Railroad Tigers
Poster
Traditional Chinese鐵道飛虎
Simplified Chinese铁道飞虎
Literal meaningrailroad flying tigers
Hanyu Pinyintiědào fēi hǔ
Directed byDing Sheng
Produced byZhou Mao Fei
Zhao Lei
StarringJackie Chan
Huang Zi Tao
Jaycee Chan
Wang Kai
Wang Ta Lu
Production
companies
Shanghai Film Group
Yaolai Entertainment Media
Shanghai New Culture Media Group
Beijing Motianlun Media[1]
Distributed byYuyue Film Company[2]
Release date
  • December 23, 2016 (2016-12-23)
Running time
124 minutes
CountryChina
LanguagesMandarin
Japanese
BudgetUS$50 Million[3]
Box officeUS$103 Million

Railroad Tigers is a 2016 Chinese action comedy film directed by Ding Sheng and starring Jackie Chan.[3] It was released in China on December 23, 2016.[1] The film is about a railroad worker who leads a team of freedom fighters to oppose the Japanese during the occupation in World War II. The film performed well at the box office.[4]

Plot

In December 1941, Japan expands the occupation of its neighbouring countries to Southeast Asia. The railway from Tianjin to Nanjing in East China became a key military transportation route, heavily guarded by Japanese soldiers. Railroad worker Ma Yuan (Jackie Chan) leads a team of freedom fighters. Using his deep knowledge of the train network, he and his men sabotage it, ambushing Japanese soldiers and stealing supplies to feed the starving Chinese. Although the freedom fighters have no weapons of their own, they employ whatever tools are at hand, including a hammer and shovels, loose railway track planks and diverted trains. The local Chinese call the unlikely heroes the “Railroad Tigers”. The freedom fighters find themselves on the wrong side of the tracks when the Japanese send reinforcements to Shandong. In an act of defiance, Ma Yuan launches his most dangerous mission yet, blowing up a heavily guarded railroad bridge. When the Japanese learn of the crippling plan, which will derail the war effort, the stakes are raised even higher. After many missed opportunities and missed shots, the bridge is blown up by the ragtag Chinese railroad tigers.

Cast

Production

The budget of the film is US$50 million.[3] The film had railway sequences shot in Diaobingshan using steam trains.

Release

On September 1, 2016, Well Go Entertainment announced the acquisition of Railroad Tigers for distribution in English-language territories including North America, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. The film opened in December to coincide with its release in China.[6]

Reception

The film grossed CN¥215 million (US$30.1 million) on its opening weekend in China.[7] It has grossed CN¥697.2 million in China.[1] As of June 2020, the film holds a 38% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 34 reviews with an average rating of 5.49/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Railroad Tigers throws a few sparks hearkening back to Jackie Chan's glory days as an action comedy star, but they're smothered by an unfocused story and jarring shifts in tone."[8]

Peter DeBruge of Variety criticized Railroad Tigers as "instantly forgettable" and "a tired, often incomprehensible mess".[9] Nick Allen of RogerEbert.com gave the film one and a half out of four stars, criticizing it as unengaging with both the lack of tension and mishandled tonal combination of slapstick comedy with seriousness, stating that "[Railroad Tigers] doesn’t have the finesse to pull off a more innocent riff on [Inglourious Basterds]."[10] Fellow RogerEbert.com critic Simon Abrams, however, considered the film to be superior to Chan's later film The Foreigner.[11]

Clarence Tsui of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review, considering it to be a "pretty effective" action comedy; he wrote that despite it not being one of Chan's best films, "at least it accomplishes the film's modest mission."[12]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "铁道飞虎（2016）". Cbooo.cn (in Chinese). Retrieved January 28, 2017.
  2. ↑ Papish, Jonathan (December 22, 2016). "On Screen China: 'Tigers' and 'Tomorrow' Look to Scale 'The Great Wall'". China Film Insider. Retrieved December 23, 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 Coonan, Clifford (May 13, 2015). "Cannes: Jackie Chan's Action Comedy 'Railroad Tigers' Goes to Golden Network Asia". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 28, 2016.
  4. ↑ Verhoeven, Beatrice (Jan 8, 2017). "Jackie Chan's 'Railroad Tigers' Earns $127,600 at Indie Box Office". TheWrap. Retrieved Jul 26, 2021.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "铁道飞虎 (2016)". movie.douban.com (in Chinese). douban.com. Retrieved May 29, 2016.
  6. ↑ McNary, Dave (September 1, 2016). "Jackie Chan's World War II Comedy 'Railroad Tigers' Bought by Well Go". Variety.com. Retrieved September 1, 2016.
  7. ↑ Papish, Jonathan (December 25, 2016). "China Box Office: 'The Great Wall' Adds $26.5 Million in Second Weekend". China Film Insider. Retrieved December 26, 2016.
  8. ↑ "Railroad Tigers". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved June 3, 2020.
  9. ↑ DeBruge, Peter (December 28, 2016). "Film Review: 'Railroad Tigers'". Variety. Variety Media, LLC. Retrieved December 10, 2020.
  10. ↑ Allen, Nick (January 6, 2017). "Railroad Tigers movie review & film summary (2017)". RogerEbert.com. Ebert Digital LLC. Retrieved December 10, 2020.
  11. ↑ Abrams, Simon (October 13, 2017). "The Foreigner movie review & film summary (2017)". RogerEbert.com. Ebert Digital LLC. Retrieved December 10, 2020.
  12. ↑ Tsui, Clarence (December 28, 2016). "'Railroad Tigers' ('Tie Dao Fei Hu'): Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. MRC Media & Info. Retrieved December 10, 2020.
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