When West Meets East: 25 Hollywood Stars in Asian Cinema

We all know there have been plenty of Asian stars who have tried their hand at Hollywood, with the likes of Jackie Chan, Lee Byung-hun, Ken Watanabe, and even Tony Jaa all having varying degrees of success in Tinseltown. But what about those Hollywood stars who attempted their hand at the Asian film market?

Those who have ventured to the East have done so for reasons as broad as the movies they appear in – maybe they’re washed up stars from yesteryear, they’re offered a chance to work with an acclaimed director, or perhaps lost a bet (it’s as good an explanation as any for some of the appearances in these movies!).

Below we take a look at 25 familiar faces from Hollywood who have appeared in Asian productions since 2000, and 1 who didn’t (it’ll make sense once you get to it). The criteria is a little fast and loose when it comes to things like co-productions, but essentially if a movie has a predominantly Asian cast, is filmed in Asia, and has an Asian director (The Great Wall for example), then we’re including it. If a movie has more than one Hollywood star in it, then we choose one of them and give the other an honourable mention in the text (The Great Wall, again, as an example). We hope you enjoy reading, and if we’ve missed anyone, give them a shout out in the comments! Listed in alphabetical order –

Christian Bale – The Flowers of War (2011)

The first of 2 Zhang Yimou productions that appear on the list, his 2011 movie The Flowers of War cast Christian Bale as an American mortician in-between his turns as the Dark Knight, and is set during the harrowing events of the Nanjing Massacre. Despite it being a subject which has been re-visited many times across several formats, Yimou’s adaptation of the novel 13 Flowers of Nanjing manages to bring a fresh perspective to the events, anchored by an (as usual) effective performance by Bale. Like many of Yimou’s movies, The Flowers of War has been accused of being propaganda, but at its core is a tale of humanity and the way we come together in the direst of circumstances.

Dave Bautista – Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy (2018)

While most former WWE stars tend to be limited to starring in WWE Studio productions when they transition their talents to the movie world, Dave Bautista has proved to be the exception to the rule. Featuring in the likes of Spectre, Bladerunner 2049, and most famously as Drax in the Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers franchises, in 2018 Bautista took his burly frame to Hong Kong to play a steak loving philanthropist in Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy. As the title suggests, the production gave him the opportunity to face off against Max Zhang (who first appeared as Master Z in Ip Man 3), and Bautista’s decision to play the role as softly spoken over the typical shouty gweilo style was surprisingly effective.

Michael Biehn – Dragon Squad (2005) & Shadowguard (2011)

Is there any actor that encapsulated the 80’s and 90’s more than Michael Biehn, only to not do a whole lot since? From being James Cameron’s go-to guy on the likes of Terminator, Aliens, and The Abyss, to memorable turns in the likes of Navy Seals, Tombstone and The Rock. In 2005, Biehn appeared as the villain in director Daniel Lee’s abysmal Dragon Squad, and producer Bey Logan convinced him to make his directorial debut in China 6 years later with Shadowguard. Biehn also starred, alongside flash in the pan Phoenix Valen, and famously disowned the final version in very public fashion, recalling how the whole experience was a nightmare that he’d rather put behind him.

Orlando Bloom – S.M.A.R.T. Chase (2017)

Did anyone ever thing we’d see a movie which featured Orlando Bloom and Simon Yam? Probably not, and quite what the British star, who remains most well known for his role as Legolas in The Lord of the Rings franchise, is doing in this B-grade Chinese action movie is an even more difficult question to answer. With bleached blonde hair, fight scenes for which ‘unconvincing’ would be a compliment, and Xing Yu as the villain of the piece, S.M.A.R.T. Chase is the kind of movie which takes inspiration from the likes of Switch and Bounty Hunters, and almost makes them look passable in comparison. We can only imagine he lost a bet to someone, and this was his penance. Let’s leave it at that.

Adrien Brody – Air Strike (2018) & Dragon Blade (2015)

We’re kind of bending our own rules of this one, but deservedly so since Academy Award winner Adrian Brody is one of only 4 actors to clock in 2 movies on the list. He’s also the only actor to not receive ‘Top Hollywood Star!’ billing in both productions, having to share co-star status with John Cusack in the 2015 poorly conceived sword and sandal clanger Dragon Blade, and again playing second fiddle to a shouty Bruce Willis and CGI planes in 2018’s Air Strike. Somewhat ironically Brody went to great lengths to block the release of Dario Argento’s Giallo in which he starred, however was happy for both Dragon Blade  and Air Strike to be released. Go figure.

