Unexpected Family - A Wonderful Drama Movie with Jackie Chan's Amazing Performance in a Completely Diferent Role

When the trailer to this film was shown few weeks ago, my wife and I were interested to see as it starred one of our beloved actor Jackie Chan. Despite knowing that it would be a drama movie instead of the usual action comedy, we still wanted to watch it as we never missed any of his recent movies. OK, I will just get on with it now.

Brief Story Line

Zhong Bu Fan (Peng Yu Chang - Viva La Vida, I Am Nobody TV series etc) came to Wuhan for personal reasons with very little money. He ended up working for a car wash place owned by Jia Ye (Pan Bi Long - Born to Fly, Battle of Shangganling TV series etc) and was provided a place to stay. Apparently the house was owned by Ren Ji Qing (Jackie Chan - The Shadow's Edge, Hidden Strike etc) who was suffering from early Alzheimer disease and mistakenly thought Bu Fan as his son.

Jia Ye together with Ji Qing's neighbour Auntie Jin (Li Ping - Paper Bride, Great Expectations TV series etc) and Su Xiao Yue (Zhang Jia Ning - Love After Love, Shining for One Thing TV series etc) convinced Bu Fan to play along so that Ji Qing can enjoy a happier life. Despite his reluctance, Bu Fan agreed to the request as he was promised good pay. But obviously it would be very difficult especially as Ji Qing's memory loss worsen. 

So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

My wife and I were pretty sure that this would be an emotional drama with such premise. However I never thought that it would be so heart breaking with many touching and dramatic moments which brought a lot of tears to me and especially my wife who had to hold herself from breaking down. Although at first the movie had some comedic moments where audience could still laughed, but we always knew that it would be temporary as the topic was a heavy one and ultimately would reach the inevitable sadness.

The movie actually had a simple premise where a group of people close to the kind hearted Ren Ji Qing tried to make his life easier and happier. The story moved at a steady pace and there was never a dull moment. The group's dynamic was a joy to see with some extreme changes from fighting one another to very close during the time when Ji Qing's health deteriorated. However, the film did have a rather exciting climax (and some humor too) which made it a bit more fun and a very touching ending. I believe the film was very interesting due to the wonderful work of director Li Taiyin who was also credited as the writer, together with novelist Yan Huan and Yan Yining (Detective Chinatown 3 etc). I could not find Li Taiyin's previous works which would mean this is his feature film directorial debut.

The movie would not have been so emotional without the amazing portrayal of Jackie Chan as person with such disease while at the same time showing that he too could do well in dramatic role. Peng Yu Chang, Pan Bi Long, Li Ping and Zhang Jia Ning also provided wonderful performance that made this a well round drama film. We also got to see how Alzheimer disease would bring so much effect not only on the person suffering from it but also the people close to him/her. Aside from the above lead cast, there were also some who appeared in minor capacity such as Feng Bing (The Seven Relics of Ill Omen TV series etc) as Dr. Wu, Danny Ray (Moscow Mission etc) as Jia Ye's customer Mark, Huang Yan (Labyrinth etc) as Ji Qing's actual son Ren Zhuang Zhuang and several others.

The choice of songs in here were pretty great too as they all sounded very nice and perfectly placed in various scenes. The movie had duration of 121 minutes including closing credits with brief mid end credit scene, although it did not have any messages related to the disease which I think would be a great touch if added. Btw this film was released in China on 1st January 2026, so it was still pretty brand new. It did not seem to be a major box office there, but still made it to the Top 5. When we saw this yesterday, the studio was less than one third full. However there might be more people watching during the weekend.

Overall this is a completely different style of Jackie Chan's movie which my wife and I did not mind at all. But people who are so accustomed to his action comedy genre might be surprised and less enthusiastic with the change in role, which probably explained the lack of excitement even in Indonesia where he has lots of fans. So if you just want to see Jackie Chan performing action, then this would not be to your liking. However you would enjoy this one if you are like us and want to see him also portray different kind of character. The choice is yours. But if you do want to give it a try, better bring tissue.

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars