"‍The Foreigner," starring Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan, was released in China on Saturday, looking to capitalize on the country’s Golden Week festivities. Based on Stephen Leather’s 1992 thriller, "The Chinaman" – retitled for obvious reasons – the movie sees Chan star as Quan, a humble businessman working in London whose search for justice after his daughter dies in a terrorist attack leads him down a dark path.

In the wake of "Taken," "3 Days to Kill" and "Blood Father," to name only a handful of films from this burgeoning familial subgenre, a revenge thriller involving an aging action star may not seem particularly notable but it’s place in both the careers of the main players and its position in Chinese cinema say otherwise.

Mainly because the film can be seen as a comeback vehicle. The director, Martin Campbell, hasn’t been seen in cinemas since helming Ryan Reynold’s second attempt at superhero super-stardom, 2011’s "The Green Lantern," which just about broke even in terms of box office success but was derided by critics, fans and fanboys alike. Going from launching a planned trilogy to being swept under the rug probably damaged the director’s ego, explaining why six years later, he’s returning with an old friend.

Before "The Green Lantern," Campbell was considered a journeyman director – and like a lot of journeyman directors, that status led him to directing a Bond film or two, specifically "GoldenEye" in 1995 and "Casino Royale" in 2006. While the latter rejuvenated Bond by taking him in a Bourne-esque direction, the former rejuvenated Bond by, not only taking him back to basics, but by introducing Pierce Brosnan to the role. The Irish-born actor excelled at the suave spy but, in the pre-Marvel Cinematic Universe world, being linked to a tentpole genre franchise limited his options as an actor and he’s spent most of the past decade slumming it as a scenery-chewing character actor in such dregs as "Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief," "No Escape" and "Urge."

If there’s one surefire way of kick-starting a comeback, it’s to work with Jackie Chan. As one of the last true global movie stars, every new Chan movie is an event of one kind or another and his recent output could not be any more different to that of Brosnan. Box Office Mojo says "Police Story 2013" made 86 million US dollars, "Dragon Blade" made 116 million US dollars in 2015, 2016’s "Skiptrace" made 129 million US dollars and this year’s "Kung Fu Yoga" has so far made 254 million US dollars – figures that make his other 2016 release, "Railroad Tigers," seem like a flop with only 101 million US dollars.

If Chan is seemingly breaking records with every new release, why is "The Foreigner" his comeback too? Since 2010’s "The Karate Kid," which co-starred Jaden Smith (and featured no karate whatsoever), Chan hasn’t starred in a global English-language live-action wide-release. He hasn’t been entirely absent from Western screens, but his roles have all come in the form of voice acting, primarily in the wildly successful "Kung Fu Panda" franchise but also in this year’s "The Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature" and "The LEGO Ninjago Movie."

The hundred million dollar box office takings seen in the Chinese film market suggest that Jackie Chan doesn’t really need to make a return to western screens and, as an actor, he doesn’t – but as a producer, he does. Part of Chan’s longevity has been his constant evolution and the most recent phase of his career is defined in two important ways: on screen, as he’s gotten older, he’s moved away from slapstick action and focused on more serious, dramatic roles – as seen in "The Foreigner." Off screen, Chan has been quietly developing his latest venture, Sparkle Roll Media.

Launched in 2015, Sparkle Roll Media has been Chan’s Beijing-based production company and each film featuring him as an actor/producer has worked along the same guidelines and matched Chan with a big name in international cinema. The first feature, "Dragon Blade," may have miscast Oscar-winner Adrien Brody and former 80s heartthrob John Cusack as members of the Roman military but it paid off at the box office and since then his films have paired him with Japan’s Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, India’s Sonu Sood and, in 2018 and 2019 respectively, will feature his action cinema luminaries Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.

"The Foreigner" is out now in China and will be released in America on October 13.