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Bleeding Steel
View on Wikipedia| Bleeding Steel | |
|---|---|
US theatrical release poster | |
| Traditional Chinese | 機器之血 |
| Simplified Chinese | 机器之血 |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Jī qì zhī xuè |
| Directed by | Leo Zhang |
| Screenplay by |
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| Produced by | Jackie Chan |
| Starring |
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| Cinematography | |
| Edited by |
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| Music by | Peng Fei[1] |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Lionsgate Pictures United Entertainment Partners |
Release dates |
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Running time | 110 minutes[2] |
| Country | China |
| Languages |
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| Budget | $65 million[3] |
| Box office | $48.8 million[4] |
Bleeding Steel is a 2017 Chinese science fiction cyberpunk action film directed and written by Leo Zhang and starring Jackie Chan.
Bleeding Steel was released in China on 22 December 2017. In the US, Lionsgate Premiere released the film in theaters and on VOD on 6 July 2018.[5][6] The film received mixed reviews and it grossed US$48.8 million and was a box office bomb.[4]
Plot
[edit]While racing to the hospital to see his daughter Xixi, who has leukemia and whose condition has become critical, Hong Kong Special Agent Lin Dong is informed by his colleague Xiao Su that Dr. James, an important witness, is in danger. Lin stops right outside the hospital, hesitates, and drives off to meet up with Xiao Su and their unit.
Before the unit arrives, Dr. James injects himself with a chemical substance and brings along a mechanical heart with him. As the unit escorts him away, they are ambushed by a squad of men in exotic black armor and high-tech weaponry led by a monstrous-looking man named Andre, who kills off most of the unit and severely injures Lin Dong and Xiao Su. Before Andre can capture Dr. James, Lin Dong pins him against an oil tank using his car. When Andre survives the car's impact, Lin shoots the oil tank, causing a huge explosion. As he lies gravely injured, Lin receives a phone call that Dr. James answers: Xixi has died at the hospital. However 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 US Marine implanted with a mechanical heart. A young man named Li Sen, disguised as a female prostitute, pays a visit to Rogers at his hotel, drugs him, and downloads information about the book from his computer. A black-clad woman storms the building and tortures Rogers to reveal the source of his inspiration for the book. While Li Sen hides in the suite's bathtub, the Woman in Black is attacked by Lin Dong, who has also come to find out the same answer. Rogers is killed by the Woman in Black, and the arrival of the police forces everyone to retreat.
The Woman in Black returns to a high-tech airship that serves as Andre's headquarters and briefs him about the failed operation. He identifies Lin Dong and Li Sen from CCTV footage and sends the Woman after the latter, but Li Sen has already fled. Acting upon the data he had taken from Rogers, Li Sen tracks down Nancy, a young woman 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 in turn told Rogers about the dreams. She is tracked down by the Woman in Black, but is rescued and taken to safety by Lin Dong and Li Sen's combined efforts.
Nancy is revealed to be Xixi, resurrected by Dr. James, who had been working on the genetic enhancement of human beings, and specifically regeneration, to create immortal bioroid soldiers. James fitted Xixi with the mechanical heart and infused her with the chemical substance he had injected himself with, a biogenetic blood substitute, which gave her regenerative abilities. However, Xixi's temporary death had left her with amnesia, and 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 blood substitute 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 service of a prominent Korean arms dealer who wanted to steal James' research and use it for profit. The procedure failed on Andre, leaving his cells to slowly consume him from within, and in revenge he killed the arms dealer and his family. James himself died soon after his operation on Xixi, making her the sole successful subject of his achievements.
Lin Dong takes Xixi 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. Xixi 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 Xixi, she is kidnapped by the Woman in Black and is brought to Andre's airship and imprisoned in his laboratory. Rejoined by Li Sen, who had managed to free himself, they proceed to the bank vault, where the Woman in Black has been captured by Xiao Su while trying to retrieve the vault's contents: a video camera. Examining the contents of the camera's tape, which details Andre's botched bioroid conversion, Lin and Xiao Su surmise that Andre is dying and he needs Xixi's blood to bestow the regenerative effect upon himself to survive.
