Actor: My Entertainment Era

Jackie Chan has changed a lot in the past two years, especially this year.

For example, during the release of "The Foreigner", he sincerely expressed in front of the media that he wanted to play a supporting role, or even a villain: "I'm just waiting for a villain that satisfies me."

The 63-year-old Jackie Chan rarely said in front of the media that he has acting skills and is also good in literary dramas, and asked young directors not to be afraid and to bravely give him scripts.

During the promotion period of "Bleeding Steel", he expressed his views on today's Chinese-language action films. He believes that following the trend of Hollywood Marvel-style action films is a dead end, and that if Chinese-language action films want to go global, they still have to rely on traditional kung fu films.

Because kung fu movies have become a business card for Chinese-language films overseas and are the most important label for Chinese-language films.

Zhang Yuanjun does not completely agree with Jackie Chan's point of view, because martial arts films, or traditional kung fu films, have no market in China!
What were the best-selling action movies in the past few years? They were the "Ip Man" series and "SPL", which are fashion action movies.

The 56 billion-yuan "Wolf Warrior 2" is a military action film, and "Wolf Warrior 2" is precisely a military action film with a very Hollywood style, it is not traditional at all.

The two traditional Kung Fu movies, "The Blade of the Assassin" and "The Sword of the Assassin" combined did not exceed 3 million!
This is chosen by the audience with real money. How will the producers choose? How will the directors choose?
All I can say is that Kung Fu was, and still is, an important label for Chinese-language films overseas. But once people could make a living by relying on this label, but now the label is just a label.

Because domestic action films are also developing, they have gradually abandoned traditional kung fu and moved towards fashion action, military action, gun action and other directions. This can also be seen as an attempt to integrate into international mainstream action films.

Even Jackie Chan himself became famous by developing fashionable kung fu comedies from the traditional kung fu films of his time, but Jackie Chan's kung fu foundation is traditional kung fu.

In fact, Jackie Chan is a bit conservative when it comes to action movies, or domestic movies in general.

There is no right or wrong here, everyone has the limitations of their own vision.

Why are we suddenly talking about Jackie Chan and action movies?
Because as the most successful actor of the new generation going overseas, when Zhang Yuanjun was training for "John Wick 3" in Beijing, Jackie Chan, as a senior, came to visit the training ground, followed by several media reporters.

One is to visit the set, and the other is to promote "Blood Machine".

Zhang Yuanjun knew in advance that Jackie Chan was coming, but when facing the camera, he was still very "surprised" and was completely unexpected about Jackie Chan's visit.

"Brother, why are you here?"

"I just happened to return to Beijing. I heard that you were training here, so I came to see you." Jackie Chan said with a smile.

The two ignored the camera and started chatting like a pair of old friends.

Jackie Chan also found another old friend at the scene, Cheng Hu from the Yuan Clan.

Cheng Hu is one of the action designers of "John Wick 3" and will also have a cameo role in the film. He supervised Zhang Yuanjun's action training in Beijing.

"Is the training hard?" Jackie Chan started chatting with Zhang Yuanjun.

"I've put it down for too long, so it's a little difficult to pick it up. I'm slowly getting used to it." Zhang Yuanjun said with a smile.

"What do you train for?"

Zhang Yuanjun introduced Jackie Chan: "In the morning, we do physical training and action training. In the afternoon, we do shooting. After a while, we will also do horse riding training. It takes 8 to 10 hours every day."

To cooperate with Jackie Chan's publicity, Zhang Yuanjun also demonstrated his training results on the spot. He and his sparring partner performed a set of moves for Jackie Chan to see and asked for his guidance.

Jackie Chan said modestly: "It's just training. You have professional martial arts directors. What advice can I give you?" Then he talked about his previous filming experience: "When we were filming before..."

As he spoke, he performed two sets of moves on the spot, which drew applause from the media and staff watching.

At the end of the visit, Jackie Chan said that he wanted to work with Zhang Yuanjun: "You are the actor I most want to work with."

"Thank you for the compliment, big brother." Zhang Yuanjun said with a smile, "Let's find a chance to talk about it." This was said in an ambiguous way, and it seemed like he agreed to cooperate with Jackie Chan.

"Okay, I'm leaving. You just focus on your training." Jackie Chan stayed with Zhang Yuanjun for a little over half an hour before leaving. He did not mention "Bleeding Steel" the whole time.

But I believe that follow-up reports will bring it out.

Sure enough, when Zhang Yuanjun went home for dinner, Liu Yifei asked him, "Did Jackie Chan come to see you today?" She saw it on Weibo before dinner.

Zhang Yuanjun took his wife's phone, which read:

"This morning, Jackie Chan came to a training center in Beijing to visit Zhang Yuanjun who was training for a new movie. Zhang Yuanjun showed Jackie Chan the results of his training. He performed difficult moves such as jiu-jitsu and wrestling very smoothly, which won Jackie Chan's praise. Jackie Chan also talked about his experience in shooting action scenes and exchanged blows with the martial arts directors on the scene. The 63-year-old Jackie Chan is still as skilled as ever and his boxing and kicking skills are very vigorous. Before the visit ended, Jackie Chan and Zhang Yuanjun both expressed their hope to work with each other, and Zhang Yuanjun promised to find time to have a good chat with Jackie Chan. Movie fans have expressed their hope to see the two superstars compete on the same stage."

"Well, come over here and take a look." After reading the news, Zhang Yuanjun looked at the child sitting in the baby high chair, "Just drink your milk well, you just like to bully your brother." Zhang Yufei was sucking on her own bottle in one hand, and trying to grab her brother's with the other hand. Zhang Yuyi was so anxious that she screamed and hit her sister's hand.

While eating, Liu Xiaoli said, "Don't eat with these two together. It's like a war." Then she dragged her grandson's dining chair to her side, facing Zhang Yufei.

"Ah~" Zhang Yufei disagreed.

"Who told you to bully your brother?" Zhang Yuanjun held her bottle in place, "Eat your meal well, and then play with your brother after you finish eating."

The two children have been weaned, and their intake of formula milk is also controlled, while complementary foods are gradually being added.

They drink milk while adults eat, and then eat some complementary food after drinking milk.

But the two children were curious when they saw the large table of food, and they grabbed the air with their little hands.

"I'll feed you later, you can play by yourselves for a while first." Zhang Yuanjun took the two little ones' bottles and placed them on the table, then took them out and placed them on the ground.

The two little bulldozers crawled away to play.

Zhang Yuanjun actually considered working with Jackie Chan, but for the time being he couldn't think of a story or role that was particularly suitable for Jackie Chan.

According to Jackie Chan's age, he should be playing a mentor like Gandalf or Dumbledore, or some specific types of elderly roles. For example, as mentioned before, Gary Goodman met Churchill when he was nearly 60 years old, and Anthony Hopkins also played Professor Hannibal when he was almost 60 years old.

It is indeed difficult for the mainstream market to find roles suitable for his age.

There is another way out, the stage of drama. There are still many roles he can play on this stage, and it is common for him to play the same role for twenty years.

But Jackie Chan is used to being surrounded by a group of brothers and staff, and he would not be used to acting in a drama.

Zhang Yuanjun could only put the cooperation aside for the time being. (End of this chapter)