CZ12 十二生肖 (aka CHINESE ZODIAC)
a JACKIE CHAN film
INTRODUCTION
Jackie Chan's spectacular new adventure takes him all the way from the chateaux and vineyards of France and the hidden dangers of a jungle on a South Seas island to the terrors of a fight in free-fall above an active volcano! The story is sprung on a quest to track down six bronze sculptures, originally part of a set of twelve representing the animals of the Chinese Zodiac. The sculptures were looted from the Summer Palace in Beijing when the city was sacked by European armies in the 19th century, and there's an international campaign in progress to demand the return of stolen cultural treasures to their countries of origin. But Jackie plays a soldier of fortune, not a high-minded patriot. He's in it for the money. But as events take unexpected turns and strange alliances take shape, motives begin to change.
SYNOPSIS
Globe-trotting soldier-of-fortune JC is hired by shady antiques dealers to track down six missing bronze animal-heads by any means necessary. The six bronzes originally formed part of a set of twelve, representing the animals of the Chinese Zodiac, forming part of a fountain in the old Summer Palace outside Beijing; they were looted and dispersed when Anglo-French armies sacked the Summer Palace in 1860. JC and his crack team of assistants first head to France, where two of the bronzes are believed to be held in a private collection. The operation to 'liberate' the bronzes from a heavily guarded Chateau brings JC into an uneasy alliance with Coco, a Chinese student in Paris, who is active in a global movement which campaigns for stolen cultural treasures to be returned to their homelands. Along the way, JC makes an enemy-for-life of Pierre, the chief of staff at the Chateau Marceau, and an unexpected friend of Katherine, a bankrupted aristocrat whose home contains another of the missing bronzes. The trail next leads JC and his team, now including Coco and Katherine, to a forgotten tropical island in the South Seas, where two missing animal heads are found in a beached wreck. A multi-national band of pirates moves to block the team's getaway, but JC's skill and resourcefulness wins the day. Back home, JC is stunned to learn that his employers already had the sixth missing bronze all along, and he sets out to teach them a lesson for tricking him. Meanwhile the protest movement has persuaded buyers to shun auctions of stolen national treasures, and the shady dealers are threatening to destroy the sixth bronze in public. Will JC's conscience -- and his sense of Chinese national pride -- kick in to push him to save the last bronze from destruction?
