Netizens baffled at de-aged version of Jackie Chan, 70, who looks 27 in new movie A Legend

Hong Kong martial arts movie star Jackie Chan may be the leading man of the new Chinese fantasy flick A Legend, but he does not appear as himself throughout the film. At least, not in his current state.

Chinese netizens who watched the movie have been unsettled by the use of de-ageing technology that makes the 70-year-old appear like a 27-year-old version of himself on-screen.

A Legend, directed by Hong Kong film-maker Stanley Tong, opens in Singapore cinemas on Aug 1. It opened in China on July 10.

A sequel to Tong’s 2005 film, The Myth, which also starred Chan, the story follows archaeology expert Professor Fang (Chan), who notices that the texture of the artefacts discovered by his students during an expedition to a glacier is strikingly similar to a jade pendant he had seen in his dreams.

Searching for the truth behind his dreams, the professor leads a team on a journey to a temple deep within the glacier, but ends up on a fantastical adventure to the past. The movie also features Chinese stars Lay Zhang and Gulnazar Bextiyar, also known as Na Zha.

In the movie, a young general who appears in dreamlike sequences set in ancient China is played by a de-aged version of Chan, with his wrinkles smoothened away digitally.

Over the Chinese New Year period in 2024, the actor appeared in a promotional clip for the movie with his de-aged look to send festive greetings to viewers.

Unfortunately, Chinese netizens are not taking to the movie or to Chan’s younger alter ego well. A one-star review of the movie on Weibo says the alteration – which was achieved through artificial intelligence (AI) – robbed the character of any facial expressions and made Chan look like a robot.

Other reviews said the de-ageing looked awkward, caused them to not enjoy the story and even “hurt their eyes”.

In clips of interviews with the Chinese media posted to Weibo, Tong, 64, explained that using AI to recreate a young Chan was a way to be innovative.

“I feel that Chinese movies have got to be innovative, so I wanted to be bold and create an AI Jackie Chan,” he says.

He acknowledged that the results were perhaps not flawless or as good as similar de-ageing technology in Hollywood, but he did his best to overcome the difficulties to present a young Chan in A Legend.

Over in Hollywood, American actor Harrison Ford, 81, was de-aged to look to be in his 30s for Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny (2023), while Robert De Niro, 80, and Al Pacino, 84, were also de-aged in film-maker Martin Scorsese’s crime drama The Irishman (2019).

Chan admitted he had his doubts about his de-ageing.

In the same interview as Tong, he said: “When Stanley told me about the technology, I was hesitant. But he showed me quite a few test clips – how to go from having hair to not having hair, how to alter an actor’s face, how to make someone look young. I was still hesitant, but he kept showing me clips and I thought, ‘Okay, let’s give it a shot.’”