Pegasus 3
飞驰人生3
China, 2026, colour, 2.35:1, 125 mins.
Director: Han Han 韩寒.
Rating: 6/10.
Yet more of the same and with yet more knobs on, plus another effortless lead by Shen Teng as the rally driver who just can’t say no.
STORY
Shanghai, the present day. After the team led by onetime champion rally driver Zhang Chi (Shen Teng) wins the last-ever high-altitude championship held in Bayanbulak, Xinjiang province, Zhang Chi’s sponsor, car manufacturer Xin Di (Jia Bing), announces his retirement. However, he leaves Zhang Chi a parting gift – a rebuilt version of the latter’s old driving school run from a car-repair works 星羽汽修. Zhang Chi’s 50% share (RMB2.5 million) of the Bayanbulak prize money is enough to run the school, but he still yearns for glory in the rally-driving world, despite his longtime co-driver Sun Yuqiang (Yin Zheng) telling him they can’t afford another go-round without a sponsor. When Zhang Chi hears about the inaugural Asian Muchen 100 Championship 亚洲沐尘100冠军大奖赛 – intended to replace the Bayanbulak Rally – his interest is piqued. By chance, the pair also bump into Ye (Wei Xiang), an oldtime sparring partner (and rival team manager) who’s now driving a taxi. Out of the blue, Zhang Chi is approached by An (Duan Yihong), technical manager of Skylad, which has developed a driver-assistance system, SS1, that could eventually replace co-drivers like Sun Yuqiang. Skylad’s head, Bai Qiang (Sha Yi), wants Zhang Chi to put together a Chinese national team to enter Muchen 100. Only those who qualified in the Bayanbulak rally can enter Muchen 100, and China hasn’t had a national racing team in over 30 years. Bai Qiang and An show Zhang Chi, Sun Yuqiang and their mechanic Jixing (Zhang Benyu) the car Skylad has developed, a joint project with the Fourwing racing team from Europe; they say the second-generation model, with a more advanced driver-assistance system, won’t be ready until just before the Muchen 100 final, so until then Zhang Chi’s team will drive the first-generation version. Zhang Chi assembles nine drivers he knows personally, plus himself, from whom he will select four to take part in the qualifier and then two for the final. The initial selection is held in a high-altitude area mimicking that in the rally itself: the final four drivers, based on their times, are Lin Zhendong (Huang Jingyu), Liu Shihao (Hu Xianxu), Zhang Chi himself and Li Xiaohai (Fan Chengcheng). Bai Qiang, however, is not happy that his sponsor’s son, Li Lun (Zhang Xincheng), and his company’s contract driver, Chi Haisheng (Li Zhiting), have not been selected – they came fifth and sixth, respectively. Bai Qiang orders An to fix it so that the four selected don’t do too well in the qualifier and will need to be replaced by Li Lun and Chi Haisheng for the final. Due to a mistake in An’s plan, the four in fact perform catastrophically. Later, when they finally realise how they were tricked, Zhang Chi and his team, joined by Ye, decide to compete privately, without a sponsor, building their own car as in the old days and relying on inventiveness and experience rather than just technology.
REVIEW
Pegasus 3 飞驰人生3 is yet more of the same and with yet more knobs on. Though a further installment in the franchise looked unlikely after Pegasus 2 飞驰人生2 (2024), Shanghai-born celebrity writer/blogger/rally-driver-turned-film-director Han Han 韩寒, 43, has revved up his team once again, retooled the same elements, and basically rehashed the same story (ageing rally-driver returns for one more go-round). Despite the story and characterisation being even thinner than in P2, the whole production is seamlessly mounted, the actors (led as usual by straight-faced comedian Shen Teng 沈腾) all deliver, and the same combination of grittiness and extravagance makes the racing sections gripping even for viewers with no special interest in the sport. In this year’s Chinese New Year stakes, it raced past the opposition (a thriller by Zhang Yimou 张艺谋, costume action with Wu Jing 吴京, another panda flick with Cheng Long 成龙 [Jackie Chan]) with a hunky RMB4.42 billion, more than all the other films’ takes combined. P3 even threw shade over P2‘s RMB3.40 billion: so far, the trilogy has taken almost a combined RMB10 billion.
The script by Han, Zhou Yunhai 周运海 (P2) and newcomer Meng Wenyu 蒙问雨 reunites most of the characters and many of the actors from the previous two films as veteran rally driver Zhang Chi (Shen), having re-tasted success by leading his team to victory in the high-altitude Bayanbulak Rally (P2), is about to return with his two pals to their modest driving school when he’s approached by a tech firm to assemble a team for a new high-altitude event in which Asian countries will be competing. China hasn’t had a national racing team for over 30 years, and the company has developed a high-tech car that it wants to showcase, so Zhang Chi’s ego can’t say no. Unfortunately, everything is not quite as it seems on the surface.