Nicolas Cage – Outcast (2014)

Nicolas Cage in a Chinese movie set during medieval times (the Crusades to be specific), partnered with Hayden Christensen (still trying to figure out what happened to his career after his turn as Anakin Skywalker) – what could possibly go wrong? Well, let’s start with Cage’s truly unique British accent, which is so out there it’s almost worth clocking in just to hear it. A first-time director who’s clearly out of his depth and has no idea how to reign in Cage’s performance. Oh, and Crystal Liu is in the mix as well, warming up for her role in Mulan 6 years later. Outcast is one of those car crash movies that you want to turn off but can’t, which at best, I can say is faintly damning praise.

Sarah Carter – Guardian (2014)

While Sarah Carter’s roles in the likes of Final Destination 2 and DOA: Dead or Alive proved she has a dependable screen presence, it’s arguably her turn as Cicada in 2019’s The Flash series, part of DC’s Arrowverse, that has given her the most exposure. One role which likely many of her fans haven’t seen, is as the ruthless villain in the 2014 Indonesian action movie Guardian. Perhaps Carter saw The Raid movies and thought it’d be cool to feature in a slice of Indonesian action, and who can blame her, but director Helfi Kardit is no Gareth Evans, and Guardian proves to be a chore to get through. Now if she’d faced off against Hammer Girl, that would have been worth clocking in for.

John Cusack – Dragon Blade (2015)

John Cusack was one of Hollywood’s most recognizable faces in the 90’s, thanks to his turns in the likes of Con Air, and Grosse Pointe Blank (in which he faced off against Benny ‘The Jet’ Urquidez!), however his more recent efforts haven’t been so memorable. A year after starring in Brian Trenchard-Smith’s lacklustre Drive Hard, he’d head to China to star alongside Jackie Chan and Adrien Brody in Daniel Lee’s Dragon Blade (yes, the same Daniel Lee who directed Dragon Squad). An embarrassment for all involved, as most of Daniel Lee’s movies have a tendency to be for those that feature in them, I’m sure all 3 of its stars wince when they see Dragon Blade in their filmography. If it’s any consolation to them, we do as well.

Matt Damon – The Great Wall (2016)

Director Zhang Yimou enlisted the services of Jason Bourne himself for The Great Wall, a movie which reflects a recurring theme you’ll begin to see in this list – Chinese movies that combine foreign stars and CGI monsters. This being Zhang Yimou though, the monsters here are impressively rendered, and equally impressive is that not only is Matt Damon onboard, we also get another Hollywood legend in the form of Willem Dafoe. As a mercenary for hire who stumbles across the Great Wall at the wrong time (the monsters attack every 60 years), Damon is effective despite some clunky lines, and accusations of him being a ‘white saviour’ that were bandied about at the time are for the most part unfounded.

Robert Forster – D-War (2007)

Sure, technically Robert Forster isn’t the star of the Korean monster movie D-War, that credit goes to Jason Behr (from Roswell) and Amanda Brooks (from Aquarius), but really, who cares about them when you have Robert Forster? A unique disaster of a Korean production literally trying to be a Hollywood movie, D-War sent comedian turned director Shim Hyung-rae on the road to both bankruptcy and jail time, an outcome which has likely permanently delayed the long gesticulating sequel. How Forster or anyone else manager to get involved with D-War is one of life’s great mysteries, however, it did indeed receive a wide theatrical release in the U.S., so from that perspective, it was a success!

Megan Fox – The Battle of Jangsari (2019)

Once the muse of Michael Bay, Megan Fox remains most well known for her roles in such towering artistic achievements as the first 2 Transformers movies in the 00’s, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot and its sequel in the 10’s. When the pairs working relationship hit a rocky patch, Fox followed up her 2018 mini-series Legends of the Lost with Megan Fox by taking the part of ground-breaking American journalist Marguerite Higgins in Korea’s The Battle of Jangsari. Sadly Fox’s performance wasn’t quite as ground-breaking, ladened with a heavy-handed script in which every one of her lines is about the inhumanity of war. Still, at least we also get George Eads from CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Kelsey Grammer – Guardians of the Tomb (2018)

While Kelsey Grammer may forever be known to many as Dr. Frasier Cane, he’s also appeared in several big-name franchises. From playing Beast in latter instalments of the X-Men franchise, to appearances in Transformers: Age of Extinction and The Expendables 3, it’s likely nobody foresaw him appearing in 2018’s Guardians of the Tomb. Teaming up with the Twilight franchises Kellan Lutz and Li Bingbing for a dose of tomb raiding shenanigans, the kind that were briefly all the craze in Chinese cinema at the time (see also the Mojin movies and Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe), it’s safe to say this one won’t become a franchise anytime soon.

