The chaos also reveals how he has sold out his ideals for a life of corrupting power, illicit lovers and clandestine deals with the British authorities which he once fought against as a young street fighter. Then again, his exploits could be seen as distracting from the main story about Hennessy, who has to confront dissent from a splinter paramilitary group and betrayal among his ranks and within his family. Quoc has one more big hurrah unleashing violent revenge on the baddies. He infuses all these scenes with ample grit and power, every blow and thud amplified by the film’s sound design. Quoc’s incredible dexterity during the fights might be at odds with the slow and shuffling figure he cuts at the beginning of the film, but at least Chan manages to hold his usual comical streak back. And this is just the start of the China-born, Vietnam-raised and U.S.-trained mercenary’s relentless campaign to force Hennessy to deliver names.Īs the politician seeks refuge at his country villa, Quoc follows, camping out in the woods and then terrorizing his security guard and finally confronting the man himself again. With much bigger fish to fry, Hennessy meets Quoc but rebuffs his demand to know the identities of those who killed his daughter.īut he has underestimated this seemingly meek restaurant owner: Quoc’s swift retaliation is to blow up the toilet of Hennessy’s well-guarded office with a bomb created out of groceries.
His secret dealings with the British authorities risk putting his career or even his life in peril. His target is one Liam Hennessy ( Brosnan), a leading Northern Ireland politician who has swapped his paramilitary past for a career in mainstream politics. Mired in a mix of grief and fury - a mental state Chan conveys surprisingly well - Quoc drops everything and heads to Belfast to get more information about Fan’s killers. Quoc learns of how a band of terrorists from Northern Ireland orchestrated the bombing. Just moments after waving goodbye to her, she’s dead, the victim of a bomb attack at the restaurant to which she was going. In the film’s opening scene, Chan’s pensioner-aged, London-based restaurateur Nguyen Minh Quoc is shown driving his daughter Fan (Katie Leung, Cho Chang in the Harry Potter franchise) to a party. as yet unconfirmed.Ĭhina Box Office: Martial Arts Comedy Opens to $46M, Topping Jackie Chan's 'The Foreigner' British audiences who could potentially relate to the story the most are still out of The Foreigner‘s equation, with release dates in the U.K.
Still, The Foreigner should easily recoup its reported $35 million budget in China alone, and Chan’s fans and action-flick aficionados will embrace it when it opens in Australia, the U.S.
Some Chinese viewers might have gone in expecting Chan’s usual comic antics, which grossed $368 million for him this year alone in Railroad Tigers and Kung Fu Yoga.Īt the screening this critic attended, the audience’s chattering, phone-fiddling exasperation was palpable, even in an upmarket cinema located in the cosmopolitan city of Shenzhen. And this despite Campbell’s film being released in 3D and benefiting from premium markups. 30 in anticipation of the country’s weeklong National Day holidays, The Foreigner has daily grosses half of those generated by the chart-topping, homegrown, mid-budget comedy Never Say Die. This emphasis on Northern Ireland’s politics might have led to The Foreigner‘s subpar performance in China.