Onboard Andre's airship, Andre proceeds to extract Xixi's blood and inject it into himself to restore his body. Lin Dong, Xiao Su, and Li Sen infiltrate the craft and try to break Xixi out but are thwarted by an impenetrable security screen. The trio battle Andre's henchmen, which forces him to join the fight before the transfusion is complete, which gives Xixi sufficient time to fully regenerate and come to her father's aid. Lin and the others cast Andre into the airship's reactor core, which overloads and destroys the lab, but Li Sen is caught in an explosion. Xiao Su and Xixi manage to escape the airship by parachute, but Lin Dong is attacked by Andre before he can join them. Because Andre had accidentally injected Lin Dong with Xixi's enhanced blood during their earlier encounter, Lin Dong gains enough strength to fight him off and rips Andre's heart out of his chest. Without a parachute, Lin jumps off the airship before a final explosion destroys the craft, killing Andre, but Xiao Su and Xixi catch him using their own chute's canopy.
In the aftermath, as Lin Dong, Xixi and Xiao enjoy time together, Lin learns from his colleague that Li Sen was the son of the arms dealer who had sought James' research, and for years he had planned to take revenge on Andre for the murder of his family. Lin also realizes that Li had been a friend of Nancy/Xixi at the orphanage and had acted out of genuine affection for her. In Norway, Li Sen is shown to have survived, offering the tape with James' research to an interested buyer where he then refuses the buyer's offer.
Cast
[edit]- Jackie Chan[7] as Lin Dong
- Ouyang Nana[8] as Nancy/Xixi
- Show Lo[8] as Li Sen
- Erica Xia-hou[8] as Xiao Su (Susan)
- Callan Mulvey[7] as Andre
- Tess Haubrich[8] as Woman in Black
- Kym Gyngell[7] as Dr James
- Damien Garvey as Rick Rogers
- Gillian Jones as Witch
- Cosentino as himself
Production
[edit]Village Roadshow Pictures Asia and Heyi Pictures co-produced and co-financed the sci-fi thriller film, Bleeding Steel, starring Jackie Chan, directed by Leo Zhang from his own script.[7] Other cast included Tess Haubrich, Callan Mulvey, Nana Ou-Yang, Erica Xia-Hou, and Show Lo.[8]
Principal photography on the film began on 20 July 2016, in Sydney, Australia.[9][10][11] Filming also took place in Taipei and Beijing, and wrapped up in September 2016.
Release
[edit]Bleeding Steel was first released in Australia by Perfect Village 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.[12] In the United States, the film was first released by UEP with English subtitles in December 2017.[13] It was later released with an English dub by Lionsgate Premiere on 6 July 2018 in both theaters and video on demand.[14]
Bleeding Steel, though not officially part of the Police Story series, was released under the title ポリス・ストーリー REBORN (lit. Police Story Reborn) in Japan,[15] and used an updated version of the Police Story title song sung by Jackie Chan in the end credits. Unlike the original, which was sung in Cantonese, this version is sung in Mandarin Chinese.
Reception
[edit]On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 22% based on 18 reviews, with an average rating of 3.6/10.[16] 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".[17] The review specifically noted the lack of "action, humour or logic", finding the film "packed with risible English dialogue and even worse performances, the film feels like a lazy, contemptuous cash grab from start to finish".[17] Variety declared the film a "corny cyberpunk pastiche" that would appeal "exclusively to kids".[2]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Tsui, Clarence (22 December 2018). "'Bleeding Steel' ('Ji Qi Zhi Xue'): Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
- ^ a b c d e Lee, Maggie (31 December 2017). "Film Review: 'Bleeding Steel'". Variety. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
- ^ "Bleeding Steel (2017)". IMDb. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
- ^ a b "Bleeding Steel". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 23 August 2020.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Bleeding Steel". Lionsgate Publicity. Lions Gate Entertainment. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
- ^ a b c d Frater, Patrick (16 June 2016). "Village Roadshow Pacts With China's Heyi on Jackie Chan Sci-fi 'Bleeding Steel'". Variety. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
- ^ a b c d e Frater, Patrick (27 July 2016). "Jackie Chan's 'Bleeding Steel' Adds Australian Cast". Variety. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Jackie Chan filming action movie 'Bleeding Steel' on Sydney streets". Nine News. 28 July 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
- ^ Bulbeck, Pip (28 July 2016). "Jackie Chan talks Sci-Fi, Love Interests and Jumping Off the Sydney Opera House". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Abrams, Simon (6 July 2018). "Bleeding Steel movie review & film summary". RogerEbert.com LLC. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
- ^ Perry, Spencer (17 May 2018). "Bleeding Steel Trailer: Jackie Chan Hunts a Cyborg". ComingSoon.net. Mandatory. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
- ^ "Bleeding Steel (2017)". IMDb.
- ^ "Bleeding Steel (2017)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 25 February 2018.
- ^ a b 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.
