Kung Fu Man

功夫侠

China/US, 2013, colour, 2.35:1, 85 mins.

Directors: Ning Ying 宁瀛, Yuan Xiangren 袁祥仁.

Rating: 5/10.

Formulaic family action fodder, starring stuntman Chen Hu and co-produced by Keanu Reeves.

STORY

Yunshan municipality, Yunnan province, southern China, the present day. Martial artist Chen Ping (Chen Hu) works in a shop in the tourist town of Dalongwan (Big Dragon Valley). One evening his boss Wu San (Yuan Xiangren), on the run from some criminal associates he’s double-crossed, drops off a hamper at the shop. Inside, Chen Ping finds an eight-year-old American boy, Christopher (Arman Darbo). Wu San is killed by his associates, led by Hama (André “Chyna” McCoy), who then come looking for Christopher at the shop. Chen Ping temporarily escapes with the boy, but next day the kidnappers, joined by their leader Susan (Vanessa Branch), return. Chen Ping and Christopher flee again, and Susan, pretending to be his mother, asks the help of the local police in finding him. Chen Ping and Christopher hide out with an English teacher from Beijing, Liu Jie (Jiang Mengjie), who helps them. Christopher is, in fact, the son of multi-millionaire John Schmidt (Aaron Horrell) and was kidnapped by Susan, his tutor, and Hama, his bodyguard, while attending a cousin’s birthday in Burma; he was then smuggled across the border into China by Wu San, who betrayed them to make some extra money. John Schmidt’s assistant, Sean (Igor Darbo), who is secretly working for Susan, tips off the kidnappers that John Schmidt and his wife (Joanna Riley Weidenmiller) are flying to Port City to rescue their son. Meanwhile, Chen Ping, Christopher and Liu Jie go on the run from both the kidanppers and the local police.

REVIEW

Released in China hot on the heels of Man of Tai Chi 太极侠 (2013), Kung Fu Man turns out to be an earlier collaboration between Mainland-born stuntman Chen Hu 陈虎 and Canadian actor Keanu Reeves that was shot almost four years ago. Chen’s first leading role, and reminiscent of any number of straight-to-video Hong Kong action films of the 1980s, it’s an OK showcase for the diminutive, Sichuan-born martial arts champion but is more interesting for its production history than anything else.

A formulaic family action film centred on a Chinese martial artist who rescues a young American boy from kidnappers, it was planned around the same time as Tai Chi, to launch Chen – whom Reeves had got to know as a member of the Yuan Heping 袁和平 stunt team on The Matrix (1999) – as an action star in his own right. Reeves, who doesn’t appear in Kung Fu Man, served as an executive producer, and the film finally started shooting in Yunnan province, southern China, in Nov 2009, subsequently vanishing off the radar after being certified by SARFT in 2011. Even more interesting is the directing credit, shared between another member of the Yuan clan, veteran action choreographer Yuan Xiangren 袁祥仁, and Ning Ying 宁瀛, heretofore known for her wry comedies For Fun 找乐 (1992) and On the Beat 民警故事 (1995), as well as other festival fare like I Love Beijing 夏日暖洋洋 (2000), Perpetual Motion 无穷动 (2005) and documentary Railroad of Hope 希望之旅 (2001), rather than commercial fodder.

With two directors, as well as two directors of photography – the US’ Sean O’Dea (Red Sands, 2009; Mischief Night, 2014) and Hong Kong journeyman Guan Zhiqin 关志勤 – it’s to the credit of everyone that the joins don’t show. However, anyone looking for a personal signature by Ning, let alone anything remotely believable from a director noted for her grounded realism, will be disappointed. It’s clearly just a professional job for her, and Hong Kong editor Li Dongquan 李栋全 [Wenders Li] keeps things on the move during the tight running time. The utilitarian script is basically an excuse for a lot of chases – with the hero and young boy on the run from both kidnappers and police in a scenic small town – and characterisation is non-existent.

As the boy who dreams of super-heroes, French-born, Beijing-raised Arman Darbo, aged eight at the time, avoids being cute or annoying; but most of his dialogue with Chen is him asking whether Chen is a “superman” and Chen replying that he’s just an ordinary guy, a “kung fu man”. (The Chinese title actually means “Kung Fu Knight-Errant”.) The heavies are strictly cut-outs, as played by Spanish-born, US-raised stuntman André “Chyna” McCoy (who doubled Laurence Fishburne in The Matrix) and UK-born, Chinese-speaking Vanessa Branch (best known for her Orbit dental gum commercials, but also one of the leads in cross-racial romance Love in Translation 爱情国境线, 2008). Mainland actress Jiang Mengjie 蒋梦婕 (the younger sister in Joyful Reunion 饮食男女  好远又好近, 2012) has little to do, apart from translate for the kid, as an English teacher in town. Among several non-pros playing foreigners, Darbo’s own father Igor pops up as the nefarious assistant of the boy’s father.

Chen has an agile, whiplash style that’s well showcased in a couple of big fights (versus McCoy in a yard, and versus a whole team in a house) but he doesn’t show any personality or humour in the quieter moments. Animated inserts of battling super-heroes are well-employed during the finale, further positioning the movie as aimed at the family/youth market rather than adult action fans.

The actual English title on the print is Kung Fun Man, presumably a misprint as the film is hardly a comedy. The setting, with names like Port City and Big Dragon Valley, is fictional.

CREDITS

Presented by China Film (CN), Beijing Jinghong Film Investment (CN), KFM Production (US). Produced by China Film (CN), Beijing Jinghong Film Investment (CN), KFM Production (US).

Script: Zhang Daxing, Chen Hu, Wang Qian. Photography: Sean O’Dea, Guan Zhiqin. Editing: Li Dongquang [Wenders Li], Gao Bing. Music: Guo Sida. Song: Zheng Sheng. Vocals: Chen Hu. Art direction: Hu Meng, Wang Congran. Costume design: Wu Lei. Sound: Cao Jie, He Yuan, Liu Jilian. Stunts: He Yaxi, He Jun, Shu Jian. Visual effects: Andy Friend, Zhuang Yan. Animation: Li Xiao.

Cast: Chen Hu (Chen Ping), Jiang Mengjie (Liu Jie), Arman Darbo (Christopher Schmidt), Vanessa Branch (Susan), André “Chyna” McCoy (Hama), Yuan Xiangren (Wu San, Chen Ping’s boss), Chang Xiaoyang (Yan, police chief), Lin Shen (TV reporter), Yu Xiaotong (Xiaozhang, young policeman), Zhang Daxing (Zhang, police chief), He Gang (Garry, Liu Jie’s boyfriend), Tang Guangwen, He Jun, Ma Yongli, Li Xiang (kidnappers), Jiang Baocheng (giant), Joanna Riley Weidenmiller (Anna Schmidt, Christopher Schmidt’s mother), Aaron Horrell (John Schmidt, Christopher Schmidt’s father), Igor Darbo (Sean, John Schmidt’s assistant), He Sirong (female killer), Tan Qiao (male killer).

Release: US, 1 Jun 2012; China, 19 Jul 2013.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 22 Jul 2013.)