“Kung Fu Yoga” Theatrical Poster
Director: Stanley Tong
Cast: Jackie Chan, Disha Patani, Sonu Sood, Aarif Rahman, Lay Zhang, Amyra Dastur, Eric Tsang, Miya Muqi, Zhang Guoli, Jain Kumar, Eskindir Tesfay, Lavlin Thadani
Running Time: 140 min.
By Paul Bramhall
The end of 2016 and beginning of 2017 was a busy period for Jackie Chan, with the release of Railroad Tigers and Kung Fu Yoga just a few months apart from each other. In China there were even posters released promoting both productions, clearly looking to bank on Chan’s popularity to seal a double bill for the cinema going faithful. While Railroad Tigers paired Chan with auteur director Ding Sheng, Kung Fu Yoga has the ageing star teamed with director and former stuntman Stanley Tong. Chan and Tong have a relationship that dates back to 1993’s Police Story III: Super Cop, which was followed by Chan’s U.S. breakthrough Rumble in the Bronx, and a fourth instalment in the Police Story series with First Strike.
After almost a decade apart, the pair reunited in 2005 for The Myth, which cast Chan as archaeologist Jack. The selling point for The Myth was both the India setting, and the parallel timeline which saw Chan taking on dual roles, as his character in the present recalls a past life as a general in ancient China. While The Myth had some good ideas, by the end it had completely come off the rails, containing a sci-fi infused finale that was somehow both stupid and dull at the same time. Now, 12 years later, Chan is back in India as archaeologist Jack. Or is he? In fact while Chan himself has stated that Kung Fu Yoga is basically The Myth 2, it’s never officially been announced as a sequel. In addition, amusingly all of the promotional posters for it plug Tong as the director of the movies he made with Chan during the 90’s, with no mention of The Myth in sight.
Whatever the reasons for the distributors deciding not to draw attention to the fact that Tong and Chan made The Myth together, and let’s be honest there are many, all of the silliness that gradually crept into their last collaboration is placed front and centre from the get go in Kung Fu Yoga. Opening with a 5 minute 100% CGI action scene set in ancient China, we watch a young CGI Jackie Chan as a general (again) battling against an army of elephant riding attackers. The scene is incomprehensibly ludicrous, and ends with Chan dangling off a cliff from an elephants tusks, until a rescuer comes via riding a horse across the herd of elephant’s backs (think Tony Jaa in Ong Bak 2, but with a horse). There’s a line I never thought I’d write. Thankfully, when the sequence comes to an end, it turns out to just be a clip that Chan is showing as part of a lecture to university students.
What I’m less thankful for, is that once proceedings move into the real world, instead of getting better, they only get worse. And worse, and worse. Chan has made plenty of rubbish in the past 15 years (The Tuxedo stands out), however Kung Fu Yoga tops them all. Frequently referred to as “the greatest archaeologist in China” (to which he always quips, “Just one of them”), after finishing his lecture Chan is approached by Bollywood actress Disha Patani, who happens to have a map of the treasure he was just lecturing about. Honestly, what are the chances of that!? Chan, as usual in these types of production, has a young team with him. While Railroad Tigers had former Korean boy-band EXO member Edison Huang, Kung Fu Yoga has current Korean boy-band EXO member Lay Zhang (young female demographic: locked in), yoga coach Miya Muqi (yes they’ve cast a yoga coach as a supporting character), and one time Bruce Lee actor Aarif Rahman.
Patani’s arrival essentially heralds the beginning of one of the most horribly juvenile, incompetent, and fist clenchingly annoying scripts you’ll ever experience. The group begin to converse in numerous awkward English language exchanges, all the while constantly smiling (even when discussing something serious). It would be great if Chan can help to find the Indian treasure that’s said to be buried on the China and India border. Why? Because it’ll help to improve the relationship between China and India, and even better, it’s in line with the Chinese governments ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative as well! This exchange actually takes place. But wait, there’s more. Do you know Indian yoga? Yoga is fantastic, and world champion divers can hold their breath for up to 8 minutes because of it. In all seriousness, Kung Fu Yoga at times feels like more of a promotion piece for China and India relations, along with extolling the virtues of yoga.
When we’re not being hit over the head with inane and lifeless line delivery about the similarities between China and India, somewhere along the way the faintest semblance of a plot appears. It turns out the treasure originally belonged to an Indian family, and now their descendant, played by Sonu Sood (apparently the role was turned down by fellow Bollywood actor Tiger Shroff, which was a smart move on his part), is willing to get it back at any cost. This leads to various scenes of Chan action-lite, and at times it’s easy to feel that he’s putting more passion behind his lines (“This treasure belongs to the Chinese government!”) than he is his punches.
In fact the best piece of Chan action in the whole 1 hour 45 minute run time belongs to an initial friendly exchange between him and Rahman, performed to scare off CGI wolves of all things. The exchange has Chan teaching kung fu in the most practical way possible, and the scene serves as a faint glimmer of light in an otherwise black hole of monotony. Wolves aren’t the only CGI animal creation though, we also get a CGI lion (which pukes up CGI vomit), CGI hyenas, and even CGI snakes for good measure. The cast spend a disproportionate amount of time running away from these pixels, far more than they do actually engaging in any meaningful action choreography. Indeed apart from the opening exchange between Patani and Muqi, by the end you’ll be wondering what on earth yoga had to do with anything that took place onscreen.
