Jackie Chan Action Movie Week at
COURTESY OF F MEDIA
The Shanghai festival’s first Jackie Chan Action Movie Week wrapped with a sweet, but largely unnecessary, awards show.
The prizes, apparently chosen by the Shanghai public using QQ social media, were dominated by recent Chinese actioner “Wolf Warriors.” One also went, posthumously, to Thai director and action choreographer Panna Rittikrai, who died of cancer last year.
The gala brought to a close a well-intentioned event that kicked off five days earlier with a debate involving Jeffrey Katzenberg, Rob Cohen and Chinese star Wu Jing about the action genre, and played a program of 25 local and international action films.
The ceremony, at the Oriental TV Theater in the Pudong district, was gaudy, and the prizes – heavy, metal replicas of Jackie Chan’s hand in a thumbs up gesture – were tacky. But with only a couple of showpiece, martial arts-themed skits, and only seven prizes to be handed out, the session breezed by.
Rob Cohen (“The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor”) and Renny Harlin, who recently wrapped shooting of Jackie Chan-starrer “Skiptrace,” were both on hand to give out awards.
Other notables in attendance included martial arts superstar Sammo Hung, actress Li Bingbing, actor Zhang Guoli, leading director Feng Xiaogang, directors Teddy Chen (“The Warlords,” “Kung Fu Jungle”) and Derek Yee (“I Am Somebody”).
Top executives in attendance included Shanghai Film Group chairman Ren Zhonglun, Huayi Brothers Media co-chief James Wang and multihyphenates Tsui Siuming and Raymond Wong.