Jay Chou’s ‘The Treasure Hunter’ preview

BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS is expected to be one the top Chinese-language hits at the end of the year but Taiwanese director Kevin Chu’s THE TREASURE HUNTER, another big-budget action movie that we haven’t covered as much, is expected to be just as big. After seeing the trailer (which has actually been out for a long time), coupled with leading man Jay Chou’s celebrity status throughout Asia I can see why. It looks like DR. WAI IN THE SCRIPTURES WITH NO WORDS meets THE MUMMY.

Directed by Kevin Chu (SHAOLIN POPEY), THE TREASURE HUNTER stars Jay Chou as Ciao Fei, a chivalrous young man who struggles to protect buried treasure amassed from ancient Chinese dynasties by recovering a map of its whereabouts from an international criminal organization known as The Company. Ciao Fei was forced to trade the map to them in exchange for the life of his mentor’s daughter, Lan Ting (Lin Chi-ling). Now joined by an archeologist, Ciao Fei and Lan Ting race to get the map back and stop The Company from getting to the treasure first.

With its adventure theme and focus on large-scale action sequences it looks like a solid vehicle for Chou as he continues his rise as an A-list action star in Asia. Chou, who is still best known as a mega-pop singer, doesn’t get much respect from veteran martial arts film fans around these parts for performing dance-like kung fu moves in his music videos, for his role in KUNG FU DUNK, or for taking on the role of “Kato” in Seth Rogen’s THE GREEN HORNET redo (currently in production) but he’s been groomed as a top-tier action star for several years now and won’t be going away anytime soon. In addition, Chou fills theater seats and that is what Chinese moviemakers need to keep making these big moneymaking action movies to compete with Hollywood as former action heavyweights Jackie Chan and Jet Li fade from the limelight.

THE TREASURE HUNTER opens throughout China and select Asian territories on December 31.