CZ12

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CZ12

Official Hong Kong poster
Directed byJackie Chan
Produced byJackie Chan
Stanley Tong
Barbie Tung
Written byJackie Chan
StarringJackie Chan
Kwon Sang-woo
Liao Fan
Yao Xing Tong
Zhang Lan Xin
Laura Weissbecker
Music byRoc Chen
Nathan Wang
StudioJCE Movies Limited
Emperor Classic Films
Emperor Dragon Movies
Emperor Motion Pictures
Jackie & JJ Productions
Distributed byHong Kong:
Emperor Motion Pictures
Philippines:
Star Cinema
Worldwide
Jackie & JJ Productions
Release date(s)
  • 12 December 2012 (2012-12-12) (Gala premier)
  • 20 December 2012 (2012-12-20) (Asia)
Running time123 minutes
CountryHong Kong
China
LanguageCantonese
Mandarin
English
French
Russian
Budget300 million yuan (US $49,000,000)
Box office841 million yuan (US $135,130,000)

CZ12 (Chinese: 十二生肖), also known as Chinese Zodiac,[1] is a 2012 Hong Kong-Chinese action film co-produced, written, directed by, and starring Jackie Chan.[2] The film is a pseudo-reboot of a film franchise that began with Armour of God (1987) and its sequel, Armour of God II: Operation Condor.[2][3]

With this film, Chan earned two Guinness World Records: "Most Stunts Performed by a Living Actor" and "Most Credits in One Movie".[4] The film to date has grossed over US$135,130,000 at the Chinese box office.[5]

Contents

  • 1 Plot
  • 2 Cast
  • 3 Production
  • 4 Release
  • 5 Reception
  • 6 References
  • 7 External links

Plot

The movie begins by a man telling the story of the Old Summer Palace and how it was looted by the British during the second opium war in the 1800s. Among the treasures are bronze heads of the 12 Chinese Zodiac animals.

In the present day, the bronze heads are auctioned for over a million euros each. The main company supplying the bronze heads and other stolen relics is MP Corporation. JC (Jackie Chan), is tasked by MP Corp to find the remaining lost bronze heads, with a promise of a 10 times bonus if he can recover all of them. JC visits a man named Professor Guan, who had created 12 identical replicas for study purposes with his team of researchers, under the pretense that he is a reporter named Martin from National Geographic. When left alone, JC scans the multiple bronze Zodiac animal heads using special gloves so that his secret organisation can replicate an extremely realistic model of them. After scanning, he goes to Paris to find a woman named Coco, recommended by Professor Guan, for more information on the whereabouts of two bronze heads.

JC, along with his partners Simon (Kwon Sang-woo), David, and Bonnie, infiltrate a mansion to find two of the bronze heads. JC manages to decode the password to a top secret vault and finds two bronze heads, a painting called "The Roses", along with many other valuable national treasures thought to be lost inside. JC's cover was soon busted but managed to evade capture with all the valuables, but is spotted by Coco. Having no time to explain himself, he tells Coco to meet him at a boat house while fleeing from the mansion's security. At the boat house, Martin tells Coco that he is working for a secret corporation that is trying to recover all the lost relics for China. The guards from the mansion storm the boat house and try to attack JC. However, the police are called in and arrest all of them. JC, Coco and Simon are cleared of any wrongdoing and are released.

Coco, JC and his team are invited to a castle owned by a lady named Katherine (Laura Weissbecker). Unknown to them, the guards from the mansion continue to tail them out of suspicion. It turns out the captain of the "Indestructible", one of the ships involved in the destruction of the Old Summer Place and taking away the treasures, is Katherine's great-great-grandfather. This upsets Coco, who confronts Katherine on the issue. JC and his team find many valuable treasures in the castle, including the Bronze head of the Rooster, and hatch a series of plans to ferry them out. JC promises Katherine that he will help her locate her great grandfather's remains.

The next day, they venture out in search of the Indestructible's treasures, located on a seemingly uninhabited island. JC instructs Coco and Katherine to stay behind while his team explore the island. However, Coco and Katherine disobey JC's orders to look for Katherine's great-great-grandfather's corpse on their own. They get entangled among the vines and this forces JC to rescue them. The group accidentally discovers the remains of the Indestructible, several more bronze heads and a large quantity of gold (plus the remains of Katherine's great-great-grandfather.) As they prepare to leave with all the artifacts, they are confronted by the guards from the mansion. In turn, the island's local inhabitants, a group of pirates, appear and promptly capture all of them. JC and his team fight their way through to escape the island via a log set up with a pulley system, leaving the five guards with the pirates.

Back on the yacht, Coco accidentally discovers the real motive of JC's ventures and confronts him. Subsequently, the log carrying approximately eight tonnes of gold and the corpse Katherine's great-great-grandpa sinks due to the heavy weight of the gold and the corpse, and all the log's contents are lost. Nevertheless, JC and his team still get rewarded for recovering some of the lost bronze heads. The group are enraged when they find out that the supposedly-missing dragon bronze head was already at the hands of MP Corp all along, thereby making it impossible to claim the large bonus. Meanwhile, Coco and her fellow students' protests over the sale of the national treasures escalated quickly to grab worldwide attention. As Coco's students try to find out more about MP Corp, three of them, including Coco's younger brother, are captured. Coco approaches JC for help but JC seems nonchalant.

