Bleeding Steel

Bleeding Steel is a 2017 Chinese/Australian science fiction cyberpunk action film directed and written by Leo Zhang and stars Jackie Chan. It was released in China on 22 December 2017. In the U.S, Lionsgate Premiere released the film in theaters and on VOD on 6 July 2018.[3][4]

Bleeding Steel
Theatrical release poster
Directed byLeo Zhang
Written by
  • Leo Zhang
  • Erica Xia-Hou
  • Siwei Cui[1]
Starring
Benjamin Chardron
Music byFei Peng[1]
CinematographyTony Cheung[1][2]
Edited byKwong Chi-leung[2]
Production
company
Distributed by
Release date
  • 22 December 2017 (2017-12-22) (China)
  • 6 July 2018 (2018-07-06) (United States)
Running time
110 minutes[2]
CountryChina
Language
  • Mandarin
  • English[2]

Plot

Hong Kong Special Agent Lin Dong was told that his daughter Xixi (who suffers from leukemia) is in critical condition. He speeds over to the hospital, but on the way his co-worker, Xiao Su, informs him that a critical witness is in danger. Agent Lin stops right outside the hospital, pauses, and turns back to protect the critical witness, Dr. James.

Dr. James injects himself with a chemical substance stored with a mechanical heart right before the police burst in to escort him away. They are ambushed by men with exotic black armor and high-tech weaponry led by a monstrous-looking man named Andre, and almost all in the team are killed. Xixi, meanwhile, dies at the hospital. Before Andre can claim Dr. James for himself, Lin Dong manages to ram him against an oil tank using his car. When Andre proves uncannily resistant to both the car's impact and the bullets Lin Dong fires against him, Lin Dong shoots the oil tank instead, causing a huge explosion. Both Lin Dong and Andre are later shown to have survived, although Andre's injuries have him turned into a cyborg.

13 years later in Sydney, Australia, author Rick Rogers has recently released a book titled Bleeding Steel about a girl with a mechanical heart. A man named Li Sen, disguised as a prostitute, pays a visit to Rogers at his hotel, drugs him, and downloads information from his computer. Simultaneously, a black-clad woman and two men with black armor suits attack the building and torture Rogers to reveal the source of his inspiration for the book, while Li Sen hides in the suite's bathtub. The intruders are attacked by Lin Dong, who also tries to find out the same answer. Rogers is killed by the Woman, and the arrival of the police forces everyone to retreat.

When briefed about the failed operation, Andre identifies Lin Dong and Li Sen, and sends the Woman after the latter, but Li Sen has already fled. Acting upon the data they purloined from Rogers, Li Sen and Lin Dong separately begin to track Nancy, a young girl who is plagued by nightmares about a laboratory where strange experiments were conducted. In order to deal with them, she has been visiting a spiritualist, who is the source of Roger's manuscript. She is tracked down by the Woman in Black, but rescued and taken to safety by Lin Dong and Li Sen's combined efforts.

Subsequently, Nancy is revealed to be Xixi, resurrected by the efforts of Dr. James, who was working on genetic enhancements of human beings, specifically regeneration, to create immortal bioroid soldiers. James fitted Xixi with a mechanical heart and a biogenetic blood substitute which enhanced her regenerative abilities. However, Xixi's temporary death left her amnesic, whereupon she was put into an orphanage for her own safety, while Lin Dong and his old unit secretly watched over her. Her nightmares stem from James' memories which imprinted themselves on the compound he had injected himself with, and his blood was afterwards used in her resurrection. Andre, a former Special Forces soldier, was another test subject who infiltrated the project in the interest of a prominent Korean arms dealer to market the bioroids. However, the artificial genome failed on Andre, slowly consuming him from within. James himself died soon after his operation on Xixi, making her the sole successful subject of his achievements.

Lin Dong takes Nancy and Li Sen to his house, where he locks the young man in his advanced security vault, and pays a visit to the spiritualist, who he finds murdered. Nancy runs away to take a flight back to James' abandoned home, where she recovers both her old memories of her father and a bank vault key hidden by James. Following her, Lin Dong reunites with Xiao Su, but before he can reach Nancy, she is kidnapped by the Woman in Black and brought separately to Andre's airborne laboratory. Rejoined by Li Sen, who has managed to free himself, they proceed to the bank vault, where the Woman, while retrieving a video camera from the vault, was trapped and incapacitated by Lin's old unit. Checking the camera's contents, which detail Andre's bioroid conversion, Lin and Xiao Su surmise that he needs both this information and Nancy's altered genome to bestow the regenerative effect upon himself.