Frank Grillo – Wolf Warrior 2 (2017)

After appearing as Crossbones in the Captain America and Avengers franchises, Frank Grillo packed his bags and headed to China to play the villain in Wu Jing’s Wolf Warrior 2. After the lacklustre final fight that Wolf Warrior gave us with Jing facing off against Scott Adkins, Grillo had some ground to make up to win back audiences good will, and thankfully he delivers. As is par for the course with the Wolf Warrior movies, Grillo plays a despicably evil foreigner who loves to kill Africans (it’s bizarrely referred to as a country rather than a continent) and is even hinted at being a paedophile, so all the more reason for Wu Jing to unleash the wrath of China in his direction.

Josh Hartnett – I Come With the Rain (2009) & Oh Lucy! (2017)

Josh Hartnett did himself no disrespect with either of his entries on the list, first up co-starring alongside Lee Byung-hun and Kimura Takuya in Vietnamese director Anh Hung Tran’s bleak thriller from 2009, I Come With the Rain. Playing a mentally and physically scarred private eye on the hunt for a billionaires missing son, Hung Tran’s movie is far from perfect, but it also lingers in the mind once the credits roll. Hartnett would return in Atsuko Hirayanagi’s Oh Lucy! in 2017, playing an English teacher in Tokyo who unwittingly becomes the object of a middle-aged student’s affection, leading to devastating results when she decides to follow him back to the U.S. One of the best movies of the ‘10’s.

Johnny Knoxville – Skiptrace (2016)

Not content with blemishing Korean Kim Ji-woon’s filmography with his cringe worthy turn in 2013’s The Last Stand, a few years later Johnny Knoxville was dialled in to partner with Jackie Chan, in what would turn out to be the first of several productions director Renny Harlin would make in China. At this point Jackass had already been laid to rest over a decade ago, but Knoxville was still ploughing the same old schtick, only much like Jackie Chan’s own work in Hollywood, it lacked the spark that attracted audiences in the first place. The whole ‘partnering Chan with an American comedic foil’ device was already old in 2016 (Rush Hour 3 was released in 2007), and Knoxville failed to prove it was a formula worth reviving.

Dolph Lundgren – Legendary (2013) & Skin Trade (2014)

Ok, I know Scott Adkins fans are going to be angry that I chose to focus on Dolph Lundgren rather than “the most complete fighter in the world” when it comes to Chinese production Legendary, but I’m sure the British star won’t mind being skipped in this case. In Legendary Lundgren plays a (wait for it) legendary bounty hunter, out to kill a beast that Adkins and his team of Chinese experts are attempting to study. Far more entertaining is Lundgren’s turn opposite Tony Jaa in Beautiful Boxer director Ekachai Uekrongtham’s Skin Trade, which sees the pair team up to take down a human trafficking ring in Bangkok. Lundgren admittedly looks somewhat stiff and creaky in action, but thankfully Jaa is left to do the heavy lifting.

David Morse – Double Vision (2002)

Known for his solid supporting turns in more movies than are possible to mention here (but we’ll go with a few – The Rock, The Long Kiss Goodnight, The Green Mile, The Hurt Locker, and World War Z), in 2002 David Morse took the lead opposite Tony Leung Ka-Fai for the Taiwanese supernatural thriller Double Vision. As an FBI agent and local detective on the trail of a serial killer who has a unique way of killing his victims, Double Vision makes for a highly original take on the genre, and a large part of why it works is thanks to Morse and Leung’s performances. As a hot tip, for those who’ve yet to check it out, ensure it’s the unrated version and not the cut release.

Liam Neeson – Operation Chromite (2016)

Securing Liam Neeson to star in a Korean war epic in 2016 was a big deal, and it was rightfully treated as such in Operation Chromite’s marketing material, as the go-to middle aged action star of the post-Taken world looked to stretch his acting muscles. As General MacArthur Neeson is suitably imposing and brings the required gravitas to the role, despite only clocking in around 20 minutes of screen time. Sadly he’s let down by a clunky English script, which lumbers him with overly bombastic lines that grate against the context of the scenes they’re set in, taking away from a solid performance. Despite this though, Operation Chromite is far from a bad movie, and entertains for the right reasons.

Gary Oldman – Rain Fall (2009)

If you were to make a list of genres that modern Japanese cinema completely sucks at, the action thriller would have to be near the top of it. Upon hearing then that Gary Oldman was going to feature in Rain Fall, many hoped it would break the trend. An adaptation of Barry Eisler’s novel of the same name, it was intended as the first in a Jack Reacher style franchise, with its protagonist John Rain played by Kippei Shina sharing a similar background. That didn’t happen, as like with most Japanese action thrillers, it was as dull as dishwater. Oldman gives an amusing performance as a corrupt CIA official, prone to sudden outbursts of overacting, and very much foreshadowing a similar role in 2016’s Criminal.