JC contacts MP Corp on the availability of "The Roses" artifact and is allowed into the secret premises. Having toured the entire factory, where almost exact duplicates of the relics are made to be sold as real relics in auctions, JC deduces the location of the captives. He challenges a long time rival who happens to be there as well – the unscrupulous treasure hunter, Vulture, to a fight but it ends in a stalemate. JC bargains with MP Corp to sell "The Roses" painting at a reduced price and secures the release of the three hostages. When MP Corp refuses, JC fights his way to the chamber. During the ensuing fight, a furnace explodes due to a guard's baton rupturing one of the pipes. The explosion destroys most of the facility. JC later settles for the release of the three hostages in exchange for the painting and not paying damages done to the premises.

Meanwhile, the dragon bronze head is expected to fetch the highest price in the auction but no one bids for it due to increasing pressure from activist groups. MP Corp, in a bid to teach these groups a lesson, threatens to throw the relic into an active volcano, calling the mission "Let the Dragon Fly," if no bids are received by 12:00 noon the next day. The deadline passes without a single bid and Vulture leads a group of three sky divers to throw the relic into the volcano. JC intervenes and, in the ensuing air-borne struggle, seemingly dies in order to save the relic from dropping into the volcano. As a mark of respect, Vulture hands over the relic to a sprawling JC. MP Corp's owners are arrested on suspicion of counterfeit relics. JC survives and is seen recovering in a hospital and on good terms with everyone, including Vulture. The movie ends off in JC kissing his wife.

Cast

  • Jackie Chan as Asian Hawk, better known as JC
  • Kwon Sang-woo as Simon
  • Liao Fan as David
  • Yao Xing Tong as Coco
  • Zhang Lan Xin as Bonnie
  • Laura Weissbecker as Katherine
  • Jonathan Lee as Jonathan Lee
  • Vincent Sze as Michael
  • Alaa Safi as Vulture
  • Pierre Bourdaud as Pirate
  • Kenny G as Airplane Pilot
  • Emmanuel Lanzi as Henchman
  • Rosario Amadeo as Pierre
  • Pierre-Benoist Varoclier as Léon
  • Ken Lo as Henchman
  • Oliver Platt as Lawrence
  • Caitlin Dechelle
  • Zheng Wei[6]
  • Bo-Yee Poon
  • Christian Bachini
  • Abdul Haviz

Production

Chinese Zodiac Cannes poster

From 18 April to 2 May 2012, Jackie Chan filmed several scenes in the Aerodium Latvia vertical wind tunnel in Jelgava, Latvia.[7] Filming also took place in France, China, Taiwan and Vanuatu.[citation needed] Chan has done most of the stunts and fight scenes himself with little support from his stunt team.[citation needed] Jean-Yves Blondeau, the inventor of the skate suit, trained Chan to use the suit for the film's body blading sequence.[8]

A major fight scene of the action movie cost ¥70 million (or more than US$10 million).[citation needed]

Release

The gala premier of the film was held on 12 December 2012[9] and was later released across Asia on 20 December 2012 and in India on 28 December 2012.

Reception

In Asia, the film received negative reviews. Time Out Hong Kong gave the film two stars out of five referring to the film as "a pedestrian film by any measure aside from its action design"[10] The South China Morning Post gave the film one and a half stars out of five, noting that "CZ12 lumbers like a cheap DVD knock-off of one of [Jackie Chan's] old classics" and "CZ12 is like watching a former star athlete struggle in a meaningless game."[11]

The Hollywood Reporter also gave a negative review, noting that the film's length and the lack of martial arts and stunts that star Chan is known for.[3] Variety gave the film a negative review as well, stating "Jackie Chan emerges a Jackie-of-all-trades and master of none in [CZ12]".[2]

References

  1. ^ "CZ12". jackiechan.com. id="cite_note-variety-2">^ a b c Lee, Maggie (19 December 2012). "CZ12". Variety. class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved 26 December 2012.
  2. ^ a b Kerr, Elizabeth (20 December 2012). "CZ12 Review". Hollywood Reporter. class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved 26 December 2012.
  3. ^ Young, Al (5 December 2012). "Jackie Chan Holds Guinness World Records for Most Credits in Chinese Zodiac". Twitch. class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved 2012-12-29.
  4. ^ "Weekly box office". id="cite_note-6">^ "Chinese Zodiac (2012)". Hkmdb. class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  5. ^ "Scenes from Jackie Chan's movie to be filmed at Jelgava wind tunnel". The Baltic Course. 16 April 2012. class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved 2012-11-10.
  6. ^ "Jackie Chan's Chinese Zodiac Rollerblade Suit Trailer". Kal01.com. 30 August 2012. class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved 2012-12-13.
  7. ^ "Promo Video for Jackie Chan’s Chinese Zodiac". beyondhollywood.com. id="cite_note-10">^ Lee, Edmund (19 December 2012). "CZ12". Time Out. class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved 26 December 2012.
  8. ^ Andre (20 December 2012). "Film review: CZ12". South China Morning Post. class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved 26 December 2012.

External links

  • Official website
  • CZ12 at the Internet Movie Database
  • CZ12 at the Hong Kong Movie DataBase
  • CZ12 at Rotten Tomatoes