Tong has clearly completely lost it as a director, it could well be argued he was never a good one, but he knew how to put an action scene together, and his 90’s movies moved along at a brisk pace. Kung Fu Yoga is only the second movie he’s made in 17 years, and the rust shows. Scenes that are supposed to be funny aren’t (a 62 year old Chan eyeing Patani up and down with a sleazy smile on his face), while scenes that are meant to be serious are unintentionally hilarious. In one particular scene Chan and Patani swim under an ice glacier, however before they can get to the other side Chan runs out of breath. Patani ends up dragging him onto the ice barely conscious, and begins channelling her inner-Kate Winslet, shaking him and yelling “Jack, Jack! Jack!!!”
Events eventually culminate in an ancient underground complex beneath a temple in India, were all the characters converge to battle it out over a golden shrine and Buddha. However, the fight inexplicably stops mid-way through, with Sood realising the error of his ways, which subsequently results in Chan breaking into a 4 minute Bollywood song and dance number to round off proceedings. It’s an Indian co-production, so not entirely unexpected, but seriously, like this!? I confess to not being a fan of musical numbers, but when a fight scene gets stopped to break into one, I found myself rather infuriated. Needless to say, if anyone thought the villainous gangs sudden about turn in the finale of Rumble in the Bronx was ridiculous, the ending of Kung Fu Yoga makes it seem perfectly plausible. We don’t even get outtakes over the end credits, instead they just keep on dancing.
While many, including myself, were never expecting the action spectacle seen in the likes of Rumble in the Bronx and First Strike, if Kung Fu Yoga could at least capture the spirit and tone of those movies, the audience could have walked away happy. As it is, Kung Fu Yoga is much more comparable to other recent big budget Mainland China movies, such as Switch and Bounty Hunters, than either of the pairs previous collaborations. At one point Chan is trying to convince Sood that he shouldn’t go after the treasure, and he declares “Everything is empty.” That sums up Kung Fu Yoga in a nutshell, an empty exercise from a film industry that frequently proves that it values spectacle over any kind of coherent storytelling or character development. Containing very little kung fu or yoga, a more appropriate title would be Cinematic Coma.
Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 1/10
Okay, this has got to stop. And by “this”, I mean Chan’s obvious dwindling action film career AND your seemingly constant review of sucky movies. (Wait a minute. If you don’t watch them, then I will. You know what? Keep that last thing up. Yeah, just ignore me on that.) I know he’s long in the tooth, but he should have hung things up at CHINESE ZODIAC. I was leery of seeing this anyway because I’m not a fan of Bollywood productions, and as this movie is tainted with that, I planned on giving it a pass, unless the action was decent. And apparently it is about as decent as CGI lion vomit.
Couldn’t agree more, Chan made a big fuss about ‘Chinese Zodiac’ being his last action hurrah, and it was a worthy note to end on. The problem is he simply can’t seem to say no to when a script for an action movie is waved in his face. I guess when you’ve dedicated your life to making some of the most revered HK action movies of all time – ‘slowing down’, or ‘moving into more dramatic roles’ – that he’s been threatening to do for the past 15 years or so, isn’t quite as easy as it sounds.
Still, directors like Ding Sheng have shown that Chan is more than capable of carrying over his charisma and comedic talents to more suitable roles, with his last movie ‘Railroad Tigers’ being the perfect example of just that. The problem here is that Stanley Tong seems like a director out of time, he’s essentially made a 32 year old Jackie Chan movie with a 62 year old Jackie Chan, and it just doesn’t work. I’d rather see Chan do something new non-action wise, than see him doing the same moves from 20 years ago, but performed slower and with none of the spark that made it so special in the first place.
PS I actually have a number of positive reviews pending, but our trusted site master Mighty Peking Man insists the reviews which shred movies to pieces are more entertaining to read. & in a way, I see his point. 😛
Yeah, hard to argue with MPM about that.Kind of hard to be snide when gushing about some awesome butt-kicking.
Definitely more entertaining to read reviews that bash a film. I think it goes with either extremes (extremely great movies or extremely sucky movies), but the best reviews I’ve read were the negative ones.
Ouch!
Never have I seen one of my reviews so effectively summarized with a single word. 😛
Wow. Disappointing, but I’m sure an accurate, review. Very bummed. I’m curious what you’d think of Skiptrace, which I just watched this weekend. I feel it captures the spirit of Chan’s old films by simply being undemanding entertainment, i.e. no corny speeches about China or coming together, etc. Just a silly good time with at least one decent set piece in a box factory.
I look forward to seeing Railroad Tigers eventually. I’m sure I’ll like that one even more so.
I’ll definitely get around to ‘Skiptrace’ one day. Like you, I really had no interest in seeing Chan perform any fast paced choreography or death defying stunts in ‘Kung Fu Yoga’, I just wanted it to at least capture the tone and spirit of his 90’s Golden Harvest collaborations with Tong. From the initial trailer (not the WellGo trailer linked in this review for the U.S. release) I thought it actually stood a chance, but from the moment I watched a white CGI horse sprinting across the backs of a herd of CGI elephants, it was a losing battle from there on in.
