At the end of the National Day season, except for "Volunteers: Battle of Life and Death", which exceeded the 800 million mark at the box office, the other nine movies all performed mediocrely. "Panda Project" starring Jackie Chan and Wei Xiang barely sold more than 200 million, a

The National Day season has ended. Except for " Volunteer Army: Battle of Life and Death", which has a box office of over 800 million, the other 9 movies all performed mediocrely.

"Panda Project" starring Jackie Chan and Wei Xiang barely sold more than 200 million, and the final box office was about 300 million. This is almost the box office appeal of Jackie Chan at the moment, using his unprecedented strength to show off.

Although I am not Jackie Chan, I can somewhat understand the frustration and desolation of his hero in his later years.

Lu Chuan advocated that "49 Bureau " was made for eight years. In fact, "Panda Project" took even longer, and it took nine years. It is one of the works that Jackie Chan attaches great importance to. The project

was established as early as 2015. In the past seven years, everything from the director to the starring role, from the plot to the shooting background has been changed before the finished film that the audience sees now.

"Panda Project" was also called "p project " in the pre-release trailer. Before that, there was another name called "I am not a panda".

And this "I'm Not a Panda" is related to the movie "Panda Agent". It has obviously been "merged" with "Panda Project", but Douban still retains the entry and casually marked a release date of 2027. When this project was filed, it was still a co-production. The starring roles were originally set to be Jackie Chan, Yang Yang and Allen. The plot was completely different and seemed not as attractive as "Panda Project". It tells the story of a panda with dark circles under his eyes who is considered a freak by the outside world, but The breeder, Uncle Jie, took great care of him and called him his son. He wanted to send his "son" back to Zhuhai, but he failed in the selection. It was difficult for Jackie Chan to appreciate such a plot, so it was probably passed in the end.

Another important role in "Panda Project" is producer Forrest Gump. His real name is Liu Xiaoguang. He directed "Don Quixote" in his early years. The company he founded is Shenzhen Golden Coast. He has been focusing on special effects exploration for many years. "Tiangong" was completed by their company in the later stage. It is conceivable that the special effects production of "Panda Agent", especially the motion capture of the panda elements, was probably completed by Forrest Gump.

Another information about "I'm Not a Panda" shows that the screenwriter is Liu Xiaoguang, and the registration unit at that time was Forrest Gump's Golden Coast. The plot of the movie is very bizarre. It tells the story of scientist Wen Ning who researched how to improve the fertility of pandas, and used cloning technology to do so. Create a super panda with only one black eye and the ability to talk.

"I'm Not a Panda" should have been ready to be launched at that time. According to news, in September 2022, Ms. Yuan Nong from Jackie Chan's film team revealed that Jackie Chan will cooperate with Sichuan E Film Group to shoot the large-scale cinema kung fu comedy "I'm Not a Panda", which is planned to start shooting in Sichuan at the end of October. A photo of Jackie Chan posing with two pandas.

The report promoted that Jackie Chan has a strong panda complex, etc., and adopted two giant pandas "Chengcheng" and "Longlong", and donated 1 million yuan.

Then in August last year, "Plan P" was launched. Normally, once the movie is launched, the overall plot framework will not change much. At most, the details and lines will be slightly changed. But obviously the filming of "Plan" was by no means smooth sailing.

On the one hand, the film was shot for almost a year. Until July this year, before " legend " was released, Jackie Chan was still filming in Guangdong. The scene that was reshot was the scene in the first half of the movie where the criminal gang who snatched the pandas rushed into the base and started fighting.

It can be seen that from "P Plan" to "Panda Plan", not only the name has been changed, but also many action scenes have been changed.

On the other hand, "Project P" announced the plot synopsis when it was launched. The relationship between the action superstars Jackie Chan and Wei Xiang and their agent has not changed. Su Xiaozhu, played by Shi Ce, was originally a "female fan". By mistake, he was involved in a big conspiracy of an international criminal organization against the protagonist "p". Up to this point, it’s almost the same as the final film. After all, the plot of “Panda Project” is that a foreigner from the Middle East seeks out a criminal gang to steal pandas to fulfill his sick daughter’s dream.The difference is that the film was originally planned to be filmed as "embarking on a cross-border adventure." It is normal to understand that at least it would be like " Kung Fu Yoga " and go abroad for filming. As a result, all this part was cut off. In the end, "Panda" Almost all the stories in "Plan" take place at the Panda Base.

