InCinemas SG

Opening Date

17 Oct 2024

Rating

PG13 Some Violence

Runtime

99 mins

Language

Mandarin with English & Chinese subtitles

Genre

Action, Comedy

Director

Zhang Luan

Cast

Jackie Chan, Wei Xiang, Shi Ce, Han Yanbo

Synopsis

Jackie Chan, the legendary Kung Fu star, is invited to adopt an adorable panda cub named Huhu. Known for his unique charm and distinctive mismatched eyes, Huhu catches the attention of a notorious international crime syndicate. Determined to capture the panda, they place a massive bounty on Huhu’s head. Faced with this sudden crisis, Jackie teams up with his savvy agent, David, and the fiercely dedicated panda caretaker, Xiaozhu. Together, this dynamic trio uses their skills and clever tactics to outsmart the villains and keep Huhu safe.

Get ready for an unforgettable adventure filled with unexpected twists, plenty of laughs, and the ultimate battle for the cutest treasure in the zoo!

Reviews

By InCinemas 17 Oct 2024

A wholesome 99-minute entertainment for families and kids.

read more

Directed by Luan Zhang (the 2020 winner of Outstanding Youth Filmmaking at the HuabiaoFilm Awards for Song Of Youth), Panda Plan is helmed by legendary Kungfu star, Jackie Chan as himself with the supporting cast comprising of Shi Ce, Wei Xiang, Han Yanbo, Hu Hu, Jia Bing and Temur Mamisashvili.

In the opening scene, we meet a group of rowdy and tough mercenaries in a remote hideout who are complaining loudly that it is embarrassing to take on the job of stealing a baby panda. However, the mercenaries immediately change their minds when they hear the payout is $100 million.

We then cut to action star Jackie, who is caught up in the mayhem of landing punches, tumbling, dodging bullets, shooting at the bad guys and finally getting shot by a hail of bullets. To the relief of the audience, we hear “cut” and realise that our somewhat aging action hero was merely shooting a scene for a movie. He is on the movie set battling a troop of terrorists. Jackie pokes fun at himself, following the aftermath of the scene when he tells the director, “that’s unreasonable! I alone took out a whole death squad. Am I a superhero?“, he asked. This definitely resonates with many of his fans who grew up watching his action movies in which Jackie plays characters with arguably unrealistic fighting skills.

His goofy assistant, David (Xiang Wei) quickly shuts down any potential requests for “another take” and cheerfully rattles off a list of events on Jackie’s schedule which includes a housewarming party at Stallone’s new mansion and a celebrity golf tournament. Jackie quickly declines all invitations but jumps at the opportunity to adopt the world’s rarest baby panda at the Noah Zoo.

Who doesn’t love pandas? In addition to Jackie, it seems a rich Arab aristocrat wants to own this baby panda who is nicknamed Big Babe. He even goes to the extent of hiring a troop of mercenaries to panda-nap Big Babe at a hefty price.

The fun factor kicks up many notches as Jackie and David find themselves at the Noah Zoo for the adoption ceremony. Everyone, including the baby panda’s nanny, Xiaozhu (Ce Shi) is star-struck and going ga-ga over meeting Jackie.

Trouble comes with the arrival of the mercenaries hired by the Arab aristocrat to steal Big Babe. The group of elite mercenaries led by James (Mamisashvili) lays siege to Noah Zoo and takes the people present hostage. Their goal is to kidnap Big Babe as directed by their boss (Han Yanbo). The running joke throughout the film which doesn’t fail to draw laughs is that even the mobile assault ship full of Western, Eastern and African mercenaries on its way to steal the baby panda has its fair share of Jackie’s fanboys on-board. “Oh my GOD, he’s just like in his MOVIES!”

Jackie, hapless David and fearful but somewhat annoying Xiaozhu have to trick, run and fight their way through muscular bad guys to save Big Babe the baby panda from being taken away and imprisoned in the Persian Gulf. It is definitely a kid-friendly film in which the action is light-hearted, comical and enjoyable. Rest assured, no animals were harmed in the filming as Big Babe and all the animals in the zoo are products of CGI.

Can Jackie save Big Babe from the evil clutches of elite mercenaries and the rich Arab aristocrat. As with all of Jackie’s movies, I believe that the answer is pretty obvious. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t watch Panda Plan. All demographics are bound to enjoy the non-stop comedy and the very adorable, cuddly “CGI” Big Babe with his moments of farting and pooping.

And of course, Jackie is still incredibly agile and athletic at the age pf seventy as he masterfully performs his signature acrobatic stunts which makes him popular with his fans. You can’t help but laugh out at Jackie when he clumsily but deftly ducks the punches from the bad guys in extremely unrealistic fights and dodges all the near miss fatalities with his trademark funny one-liners in the film. My favourite moment was when he tells the bad guys, “I’m just a filmmaker” and “Don’t move, I’ve never shot a real gun before!” when he has the drop on them.

Despite comedy, there are reflective moments in the film. Possibly mirroring his feelings in real life, Jackie shares with Xiaozhu, while hiding away from the mercenaries, that despite being tired and exhausted from decades of hard work in front of the camera, a simple word like “action” never fails to get him to spring to into action like a superhero.

In Panda Plan, fans will not be disappointed as Jackie does what he always does best - goofy but well-choreographed action stunts in an almost die-hard action movie plot minus the blood and gore. This movie is a wholesome 99-minute entertainment for families and kids. Until his next movie, I can’t help but feel that our super action hero does deserves a break before he serves us with his next action comedy.
read less

Get Showtimes

Panda Plan
熊猫计划

Opening Date

Rating

Runtime

Language

Genre

Director

Cast

Synopsis

Reviews

Trailers / Videos

Get Showtimes

Panda Plan熊猫计划

Opening Date

Rating

Runtime

Language

Genre

Director

Cast

Synopsis

Reviews

Trailers / Videos

Panda Plan
熊猫计划