External links
[edit]Bleeding Steel
View on GrokipediaSynopsis
Plot
In 2007, special forces agent Lin Dong races to a Beijing hospital where his young daughter Nancy is undergoing experimental surgery for terminal leukemia. En route, he is urgently diverted to safeguard Dr. James, a brilliant scientist who has pioneered "Bleeding Steel," a groundbreaking nanotechnology implant designed to achieve human immortality by fusing organic biology with advanced machinery, enabling rapid cellular regeneration and indefinite lifespan extension.[7] During a fierce assault by armored mercenaries seeking to seize the technology, Dr. James and his team implant the device into Nancy as a desperate measure to save her life; however, the procedure triggers a catastrophic reaction, halting her vital signs and simulating death, while Lin Dong is compelled to eliminate witnesses and assume a covert protection role.[8] Thirteen years later, in Sydney—a sprawling cyberpunk metropolis of neon-lit skyscrapers and hidden tech undercurrents—Lin Dong, now undercover as a cafeteria worker at Nancy's school to secretly protect her, continues to watch over his daughter, who has amnesia induced by the implant's side effects, including severe identity fragmentation that erases personal memories to prevent psychological overload from the human-machine integration.[9] Nancy, unaware of her origins and believing herself an orphan, befriends Leeson, a resourceful hacker and thief augmented with cybernetic implants for enhanced neural processing and data manipulation. As assassins in high-tech exosuits—loyal to rogue agents like the cybernetically enhanced enforcer Andre exploiting Bleeding Steel for profit—hunt Nancy to harvest the implant's core sample, Lin Dong shadows and defends her, gradually piecing together the antagonists' plan to reverse-engineer it for creating enhanced soldiers capable of withstanding extreme damage.[10] The pursuit escalates through Sydney's underbelly, from crowded markets to elevated rail lines, as Lin allies uneasily with Leeson to evade the killers, including Andre and his lethal operative known as the Woman in Black. Revelations unfold about the implant's dual nature as both lifesaver and curse—its nanites "bleeding" metallic reinforcements into the bloodstream for self-repair but risking total neural dissolution—and the antagonists' scheme for global domination. In the climax atop the Sydney Opera House's skeletal struts amid a thunderstorm, Lin Dong confronts Andre in a brutal melee, protects Nancy from extraction attempts, and sabotages the Bleeding Steel prototypes, ensuring the technology's destruction while forging a fragile reconciliation with his long-lost daughter.[7][8] Jackie Chan's portrayal of Lin Dong embodies the transformation of a devoted father into a relentless action hero driven by paternal redemption.[9]Cast
The cast of Bleeding Steel features an international ensemble, blending prominent Chinese actors with Australian performers to enhance the film's global scope and cross-cultural appeal.[8] Jackie Chan leads as Lin Dong, a Hong Kong-based special forces agent and devoted father tasked with safeguarding his daughter amid a conspiracy involving experimental biotechnology. Chan's portrayal emphasizes his signature action-hero prowess alongside a more vulnerable paternal dimension, marking a departure toward emotional depth in his later roles.[8][9][11] Show Lo plays Leeson (also known as Li Sen or Sen Li), a clever street hacker and thief augmented with cybernetic implants that enable him to engage in digital and physical tech-based skirmishes.[9][1] Nana Ouyang portrays Nancy, Lin Dong's daughter who received the Bleeding Steel implant as a child to save her life from leukemia, now suffering from amnesia and fragmented memories as a side effect, anchoring the narrative's exploration of identity and legacy.[8][9] In key supporting roles, Erica Xia-Hou appears as Susan, a fellow special forces operative and Lin Dong's reliable partner in the high-stakes protection detail.[9] Callan Mulvey embodies Andre, a brutal cybernetically enhanced mercenary enforcing the interests of a shadowy organization.[8][9] Tess Haubrich is cast as the Woman in Black, a determined military figure spearheading the hunt for the film's groundbreaking implant technology. Kim Gyngell rounds out the principal antagonists as Dr. James, the innovative yet controversial scientist responsible for developing the life-extending implants at the story's core.[8][9][11]| Actor | Role | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Jackie Chan | Lin Dong | Special agent protecting his daughter from biotech threats. |
| Show Lo | Leeson/Li Sen | Hacker/thief with cybernetic aids for tech confrontations. |
| Nana Ouyang | Nancy | Lin Dong's daughter with the life-saving implant and amnesia. |
| Erica Xia-Hou | Susan | Lin's special forces partner in the mission. |
| Callan Mulvey | Andre | Ruthless mercenary enforcer with enhancements. |
| Tess Haubrich | Woman in Black | Military leader chasing the technology. |
| Kim Gyngell | Dr. James | Scientist behind the implant innovations. |
