BLEEDING STEEL (2017)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, psychological*

I don't know what led to Leo Zhang to direct and co-write a cyberpunk thriller starring Jackie Chan. But I like to fantasize that he had just watched John Carpenter's BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA and complained, "there was too much exposition."

For whatever reason, almost all the exposition in STEEL is shoved into the last half hour of this hyperkinetic sci-fi flick. I got the impression that it took place in the near future, given that "special forces agent" Lin Dong (Chan) doesn't even bat an eye when he's told there's an out-of-control "bioroid" on the loose. And this leads to a big fight with Andre the Cyborg and his soldiers that takes place thirteen years BEFORE the main action of the story.

The prologue is there mostly to establish that Lin lost his daughter to leukemia, though he doesn't know that that a mad scientist, the creator of Andre, somehow got hold of the body of Lin's dead daughter and resurrected it as a young woman with no memory of her past, Nancy (Ouyang Nana). While on stakeout Lin observes Nancy and sees the resemblance (the same actress played both original daughter and reborn daughter). He plays helicopter parent, trying to learn more about Nancy in between investigating the mysterious killing of an author whose bestseller book displayed inside knowledge of the deceased mad scientist's projects. By the usual set of coincidences, a young fellow named Li is not only mixed up in the author's murder, he's paying court to Lin Dong's reborn offspring, which brings out the Angry Dad in the generally peaceful Lin. Possibly because of the author's revelations, Andre the Cyborg and his pocket army find out that Nancy has "enhanced blood" that Andre needs to continue his own existence.

I wasn't precisely bored with BLEEDING STEEL, but not being able to follow the action without a Wiki-page didn't help much. Chan plays his usual amiable tough cop, but the element of paternal concern doesn't add much to the mix. The actors playing Li and Nancy aren't particularly beguiling, though I'll admit I've seen worse, and Andre the Cyborg is a one-dimensional villain. Only his female enforcer The Woman in Black (Aussie actress Tess Haubrich) projects a good evil vibe, and her kung-fu stunts are solid, particularly since she doesn't seem to have been a real-life practitioner of martial arts. Chan has certainly made worse films, even discounting the femme fatale appeal of Haubrich, but I'm not sure he made any that were more confusing.