It’s pretty clear from the moment that Zhang Chi meets the two oily techies – nicely played by Sha Yi 沙溢 and, more subtly, by Duan Yihong 段奕宏 – that they’re cooking up something behind the scenes. And it takes the normally astute (not so say, crafty) Zhang Chi rather a long time to twig to the truth. The plot has an ambivalent attitude towards high technology – championing traditional human skills but relying on high tech for thrills and spills – that’s very familiar from other Mainland movies, especially as the country officially embraces advanced technology more and more. So, though the tech company’s “driver-assistance” invention could eventually replace rally co-drivers – represented here by Zhang Chi’s longtime colleague Sun Yuqiang [Yin Zheng 尹正] – the film’s finale eventually comes down to human skills winning the day.
Though the movie reunites many characters, they’re hardly developed and even harder to tell apart once they don racing helmets. Some comic flashbacks to Zhang Chi and Sun Yuqiang’s early days together in 2002 are fun but don’t add much to what we already know about them. That apart, the movie is more of the same but technically even better, with much the same team, led by d.p. Bai Yuxia 白玉侠, Hong Kong action supervisor Luo Yimin 罗义民 [Norman Law] and second-unit director Ma Lin 马林 and d.p. Zhang Hongbin 张洪斌, re-assembled. The final race, on both asphalt and dirt roads, and stunningly shot in Sichuan and Qinghai provinces, is a 37-minute tour de force of editing (Huang Zeng Hongchen 黄曾鸿辰) and VFX, including a gliding shot from inside one car to inside another when side by side that looks so natural it hardly calls for comment. In all, the two-hour movie has around an hour of driving scenes, including non-altitude stuff shot at a disused airport in Qingdao and a petrochemical plant in Ningbo.
Again downplaying his usual Ma Hua FunAge 开心麻花 style of comedy, Shen effortlessly leads the ensemble in a minimalist way, with Yin grimacing as his crusty co-driver and Zhang Benyu 张本煜 playing straight as the team’s mechanic. Comedian Wei Xiang 魏翔 – a team manager in P2 – returns this time as Zhang Chi’s supporter, while fellow comedian Jia Bing 贾冰, ditto, has a likeable cameo at the start.
Filming started in Shanghai in Aug 2025 and wrapped in late Oct 2025. An extra month was devoted simply to shooting visual effects used during the rally sections, such as the gliding shot described above. Just as a sequel looked unlikely, if not plain impossible, at the end of P2, so the same can be said for P3. Only time will tell.
CREDITS
Presented by Shanghai PMF Pictures (CN), Tianjin Maoyan Cultural Media (CN), Damai Entertainment (Beijing) (CN), Wanda Pictures (CN), Beijing Bona Film Group (CN), China Film (CN), Zhejiang FunAge Pictures (CN), Zhejiang Hengdian Film (CN), Shanghai Ruyi Film & TV Production (CN). Produced by Shanghai PMF Pictures (CN).
Script: Han Han, Zhou Yunhai, Meng Wenyu. Photography: Bai Yuxia. Editing: Huang Zeng Hongchen. Music: A Kun. Art direction: Zhao Huehao. Styling: Tang Ning. Sound: Liu Dayun, Wang Gang, Liu Xiaosha. Action: Luo Yimin [Norman Law]. Visual effects: Qiao Le, Ye Zi. Second-unit direction: Ma Lin. Second-unit photography: Zhang Hongbin.
Cast: Shen Teng (Zhang Chi), Yin Zheng (Sun Yuqiang), Huang Jingyu (Lin Zhendong), Zhang Benyu (Jixing), Wei Xiang (Ye), Sha Yi (Bai Qiang), Duan Yihong (An), Fan Chengcheng (Li Xiaohai), Sun Yizhou (Liu Xiande), Zhang Xincheng (Li Lun), Hu Xianxu (Liu Shihao), Li Zhiting [Aarif Lee] (Chi Haisheng), Bai Yufan (Zhang Hongbin), Zhou Zhengjie (Li Wei), Gao Huayang (Ye Jinlong), Jia Bing (Xin Di), Wang Anyu (young Zhang Chi), Chen Yongsheng (young Sun Yuqiang), Feng Shaofeng (China team manager), Hao Han (lawyer).
Release: China, 17 Feb 2026.