Right On

Ride On (2023) is one of Jackie Chan's latest - a too-old-for-stunts story, all about stuntmen.

Jackie is a retired stuntman who lives with a stunt horse in a rundown courtyard, maybe more of a stable. Every morning, his horse, Red Hare, grabs him by the collar and gets him ready for work. This consists of going into town in movie costume to pose for pictures for the tourists. They are not that popular and there is a lot of competition.

Jackie was given the horse as a colt with twisted legs by the head of his studio. He corrected the legs and trained the horse himself. But the studio head died, and the new studio execs claim the horse as their property. When Jackie is eating lunch, some toughs try to repossess it. There is a nice old fashioned restaurant fight here. Jackie is even doing most of his own fighting, I think.

When video of this fight goes viral, a hot young director sees it, and recognizes Jackie as a legendary stuntman. wants Jackie and Red Hare in his movie, for the throwback cool. This could mean enough money to keep Red Hare. Jackie also gets his estranged daughter (Liu Haocun), a law student, involved. Since he can't afford a lawyer, he asks her to help, and she gets her fiance, a more advanced law student to represent him. The fiance is Guo Qilin, who plays a nerdy little chubby guy with glasses. One thing I liked about the movie is that this character was not played as a dupe or foil, and was never replaced by a cooler boyfriend. He might be a nerd, but Haocun seems to love him, and he tries to live up to Jackie's challenges.

The big conflict is Jackie's reckless approach to stunts. The reason he had to retire, and why he is broke, is that a stunt gone wrong put him in a coma for months, and he is still a little rattled in the brain. But for the new movie, he wants to do some horse jumps without wires, even if it is dangerous. His daughter particularly emphasizes how dangerous it could be for Red Hare. Will he stick to the code of the stuntman, or will he back down. As the script says, "Jumping down is easy, stepping down is hard."

One of the funniest things about this movie is how much it is dedicated to honest stuntwork, and how much has to be faked due to Jackie's age. We see him "galloping" against a green screen, jumping with wires, being doubled by other stuntmen, etc. I'm pretty sure it's intended ironically. 

But you want to know - how is the horse? She (pretty sure she was a mare) was great! Had a real independent personality, and also great chemistry with Jackie. Really, the best part. Other than that, this was just fine, with some interesting bits and some boring stretches. But never when the horse was working.