Chinese Zodiac
Short description
Chinese Zodiac follows Jackie Chan as Asian Hawk, a treasure hunter who leads a mercenary crew on a mission to recover bronze heads representing the animals of the Chinese zodiac. These artifacts were taken from the imperial Summer Palace in Beijing during the conflicts of the nineteenth century and scattered across the world. With help from a Chinese student and a woman in Paris, he chases the pieces across several countries, facing rivals and obstacles along the way.
Jackie Chan directed the film, his fourteenth time behind the camera in chronological order, following 1911. He also shares writing credits with Stanley Tong and Edward Tang and produces alongside Tong and Barbie Tung Wan-Si. The cast includes Anna Yao, Kwon Sang-woo, Zhang Lanxin, Liao Fan and Laura Weissbecker; thirty-two performers are credited in total.
Released in December 2012, the Hong Kong and Chinese production cost around 26 million US dollars and grossed roughly 171 million worldwide, a strong return on its budget. On IMDb it holds 6 out of 10 from about 26,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.2 out of 10 from roughly 900 votes. A critics' rating of 4.5 out of 10 from eight reviews places it below the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Jackie Chan set a Guinness World Record on a film, receiving it for "The Most Credits in a Film." Chan worked in 15 key positions involved in the film's creation, including: director, producer, actor, fight choreographer, and composer, thereby breaking the previous record of 11 credits held by Robert Rodriguez.
- In the scene on the ship during the battle with pirates, a gun is knocked out of one of the pirates’ hands, and he pulls out another, holding it by the lower part of the grip (his finger far from the trigger), pretending to shoot. In the next frame, his hand is positioned correctly with his finger on the trigger.
- During the final airborne struggle on parachutes, one of the parachutists takes Jackie Chan’s helmet off, and in subsequent shots, the helmet disappears, then reappears.
- From April 18 to May 2, 2012, some scenes were filmed in the Aerodium (a vertical wind tunnel) in Jelgava, Latvia.
- In the fight scene with security guards at a counterfeit factory, Jackie Chan throws rectangular boxes stacked on top of each other. The boxes fall in a fan-like pattern, pinning each guard's foot. The last box falls on Jackie's foot, but misses and lands next to his foot. The next scene shows Jackie writhing in pain, with a box pressing on his foot.
- Filming the main fight scene cost 70 million yuan (which was over $10 million USD in 2012).
- At the end of the scene where Jackie Chan gets rid of the dogs and parachutes out of the labyrinth, two dogs run towards him from the front, while two others appear from nowhere behind him.
- The film was partially based on Akira Toriyama’s series “Dragon Ball.” Toriyama himself noted Jackie Chan as someone who greatly influenced his work.
- A four-minute stunt scene was filmed on Mount Yasur (a volcano on Tanna Island in Vanuatu).
- In the labyrinth scene, where Jackie Chan is holding a dog by the muzzle, they first show a nursing dog with clearly visible teats, but in the next shot, the dog lying on the ground is a male dog.
- At the counterfeit factory, Jackie Chan catches a beer from a man in a hat, and in the footage, his grip on the bottle changes, sometimes around the top, sometimes around the middle, and sometimes around the bottom.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
