just re-watch an old DVD copy of Rush Hour, and skip this one. Thanks anyway.
You can see the trailer for “The Foreigner” below.
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Trailer courtesy of STX Entertainment
COMMENTS