Storyline
A railroad worker in China in 1941 leads a team of freedom fighters against the Japanese in order to get food for the poor.
Cast: Jackie Chan -
Ma Yuan
Jaycee Chan -
Zitao Huang -
Da Hai
Kai Wang -
Fan Chuan
Hiroyuki Ikeuchi -
Sang Ping -
Da Qui
Alan Ng -
Xiao Qi
Fan Xu -
Darren Wang -
Da Guo
Kôji Yano -
Lanxin Zhang -
Zhang Yishang -
Wei Na -
Yunwei He -
Asano Nagahide -
Taglines:
Roaring soon
Country: China
Language: Mandarin, Japanese, English
Release Date: 3 Jan 2016
Filming Locations: Diaobingshan, China
Box Office Details
Budget: $50,000,000
(estimated)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia: Jackie Chan and Ding Sheng's 3rd collaboration. See more »
User Review
Author:
Rating: 6/10
If you've seen 'Little Big Soldier' or 'Police Story 2013', you'll know
better than to expect Jackie Chan's third collaboration with Mainland
filmmaker Ding Sheng to be a martial arts showcase of the former's
acrobatic stunts. And sure enough, despite being billed as 'a Jackie
Chan action-comedy blockbuster', 'Railroad Tigers' is really an
ensemble piece set against the backdrop of the Japanese invasion of
East China in the early 1940s. Based upon true events, Chan plays a
humble railroad worker named Ma Yuan who leads a ragtag team from his
village to blow up a critical transportation route across the Hanzhuang
bridge for the Japanese to send supplies to their troops at the
frontlines.
Once again assuming both writing and directing duties, Ding Sheng keeps
the premise appealingly simple. Not content to toil for the invading
Japanese in their respective jobs, Ma Yuan and his fellow railroad
workers as well as a bunch of other working-class village folk take to
robbing them every now and then – indeed, it is in the midst of one
such daring midday robbery of a passenger train carrying a group of
Japanese soldiers and their pillages that the members of the titular
ragtag team are introduced via title cards. An Eighth Route army
soldier Daguo (Darren Wang) stumbles into Ma Yuan's humble but cosy
village house one night while evading capture by the Japanese, the
former recounting how his platoon had tried but failed to detonate the
aforementioned bridge. Upon his recovery, Daguo insists on returning to
his platoon. Alas, Daguo fails to make it back before being shot by the
Japanese, so Ma Yuan decides to assemble the team to complete his
assignment – and in so doing, realises their collective hopes of 'doing
something big' or '干票大 的'.
Though his previous movies seemed to demonstrate his predilection for
character-driven storytelling, Ding Sheng is all out for visual
spectacle here, structuring his narrative around a series of extended
action sequences– the opening train robbery is an ambitious start that
also sets a playful tone, followed by a raid on the armoury warehouse
at Shaguo station to procure the explosives needed to blow up the
bridge, then a heroic attempt to rescue Ma Yuan and his associate Rui
(Jaycee Chan) imprisoned by the Japanese in a square metal cell on
board another moving train, and last but not least the loudest, longest
and undeniably overblown (pardon the pun) setpiece to hijack a Japanese
military transport locomotive intended as the very 'bomb' itself. In
between are scenes meant to emphasise the camaraderie between the
ragtag team of revolutionaries, arguably too short and too sparse for
any individual character – except Ma Yuan and Rui – to make much
impression.
That said, 'Railroad Tigers' probably bears the least character work
among all of Ding Sheng's movies so far. Ma Yuan's status as leader
seems premised solely on his age and paternal instincts, and other than
hinting at a slow-burn romance with the village pancake seller Auntie
Qin, there is little else that defines him. The same goes for the other
railroad workers Rui and Dagui (Ping Sang) as well as the other members
of the 'Tigers' – amateur tailor Dahai (Huang Zitao), handywoman
Xing'er (Xu Fan) and serial pickpocketer San Laizi (Alan Ng). Because
Chan plays Ma Yuan low-key and unassuming, it is former warlord
bodyguard Fan Chuan (Wang Kai) who steals his thunder whenever the
latter is on screen, putting his sharpshooting skills to good use
especially during shootouts with the Japanese. Next to the Tigers, the
Japanese are defined by the cocky military police captain Yamaguchi
(Hiroyuki Ikeuchi), his stern no-nonsense female colleague Yuko (Zhang
Lanxin) and to a lesser extent the bumbling station master Sakamoto
(Kôji Yano). With the sheer number of characters, it is not difficult
to see why there is little time to develop any of them, such that each
becomes known by and large by his or her relation to the unfolding
narrative.
Like we said earlier, the action takes centrestage, interspersed now
and then with slapstick gags that do not always hit the mark. Chan's
good-natured goofiness is still amusing, but the humour borders on
childish at times, and undercuts the build-up of dramatic tension
especially during the supposedly tense and dangerous situations. In
fact, an extended gag that sees Yamaguchi consume not one but two
drugged pancakes prepared by Auntie Qin which causes him fall asleep
while the Tigers act to rescue Ma Yuan and Rui as well as turn
lecherous against the male deputy station master held for interrogation
is downright farcical – besides raising suspicions of the filmmakers'
disdain towards the Japanese, it also diminishes the intended display
of bravery of the Tigers.
It doesn't matter that 'Railroad Tigers' contains next to none of
Jackie Chan's death-defying stunts; in fact, true fans of the martial
arts actor should be happy that his films are not solely defined by how
high he jumps or how far he leaps. Oh no, Ding Sheng's latest
collaboration with Chan is underwhelming because it seems no more than
an excuse for the former to live out his childhood fantasies of trains
in a big-budget motion picture, disguising his fancies under a
purported celebration of the heroism of a group of ordinary civilians
displayed in the anti-Japanese war effort. Ironically, his latest film
could have benefited with more of the self-seriousness in 'Police Story
2013' (which was accused of being too sombre), instead of letting the
often foolish and even self-indulgent humour to dilute the action and
drama. Ding's inspiration is also the Hollywood Westerns of trains and
train heists, and on that level alone, 'Railroad Tigers' is certainly
watchable; but for a Jackie Chan movie, it is undeniably disappointing,
not least because Chan doesn't even get to do much beyond appearing
next to his son and/or a whole bunch of other Mainland actors.
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