After sorting out the "past and present" of "Panda Project", you will find that this movie, which took 9 years to complete, is actually "shrinking". The cast has shrunk from Jackie Chan, Yang Yang and Allen to Jackie Chan, Wei Xiang Jia Bing; the story pattern has also changed from a transnational adventure crime blockbuster to a single scene movie limited to the panda base. To put it bluntly, the "large-scale theatrical kung fu movies" originally reported in the news are no longer available. The current films are actually not much better than those on the Internet.

The decline in production means shrinking investment, which can also be seen from the list of producers. Compared with the long list of 20 or 30 producers of other National Day movies, there are only 11 producers and co-producers of "Panda Project". Jackie Chan can no longer give the market too much confidence.

But even though the investment is not high, the production fee is not enough, and the scenes are not big enough, you can still feel that Jackie Chan is using all his strength to complete this movie and also gave his best performance in the past 10 years.

In terms of performance, "Panda Project" has a natural advantage, because Jackie Chan doesn't have to act at all, he is himself in the movie. Therefore, it is absolutely natural and relaxed. No matter how embarrassing the scene is, it will not look awkward. Instead, it will feel real and warm. For example, Jia Bing’s excitement and joy when meeting his idol. In fact, his performance was a bit exaggerated, but because he was paired with Jackie Chan After all, the audience can empathize. Who wouldn't be excited to have such close contact with Jackie Chan and still be able to chat?

There is also the scene where Jackie Chan and Shi Ce are chatting. When he looked back on his career, he was quite warm and moved. This kind of sincerity is more direct and real than "龙马spirit".

In terms of action, Jackie Chan, at the age of 70, tries his best to create action scenes that satisfy the audience. There are real-life flying cars without a body double, funny Jackie Chan-style fights, jumping up and down in a warehouse, and being choked by the villain. In the throat scene, he really almost fainted. During the road show of "Legend", Jackie Chan had just finished reshooting this scene. During the road show, he revealed that he almost fainted during the filming. To this day, Jackie Chan can still work so hard. This alone is worth a movie ticket.

However, although "Panda Project" is good, its box office performance is just that. After all, this is not a blockbuster that can be widely recognized by the market and audiences.

More importantly, "Panda Project" basically announced the end of Jackie Chan's action blockbusters.

Looking back, in the past ten years, has Jackie Chan not made any blockbusters? The last "Legend" used AI to change faces and was filmed in Zhaosu. It was already a very large investment, but the box office still failed to exceed 100 million.

Moving forward, "The Spirit of Dragon Horse" is half literary and half action, with a box office of 210 million, which is expected. However, the 2020 action-themed " Pioneer " failed to earn more than 300 million at the box office. The Chinese and foreign co-production " Dragon Pavilion" "Mystery " only had a box office of over 20 million.

Going forward, " Detective Pu Songling ", which rushed into the Spring Festival stalls, only had a measly 160 million box office. And that year, the box office champion "The Wandering Earth" had a box office of more than 4.2 billion, and Jackie Chan had not even hit "The Wandering Earth", which had a bad reputation. The New King of Comedy".

If you were the boss of a film company and looked at this report card, would you invest even a "small goal" in Jackie Chan to make a movie?

cannot get big investment and is too old. On the Douban film list, "New Police Story 2", "Zodiac 2", "Shanghai Noon 3", "Vanguard 2", "Rush Hour 4" and "Red Zone 2" 》...It's probably just hanging there and has been in the "plan".

Finally, I want to say that even if the investment is getting smaller and smaller, the action is getting less and less, even if it is a literary film, as long as Jackie Chan still acts, I will go to the cinema to support it. This is not only a tribute to Jackie Chan's more than 50 years of struggle for movies, but also a tribute to Jackie Chan. Feedback from growing up watching his movies in video theaters.