Ride On

[Drunk Monk]

Ride On

I posted an earlier trailer, not this one, so your update is good. 

This is slated for a theatrical release. This and Sakra. I plan to see them both in the theaters.

Seen. In a theater no less. I had the whole place to myself. I could cough, fart, change chairs, whatever. 

This is a sentimental ode to stuntman, as well as a thinly veiled apology for being a crappy dad to his daughter (she’s illegitimate and had her share of scandal). So yeah, a father/daughter tale. And sometimes that relationship worked. There are heartfelt moments. Jackie cries a lot.

Costars include Yu Rongguang, who is in so many JC flicks, Shi Yanneng, the former Shaolin monk who I knew from my early years there (even wrote a cover story on him), and surprisingly Wu Jing.

Jackie plays an aging stuntman who lives in a strange open air stable with his stunt horse Red Hare (that’s the name of Lord Guan’s horse - he’s the patron saint of martial artists and prostitutes).Due to some legal issues, Red Hare is going to be sold, so Jackie contacts his estranged daughter (mom died of some terminal illness) - his daughter is in law school. Meanwhile Jackie owes some money which is an excuse for thugs to attack him randomly.

The fight choreo is Jackie at 69. There’s still an inventive quality, but it’s mostly one shot = one strike and he’s using stunt doubles. He does manage on daring feat, standing atop a huge Ferris wheel, which is revealed in the post credit ng. Throughout the film there are clips from Jackie’s old movies showing some of his best stunts, so whenever I got skeptical of the action, those brought me back to a place of reverence for Jackie. He’s earned the right not to do anything that crazy anymore.

It’s got some moments, but at over 2 hours, it drags at points. Jackie and Red Hare do some stunts to earn their keep, and there’s Easter egg homages through the film like a clock with a small figure hanging off it like Jackie in Project A.

It’s one of Jackie’s better recent films as most of his new stuff has been weak. I haven’t seen his last two films - Good Night Beijing or All U Need is Love (I suspect he just has cameos in these) but I have to go back to The Foreigner for a film a truly liked. Excluding the last two which I didn’t see, there were 6 other films in between, all of which were mediocre. The Foreigner was 2017 and he’s been in nine films since then. 

This has a decent story and the horse is cool. The action is ok but not overly impressive. It does show Jackie’s acting chops, which he’s underrated for because of his action roles. Jackie cries a lot in this film and to his credit, he brings different subtleties of emotion into each tearful scene.

I enjoyed watching this in the theater more for the experience of the theater. It’s not really a big screen film tho. 

Recommended only for D00Mers who truly love Jackie.