Onboard the laboratory plane, Andre proceeds to extracte Nancy's blood and inject it into himself to restore his body. Lin Dong, Xiao Su, and Li Sen infiltrate the craft but are thwarted by an impenetrable security screen. A scuffle with Andre's henchmen forces the villain to join the fight before the transfusion is completed, which gives Nancy sufficient time to fully regenerate and come to her father's aid. Lin and his allies cast Andre into the craft's reactor core, which overloads and destroys the lab. Li Sen is caught in the explosion; Xiao Su and Nancy manage to escape by parachute, but before he can join them, Lin Dong is attacked by Andre. However, because Andre has accidentally injected Lin Dong with the enhanced blood during their fight, Lin Dong gains enough power to deprive Andre of his heart, killing him.

In the aftermath, as Lin Dong, Nancy and Xia Su spend time together as a family, Lin learns from his colleague that Li Sen was the son of the arms dealer who sought to recover James' achievements and take revenge on Andre for the murder of his family thirteen years ago. He also was a fellow mate of Nancy/Xixi at the orphanage, and had acted out of genuine affection for her. At the same time, Li Sen is shown to have survived and now offering the camcorder tape to the most interested buyer.

Cast

Production

In June 2016, it was announced that Village Roadshow Pictures Asia and Heyi Pictures would co-produce and co-finance the sci-fi thriller film, Bleeding Steel, starring Jackie Chan, the film would be directed by Leo Zhang from his own script.[5] On 27 July, more cast was announced which included Tess Haubrich, Callan Mulvey, Nana Ou-Yang, Erica Xia-Hou, and Show Lo.[6]

Principal photography on the film began on 20 July 2016, in Sydney, Australia.[7][8][9] Filming also took place in Taipei and Beijing. Last scene is from the Atlantic Road in Norway.

Release

Bleeding Steel was first released in Australia by Summit Entertainment on 15 December 2017 before being released in China by United Entertainment Partners (UEP) a week later, on 22 December. The film was released in the Philippines by Viva International Pictures and MVP Entertainment on 21 February 2018.[10] In the United States, the film was first released by UEP with English subtitles in December 2017.[11] It was later released with an English dub by Lionsgate Premiere on 6 July 2018 in both theaters and video on demand.[12]

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 22% based on 9 reviews, with an average rating of 3.8/10.[13] The South China Morning Post compared Bleeding Steel to previous films starring Jackie Chan, stating "with this one he hits a new low in terms of the nonsensical garbage he is willing to put his name to."[14] The review specifically noted the lack of "action, humour or logic" and that the film was "Packed with risible English dialogue and even worse performances, the film feels like a lazy, contemptuous cash grab from start to finish"[14] Variety declared the film a "corny cyberpunk pastiche" that would appeal "exclusively to kids."[2]

References
  1. Tsui, Clarence (22 December 2018). "'Bleeding Steel' ('Ji Qi Zhi Xue'): Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
  2. Lee, Maggie (31 December 2017). "Film Review: 'Bleeding Steel'". Variety. Penske Business Media. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
  3. Carson, Rene (17 May 2018). "New U.S. release trailer and poster revealed for Jackie Chan's Bleeding Steel". Film Fetish. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  4. "Bleeding Steel". Lionsgate Publicity. Lions Gate Entertainment. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  5. Frater, Patrick (16 June 2016). "Village Roadshow Pacts With China's Heyi on Jackie Chan Sci-fi 'Bleeding Steel'". Variety. Penske Business Media. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  6. Frater, Patrick (27 July 2016). "Jackie Chan's 'Bleeding Steel' Adds Australian Cast". Variety. Penske Business Media. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  7. The Sunday Telegraph (23 July 2016). "Jackie Chan has been spotted in Sydney filming his latest action movie Bleeding Steel". The Daily Telegraph. News Corp Australia. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  8. "Jackie Chan filming action movie 'Bleeding Steel' on Sydney streets". Nine News. Nine Media. 28 July 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  9. Bulbeck, Pip (28 July 2016). "Jackie Chan talks Sci-Fi, Love Interests and Jumping Off the Sydney Opera House". The Hollywood Reporter. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  10. Pilipino Star Ngayon (20 February 2018). "Jackie Chan may bagong moves na ipakikita sa Bleeding Steel". Pilipino Star Ngayon (in Filipino). Philstar Global Corp. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
  11. Abrams, Simon (6 July 2018). "Bleeding Steel movie review & film summary". RogerEbert.com. Ebert Digital LLC. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
  12. Perry, Spencer (17 May 2018). "Bleeding Steel Trailer: Jackie Chan Hunts a Cyborg". ComingSoon.net. Mandatory. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
  13. "Bleeding Steel (2017)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 25 February 2018.
  14. Marsh, James (27 December 2017). "Film review: Bleeding Steel – globe-trotting Jackie Chan sci-fi action caper is utter nonsense". South China Morning Post. South China Morning Post Publishers. Retrieved 10 January 2018.

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