Starring: Da Peng, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Ada Liu, Mabel Yuan, Eric Tsang, Sandra Ng, Yuan Shanshan, Liang Chao Director: Da Peng

    WHILE only sporadically funny, the film has nevertheless attracted record audiences, with a reported 10-day gross of US$139 million since its July 24 opening for producer-distributor Sohu TV and around US$400K on 14 screens in the U.S.

    China’s unofficial “blackout” of Hollywood studio films for a few weeks this summer also helped “Jian Bing Man” become the second-highest opening for a Chinese film in the country’s history.

    Slight of build and plain-looking — but sporting trendy glasses, a moussed undercut and hipster outfits — protagonist Da Peng is a beloved TV star who sometimes makes very stupid decisions: one night after pledging his undying love to his fiancée, he acts on an impulse to hit the clubs and is not only thrown out on the street, but manages to brawl with a mob and get captured on video kissing a random woman.

    Oh, and that priceless diamond ring he bought for his fiancée was eaten by a golden retriever.

    Da’s career hits the skids, his fiancée stops calling and he owes money to mafioso Wang Hai (Liang Chao), so the desperate star decides to claw his way back to the top by shooting a superhero movie starring himself.

    The project is so low-budget that Da has to assemble an all-volunteer crew, and the only way they can get Hong Kong celebrities like actress Sandra Ng and director Eric Tsang to appear in the film is to kidnap them off the street.

    In one scene, struggling filmmaker Da is so broke that he agrees to emcee a lavish funeral, with his pals overacting as melodramatic paid mourners. This Pancake Man can’t fly through the air without the help of stunt wires; his yellow superhero suit has bulges in the wrong places; and his most deadly weapon is a well-aimed raw egg.

    Actor-director Da Peng became a star thanks to his hit web series “Diors Man,” a Saturday Night Live-style sketch comedy show hosted by Sohu TV (the company that has released “Jian Bing Man” in Chinese theaters). The film is treated as an extension of “Diors Man,” which ran for four seasons and has had millions of views.

    He was also the host of The Da Peng Show, which made headlines in the U.S. in 2012 when TBS host Conan O’Brien accused him of plagiarizing his distinctive animated credit sequence.

    Unlike China’s CGI-rich “Monkey King” superhero film franchise, this film has the feel of a sitcom.

    Its homegrown success does not translate well to overseas audiences — the broadly comic antics of Da’s crew are only mildly amusing and the film’s garish production design and generic music distract from some genuinely touching scenes of Da and his crew (Yuan Shanshan, Yi Yunhe) bonding over their adversity. A tongue-in-cheek cameo by Jean-Claude Van Damme provides a brief diversion. (SD-Agencies)