Brandon Routh – Lost in the Pacific (2016)

I’m sure if someone had told Brandon Routh in 2006, hot off the heels of starring in Superman Returns, that 10 years later he’d be headlining a C-grade Chinese sci-fi thriller, he’d have laughed in their face. If such a conversation did happen of course, then the person in question would have gotten the last laugh, as that’s what we have with Lost in the Pacific. Continuing China’s trend for combining foreign star power with horrendous CGI monsters (see also Guardians of the Tomb and Legendary from earlier in the list), Lost in the Pacific could just as well be describing Routh’s career post his big break, and is only recommended to the most adventurous of viewers.

Paul Rudd – Gen-Y Cops (2000)

Before Ant-Man, even before Friends, Paul Rudd starred as an FBI agent in 2000’s poorly received follow-up to Gen-X Cops, Gen-Y Cops. Rudd’s appearance on the list is unique, as while he certainly wasn’t a newcomer to the screen, his role here can essentially be considered pre-fame. Teamed up with the likes of Maggie Q and Edison Chen, Rudd and the rest of the cast embarrass themselves for 2 hours fighting against a killer robot, and mangling their way through a truly awful English heavy script (which we have Bey Logan to thank for). Still, seeing Rudd with his dyed blonde hair, dubbed Cantonese voice, and distinctly late 90’s wardrobe, is almost enough to warrant a viewing.

Steven Seagal – Clementine (2004)

For the briefest of seconds in the early 00’s, it looked like Seagal was going to limp back onto the big screen thanks to Exit Wounds and Half Past Dead, but 2003 was the year that secured his fate as the DTV star of choice when it comes to quantity over quality. 2004 gave us possibly the oddest movie in his filmography, with Out of Reach (watch it in disbelief), but it also gave us a bonus oddity thanks to the bloated Aikido masters somewhat random appearance in the Korean B-movie Clementine. A poorly conceived vehicle for Korean taekwondo champion Lee Dong-jun, who had a film career in the 80’s and 90’s, Clementine was a dud of a come-back vehicle. No doubt Seagal’s performance was a contributing factor.

Donald Sutherland – Big Shot’s Funeral (2001)

A criminally overlooked satire from 2001, Big Shot’s Funeral cast Donald Sutherland as an ailing director who tasks the cameraman of the movie he’s working on with planning his own funeral, and the subsequent shenanigans that follow. Made at a time when for western audiences Chinese comedy still translated to plenty of slapstick and gurning, director Xiaogang Feng’s subtle take on commercialism and the pitfalls that come with it is well worth a revisit for those who perhaps wrote it off at the time, and deserves to be seen for everyone else. Sutherland is fantastic throughout, as is You Ge as the cameraman in question, and Rosamund Kwan in one of her last roles.

Jean Claude Van Damme – Jian Bing Man (2015)

The Muscles from Brussels career has had mores ups and downs than a rollercoaster, and one would think that appearing in a Chinese internet celebrities movie debut would be one of the downs. However Jian Bing Man proved to be an entertaining meta-comedy set within the world of movie making, and JCVD makes a last reel appearance playing himself, playing the villain of the piece. The brainchild of Da Peng, while Van Damme’s screen time may be limited, he makes the most of when he’s on it. While the concept here of bringing in a Hollywood star is played for comedic effect, ironically in the succeeding years it would be one that China would increasingly employ.

Bruce Willis – Air Strike (2018)

Bruce Willis may have played one of the most iconic action heroes of cinema (and most would agree one time too many) as John McClane in the Die Hard franchise, but as of late he’s been working almost exclusively in the DTV action genre. This is no truer than during the 5 years that led up to his role in 2018’s Air Strike. Perhaps taking inspiration from Liam Neeson’s respectable turn in Operation Chromite, whatever inspiration there was had long disappeared by the time the cameras started rolling. Ironically, Air Strike was pulled from release in China when Fan Bingbing’s tax evasion scandal was made public (despite her role being a limited one), and it eventually made it to the U.S. minus 25 minutes that were cut.

Dis-honourable Mention

Kevin Spacey – Hidden Man (2018)

As an increasing number of sexual harassment allegations were made against Kevin Spacey in 2017, most attention went to his role being cut from the Hollywood production All the Money in the World, and how his scenes would be re-shot with Christopher Plummer. But Spacey was also cut out of another movie, the 3^rd entry in Jiang Wen’s loose Republican China trilogy, Hidden Man. Like Ridley Scott, Wen also re-filmed Spacey’s scenes with another actor, erasing any trace of the House of Cards star having ever been cast. Thankfully the decision didn’t have any impact on the final product, as Hidden Man was one of the most entertaining movies of 2018.