The latest home release from undisputed action icon, Jackie Chan takes a step away from his recent Hollywood efforts and almost consciously returns to the globetrotting action territory he defined so well in films like Armour of God, Operation Condor and Who Am I? Stanley Tong takes the creative reins in a story that sees Jackie’s archaeologist experience dreams of a former life as a General in ancient China. When his friend, played by Tony Leung Ka-Fai asks for his help on an expedition, the two soon discover the dreams may have real origins in history and even link to the secrets of a gravity-defying gemstone, dating back thousands of years.

If the plot sounds slightly unusual, that’s because it is! As a result The Myth features some fairly stark transitions between action, comedy, romance and sci-fi. This doesn’t hurt the film, but is worth bearing in mind as something quite different from other Jackie Chan and Stanley Tong projects. While it cannot compete with earlier fan favourites, The Myth does offer a welcome return to form for Jackie, and features some nice support from Tony Leung Ka-Fai, Kim Hee-seon and even a cameo-style appearance from Iron Monkey’s Rongguang Yu. The biggest flaw in the film is the overused and occasionally poorly executed CGI effects – considering this cast and crew have made action classics for decades using nothing more than human physicality, it seems slightly odd that they would mimic this Hollywood CGI-laden approach, especially when what they have to offer is far better. Despite this, the film does feature amazing scenic visuals and an interesting blend between Jackie’s modern-day story and the war-torn, epic adventures experienced in his dreams. For fans there is still a lot of fun to be had here, particularly in the glue factory fight – one of Jackie’s most entertaining and innovative fight scenes for quite some time.

The 2-disc DVD presentation from Cine Asia provides a well-rounded account of the film’s production, with plenty of behind-the-scenes footage and interviews featuring most of the major names associated with the film. Both the sound and picture are note-perfect, as would be expected with a recent production. The 5.1 digital Cantonese track provides the best audio option on the DVD, however an alternate 2.0 stereo track and English dub are also available. The special features are plentiful and suitably cover virtually all aspects of this large-scale production.

Extras include:

‘Making of’ featurette

This feature explores the film’s production with great behind-the-scenes footage interspersed with interviews and contributions from the cast and crew. One factor that really comes across is the huge mission untaken by Stanley Tong and his team in crafting such an elaborate, big-budget production with a huge, multi-national crew and some truly epic sets.

Interviews

A series of individual interviews with Jackie Chan, Tony Leung Ka-Fai, Kim Hee Seon, Mallika Sherawat, Stanley Tong, Sun Zhou and Choi Min Soo provide some great insights into making a Hong Kong style international blockbuster. It is an interesting opportunity to hear from stars and filmmakers of such different backgrounds, such as Tony Leung Ka-Fai, a renowned dramatic actor, and Mallika Sherawat, a Bollywood starlet – all seen here working on a Jackie Chan / Stanley Tong collaboration!

Deleted scenes

This is a disappointing feature and only includes two scenes. The first, titled ‘Troops Passing’ clocks less than 20 seconds and has no audio while the second, ‘Searching the Temple’ is better as it lasts a few minutes and has sound. It would have been nice to see a greater range of scenes, perhaps with additional notes.

Lost scenes

These are essentially raw, behind-the-scenes segments of scenes which never made it to the final cut. The most impressive is a scene in which Jackie and Tony were set to encounter a tiger onscreen. Here we see the pair shooting their reaction shots followed by footage of a real tiger and his tamer being filmed in front of a green screen.

‘Behind the Scenes’ featurettes

These brief but entertaining features show work taking place on-set in preparation for shooting. The mini-features are broken down nicely and make for easy viewing.

‘Just For Laughs’

This includes behind-the-scenes footage with a more comedic, lighter approach as the cast and crew relax onset, unwind, goof around and generally take a break from the action!

Hong Kong Premiere Footage

This is a nice feature which, in self-explanatory style, provides footage of the Hong Kong premiere attended by the main cast and crew. For western fans, it’s a rare chance to witness the ceremonial presentation of a major film premiere in Hong Kong, somewhat different from western equivalents. Not simply a passing red carpet affair, here the stars experience a mini-interview in front of gathered fans and journalists – effectively selling their film right there.

Trailers & Music Videos

Both the international and UK trailers are available here, along with the international and Mandarin versions for the song ‘Endless Love’, which has already gained huge popularity as part of the film’s soundtrack.

Easter Egg – Cannes Festival

Much like the Hong Kong premiere footage, this is a nice bonus for fans and shows the assembled stars answering press questions on a panel.

Reviewed by: Mike Fury