Little Big Soldier

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AKA: Big Soldier Little General, Junior Soldiers, The Big Soldier

Year of release: 2010

Genre: action/comedy

Director: Ding Sheng

Action director: Jackie Chan

Producers: Jackie Chan, Solon So, Yuan Nong, Ren Yi-Wan, Zhang Xing

Writers: Ding Sheng, Jackie Chan

Cinematography: Zhao Xiao-Ding, Ding Yu

Editor: Ding Sheng

Music: Xiao Ke

Stars: Jackie Chan, Wang Lee-Hom, Lin Peng, Steve Yoo, Xu Dongmei, Jing Song, Ken Lo, Do Yuk-Ming, Yu Rong-Guang

Rated IIB for violence

This movie is available at www.hkflix.com

HKFlix

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Little Big Soldier  Little Big Soldier

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As Jackie Chan goes further into the point in his life where he can possibly (and maybe should) start enjoying the benefits of an AARP membership, the quality of his filmic output has been going up and down more than the springs of a Fremont Street working girl's dingy mattress. For every solid effort like Shinjuku Incident, Jackie fans have been "treated" to dreck like The Spy Next Door. Released in February 2010, Jackie's latest Lunar New Year effort Little Big Soldier thankfully falls into the former category, and is actually one of his best movies over the past decade.

Taking place during the Warring States (aka Seven Kingdoms) period of Chinese history (approximately 300 BC), Little Big Soldier has Jackie playing a character named (or, rather, not named) Soldier, who is the lone survivor of a major battle between the Liang and Wei states. That is, until Soldier finds General (Taiwanese pop star Wang Lee-Hom) wounded and decides to cash him in to get a plot of farmland and exemption from military service. The journey back home to Liang is not an easy one, as Solider and General must not only avoid bandits, but also a prince (Steve Yoo) who wants to kill General so that he can take over the Wei kingdom.

The setting and plot initially sounds like it would fit in with the "historical epic" picture Hong Kong and Mainland co-productions seem to favor nowadays. But Little Big Soldier takes a more personal approach, instead concentrating not on huge battle scenes and deep societal meditations, but on the relationships between a handful of characters. That's not to say that matters get all that heavy. Like some of Jackie's best work like Project A, Little Big Soldier uses the historical backdrop as a foil to expedite and display light (but still fun and exciting) action/comedic scenes in the style of classic 1930's Hollywood releases that were such an obvious influence on Jackie.

If you're expecting Jackie to pull off something on the order of Drunken Master II with Little Big Soldier, you're going to be disappointed, and should probably adjust the dosage of your medication of choice, because you're not realizing that Jackie's fifty-six years old and can't take the bumps he used to. Still, in this reviewer's opinion, this is the sort of release that fits our new persona of "old man" Jackie perfectly. He gets in a couple of nice action bits and is able to sink his teeth into an acting role that allows him to display both comedy and pathos, all the while giving the rub to a younger actor. At the very least, he's not being once again awkwardly shoved into a film that is a Jackie Chan movie in name only.

RATING: 7.5