“Whispers of Gratitude” Teaser Poster
In a move reminiscent of what Jet Li did in the 2010 drama, Ocean Heaven – a film that explored the subject of parental love and autism in kids – another martial arts superstar is turning to family drama… Jackie Chan!
Next year, we’ll see Jackie in Whispers of Gratitude, where he’ll play a character he’s never played before: someone with Alzheimer’s disease (not to be confused with someone with amnesia, as with his character in 1998’s Who Am I?). Obviously, if you’re expecting an action flick, you’ll be disappointed.
Whispers of Gratitude, which is marketed as a comedy-drama, follows a young man from a small town who flees his home to try to reach Beijing. On the way, he crosses paths with Ren Jiqing, an old man suffering from Alzheimer’s disease who mistakes him for his son.
Directed by newcomer Taiyan Li, Whispers of Gratitude also stars Yuchang Peng (I Am Nobody), Jianing Zhang (Shining for One Thing), Mintao Liu (Revival), Darren Grosvenor (Kung Fu Yoga), Binlong Pan (Ride On) and Ping Li (Better Man).
Look out for Whispers of Gratitude later this year. Until then, watch the film’s New Trailer below:
After the 1/5 stars quality of A Legend, its almost impossible for this movie to be worse. Who knows he might pull off a performance thats dramatic but nuanced and moving like Jet Li in Oceans Heaven. Even though it didnt do too well, Ride On was a decent family drama/meta commentary on his legacy. Its not impossible for Chan to do something half decent here
I hope this movie is sensitive about the subject. I haven’t seen Ocean Heaven, but I haven’t read anything bad about it. Autism in particular isn’t always portrayed well in Asian cinema, and they often confuse it for being mentally challenged.
I remember when people saw production photos of this film, and assumed Jackie Chan was in poor health before he had to clear it all up.
I don’t except a trailer to be released for at least 9 months anyway. According to Jackie Chan France, the film is scheduled to be released October 1, 2025 for the national holiday, just like how Panda Plan is scheduled for October 1st of this year.
That’s not a trailer, it’s just a teaser.
Close enough =)
Ocean Heaven is one of the best drama films I’ve ever seen so far, so warm, and sad, and almost melodic in telling the story of Jet Li making connection with his autistic son. Not a lot of dialogue heavy story, sometimes even the silent scenes had more weight than any speaking part within the movie itself. Jet Li was superb in this role, highly untypical for him, but he passed it with flying colours, he brought so much depth, emotions to his character, several times I found myself in tears, moved to the bottom of my heart. He had a relative with autism, and decided to give more light on the subject, that he acted there without pay, just agreed to be in, for the simple reason to spread more awareness for the autism, as it was virtually not known in China. An absolute gem of a movie.
If Jackie could give such diverse performance in this new movie, I’ll be quite happy, despite his drama roles in Crime story, Heart of the dragon & Shinjuku incident, I think that Jackie still have potential to top these roles with his acting, and this particular movie is giving him a solid opportunity for a great role, where he can show to the audience a different side to his acting.