Poster of CZ 12 [Photo: m1905.com]
Hollywood has Christian Bale and Robert Downey Jr. but when it comes to Asian superheroes, no one fits the bill better than Hong Kong superstar Jackie Chan.
In his latest film, “Chinese Zodiac,” Chan plays a treasure hunter seeking to recover 12 bronze animal heads looted from China's Old Summer Palace in the Second Opium War.
The action film, which cost 300 million yuan (US$47.5 million) to make, took seven years for script development and was filmed in eight locations over one year.
Aside from playing the film's fictional hero, Chan demonstrated heroic stamina, working as producer, director, scriptwriter and stunt choreographer, a feat that earned him the Guinness World Record for “most credits in one movie” for this film.
Chan, who started his career as a stuntman at the age of 17, sleeps only about two to three hours when filming but claims he can sleep for as long as 30 hours when he's not working.
He compares his role on the set to that of a president or leader, who sets the rules and plays a lot of roles.
Chan says he also cried on the last day of a film shoot — a first for him.
“'Chinese Zodiac' was really 52 years in the making, as I brought every bit of knowledge I've gained from all my years in the business. I've never cried over a broken leg or injury but tears just flowed when this movie was over. It is truly my pet project.”
Chan though refuses to typecast the “bad and good people” in his films. He recalls having nothing but black actors paraded in front of him when he was casting the role of the villain for “Rumble in the Bronx.”
“I said no. I wanted French, Italian, Chinese. I want to show the whole world that bad people and good people are everywhere. When I was young, the Japanese were all bad in Chinese films. Later on when I watched American films, Germans were bad ... Russians were bad. That's wrong and I thought, no, I should not make this kind of film. Good people, bad people are everywhere. That's my philosophy.”