Little Big Soldier

Jackie Chan plays his typical character, a humble farmer, who is thrust into a situation where he has to defend himself, often keeping his humility despite the hard circumstances. The setting this time is a war between the Liang and Qi soldiers several centuries B.C. Jackie Chan plays “Little Soldier,” a farmer turned soldier. After a reciprocal massacre between the two factions, there are very few survivors, just Little Soldier who is a Qi and a Liang general who is injured. Little Soldier really just wants to return to his farm, but he suspects he will get a reward or ransom for the general. It becomes somewhat a road movie of this odd couple as Little Soldier’s humility rubs off on the arrogant general.

Along the way they meet Mongols (?) and other frenemies, and many poor people who betray Little Soldier’s kindnesses, but throughout Little Soldier remains humble.

While Chan doesn’t do a lot of martial arts in this film, there is enough of his slapstick moves and comedy to satisfy fans. The historical epic-ness and large scale battle scenes are kept to a minimum and is focused more on the two main characters, although that needed a bit more development for the general to more convincingly see the error of his ways. I would like to see Chan really challenge himself with something outside his stock character. The film looks very good and fight sequences as often with Chan are well choreographed.