Recently, a yellowed 1995-year-old photo made Wu Yanzu and Wu Jing's new movie collaboration a hot search topic. In the photo, the two are wearing the uniforms of the Beijing Wushu team, and their young faces are full of longing for the future. Wu Yanzu recalled in the accompanying text: "Wu Jing is a few months older than me, so I call him 'Da Wu'." He said we could both be movie stars, and I didn't believe it. Thirty years have passed, Wu Jing has reached the peak of the box office in the Chinese film industry with the "Wolf Warrior" series, and Wu Yanzu has gained a firm foothold in the international market with works such as "New Police Story" and "Wasteland". Now, Wu Jing's shout of "don't just take a group photo, let's cooperate" not only aroused fans' feelings for the martial arts relationship between the two, but also broke the news in the industry: Wu Yanzu plans to transform into a kung fu star and join hands with Wu Jing to create a new benchmark for domestic action movies!

Wu Yanzu's career began with the dual advantages of appearance and temperament. In "Beautiful Boy's Love", he became a generation of idols with a "tearing face", but the "vase" label also followed. Since then, he has shown his explosive acting skills as villains in "Mong Kok Dark Night" and "New Police Story", especially the crazy rich young Guan Zu in "New Police Story", which vividly interprets the complexity of violence and vulnerability. In recent years, he has become a lone warrior in the American drama "Wasteland", and his fist-to-flesh action scenes have proved his martial arts skills, but compared with predecessors such as Jackie Chan and Jet Li, his action style is more modern and realistic, lacking the symbolic characteristics of traditional kung fu films.

Transforming into a kung fu star, Wu Yanzu must have found a differentiated positioning. Bruce Lee's philosophical chemical martial arts, Jackie Chan's comedic juggling, Jet Li's grandmaster style, and Donnie Yen's mixed martial arts have long been on their own. Wu Yanzu's advantage lies in his ability to create characters that are both good and evil, and if he can combine his international background (such as the American action design in "Wasteland"), he may be able to open up a new track of "cold and practical combat".

Different from Wu Yanzu's "idol transformation", Wu Jing's path is closer to the upgraded monster fighting mode of traditional kung fu stars. In his early years, he rose to prominence with his sharp skills in "Tai Chi Grandmaster" and "Slaying the Wolf", but he fell into a bottleneck due to the decline of Hong Kong action movies. After moving to the mainland, the "Wolf Warrior" series broke the genre barrier with an innovative combination of "military + action", and "The Wandering Earth" pushed it to the peak of domestic science fiction. Wu Jing's success stems from the precise control of the pulse of the market: he combines the main theme narrative with the commercial coolness, and fills the gap after Jackie Chan and Jet Li fade out with the character of "patriotic tough guy".

However, Wu Jing's acting skills have always revolved around the "iron-blooded soldier", and the role dimension is relatively single. On the other hand, looking at Donnie Yen's interpretation of the grandmaster's growth history in "Ip Man", or Zhang Jin's ruthless and complex "Ma San" in "The Grandmaster", Wu Jing's performance relies more on action design and emotional outbursts, and the depth of literary drama is slightly insufficient. If they cooperate with Wu Yanzu, the two can form a "rigid and soft complementary": Wu Jing is responsible for the action scenes of opening and closing, and Wu Yanzu excavates the psychological undercurrent of the characters, such as the confrontation between the two heroes who are also friends and enemies in "Wind Forest Volcano".

Perhaps the best entry point for the two to collaborate is a contemporary interpretation of the "origin of martial arts". Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do philosophy, Jackie Chan's market wisdom, and Jet Li's traditional aesthetics are all bound to the background of a specific era. Wu Jing and Wu Yanzu's martial arts training began with the Beijing Wushu team, and they have both routine skills and actual combat experience. For example, telling the story of cultural identity and violent redemption with overseas Chinese martial artists as the background can not only give full play to Wu Yanzu's cross-cultural characteristics, but also continue Wu Jing's "family and country narrative".

In addition, the market environment is also generating new demand. With "Wolf Warrior 2" and "Changjin Lake" verifying the box office potential of commercial films with the main theme, action movies that integrate individual heroism and collective narrative have become the mainstream. Wu Yanzu's international influence (such as "Warcraft" and "Wasteland") can inject a global perspective into the film, while Wu Jing's box office appeal can protect the local fundamentals. The project is expected to replicate the successful model of "The Wandering Earth" of "local story + international production".

Chinese-language action movies are facing a generational fault crisis. Jackie Chan and Jet Li gradually faded out, Donnie Yen and Zhang Jin were limited by the solidification of types, and there was no one in the new generation except Wu Jing. On the other hand, Wu Yanzu, who is 49 years old, is in the golden age of action actors, and his image plasticity far exceeds that of his peers. Compared with Jet Li's "righteous and awe-inspiring" and Jackie Chan's "people-friendly humor", Wu Yanzu's "both good and evil" is more modern, if he can combine his meticulous calmness in "Eavesdropping" with the violent wildness in "Wasteland", he may be able to create an image of a "tragic killer" like Keanu Reeves in "Fast Pursuit".

However, the risks of the transition should not be underestimated. Although Wu Yanzu's attempt at "Wasteland" in recent years has been recognized by word-of-mouth, the ratings have not met expectations; Wu Jing's "Wolf Warrior 3" is kept secret, and the audience may have too high expectations. The cooperation between the two needs to balance commerciality and authorship, and avoid falling into the trap of "fighting for the sake of fighting". Perhaps, you can learn from the "Spy Shadow" series to deeply integrate political intrigue, identity puzzles and action design, and escalate the military duel with intellectual confrontation.

Thirty years ago, two teenagers sweated on the training ground of the wushu team; Thirty years later, one of them is the king of the box office, and the other is an international movie star. Wu Jing's shouting is not only a continuation of friendship, but also the call of the industry. When traditional kung fu films are declining, fresh blood is needed to rekindle the vitality of the genre. "Shuangwu" teamed up to use martial arts as a blade to cut through the crux of the times, and perhaps create a new classic like "Hero" that combines aesthetics and depth. After all, the audience has long been tired of superheroes piled up with special effects, and the blood and wisdom in real fists and feet are the root and soul of Chinese action movies.