‘Railroad Tigers’ is well worth a watch, despite a rocky start, it effectively captures what makes Chan such an enduring performer, regardless of his age.
Skiptrace is certainly not the worst Chan movie I’ve seen in the last several years. Others I consider much worse include The Tuxedo, The Medallion, The Myth, Rush Hour 3, 1911 etc… But while I was watching it I also questioned the point of the movie’s existence. It seems like one of those mid-nineties, by-the-numbers buddy flicks. Jackie and Johnny are lacking the chemistry we saw in the Shanghai movies with Chan and Wilson. And funnily enough as far as I can tell Knoxville did more of his own stunts than Chan did, lol.
Geesh, this sounds brutal. Yeah what is up with Chan lately? I didn’t see Skiptrace, but I watched the trailer and scenes from it, and it looked shockingly flat and unfunny. As people are mentioning here, maybe Chan should retire? If not, than he should stick to more serious work at this point, like the upcoming The Foreigner from Martin Campbell. We’ve still got that to look forward too at least.
I wouldn’t want the guy to retire. He still has that mad on-screen charisma. I’m hoping The Foreigner will bring him back to the quality we’d expect (I trust Martin Campbell). And I can live without all the stunts and extended fight scenes… now, it’s all about the production as a whole. It’s also about the projects he picks, and just as well, the directors. Both Shinjuku Incident (didn’t have any of JC’s trademarks, but it was a great film) and Little Big Soldier were solid. And judging from Paul’s review for Railroad Tigers, it’s another one I’m hoping to watch soon. As for Yoga… let’s hope that it’s the Indian co-production that influenced it to turn out the way it did. I mean the title alone is foretelling.
You put a lot of trust in the guy who’s last theatrical movie was ‘Green Lantern’ 😛 I share your hopes though that ‘The Foreigner’ will be a return to form, both for the director and Chan.
His last movie may have been Green Lantern, but we’re also talking about the guy who did Casino Royale, which is ten solid movies worth of greatness. I also have a mad love for his Edge of Darkness. And who can forget GoldenEye and Mask of Zorro. As for the Indian co-production element, that was probably what made it seem so zany. I know that Chinese productions can get silly, but combine that with an anything goes Indian approach, and such things as tone, restraint, and good taste go out the window.
Yes, I’m basing everything off Casino Royale and Edge of Darkness. 🙂
Was expecting a bad review but even I was a little surprised at the 1/10, lol. But the trailers didn’t make it look any better than that really.
What’s going to be interesting to observe now, is if this movie becomes another example of what I call the ‘Special ID’ syndrome. This is basically a scenario in which almost every review upon its initial release slams it as complete trash, so that when it comes out on DVD & Blu-ray 4 months later, fans have such low expectations, everyone ends up finding it to be surprisingly enjoyable. 😛
I will admit that has happened to me before. Movies I expected to be terrible weren’t all that bad. But then again, often movies I expected to be awful ended up being truly horrible, (The Tuxedo, The Medallion etc…).
But at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter as I end up buying every Jackie movie anyway, lol.
A Jackie Chan film with a 1 out of 10 rating… and even compared to the horrible TUXEDO… Very sad.
Sad but true, I’m only glad that this wasn’t the first Chan movie I’ve reviewed for COF (‘Railroad Tigers’ just beat it by a few weeks!). I wish there was a 0 on the end of that 1 as much as I’m sure you do, but for me there was just no redeeming qualities in this.
But as I mentioned in my comment above yours, it’ll be interesting to see if we have another case of ‘Special ID’ syndrome. As the ancient Chinese proverb goes “Expectation is everything”. (Disclaimer: Not actually an ancient Chinese proverb, I just made it up)
Ironically, I had low expectations for RAILROAD TIGERS, and was excited about KUNG FU YOGA. 😛
That’s true though. Despite a lackluster script (and one of the silliest reactions ever in the final scene), I found the action in SPECIAL ID to be very exciting. I was not expecting you to be so disappointed in it. Odds are though, if you rate KUNG FU YOGA a 1/10, I’m NOT going to love it.
I’m curious (now that your expectations have been properly lowered) what you will think of SKIPTRACE when you finally see it.
Jackie Chan’s Drunken Master is being released by a UK studio called Eureka. The film will be under their Masters of Cinema series. I was wondering if COF will do a review of that particular blu-ray/DVD set? Thanks!
We’ve requested a copy, so if Eureka comes through, we’ll be covering it. 🙂
Watched Jackie Chan’s latest film VANGUARD yesterday.
This is a Jackie Chan film in name only. He’s around and has a bunch of lines, but almost all of the action stuff is handled by the young teen pop Chinese cast. It’s competently made but has almost no thrills or excitement.
“Sigh” Remember The Expendables 3? Where we had Sly, Dolph, Statham, Wesley Snipes and the film just ditches them to introduce a bunch of young personality free (mostly) team members? It’s the same thing here.