General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Rob-B-Hood (宝贝计划)

Rob-B-Hood (宝贝计划; also known as Project BB) is a 2006 Hong Kong action comedy directed by Benny Chan (陈木胜), starring Jackie Chan, Louis Koo, Michael Hui, Gao Yuanyuan, and Chen Baoguo, with the infant Matthew Medvedev in the role of Baby.¹ The story follows a trio of thieves who kidnap a baby for a 30 million dollar payment and then find themselves protecting the child from the very gang that hired them.¹ The film was an Official Selection at the 63rd Venice International Film Festival and received nominations at the Hong Kong Film Awards and the Hundred Flowers Awards.¹

Key fact	Detail
Original title	寶貝計劃 / 宝贝计划 (bao bei ji hua); English titles Rob-B-Hood and Project BB²
Director and writers	Directed by Benny Chan; screenplay by Jackie Chan, Benny Chan, and Alan Yuen (袁锦麟)³
Lead cast	Jackie Chan as Slipper (人字拖), Louis Koo as Octopus (八达通), Michael Hui as the Landlord (包租公), Matthew Medvedev as Baby¹
Genre and language	Action, comedy, crime; Cantonese-language Hong Kong production⁴
Release	World premiere at Venice on 9 September 2006; Hong Kong release 24 and 29 September 2006; mainland China and South Korea 28 September 2006⁵
Festival and award recognition	Official Selection, 63rd Venice International Film Festival 2006; two nominations at the 26th Hong Kong Film Awards 2007¹
Korean admissions	406,558 admissions at the South Korean box office⁶

Spoilers

Plot

The three leads play a well-known gang of thieves who steal only money and harm no one. Through a case of mistaken identity, an elderly father comes to believe the baby Matthew is his own grandson, and he offers the trio 30 million to kidnap the child.⁷ Slipper, played by Jackie Chan, is a compulsive gambler hounded by debt collectors, while his partner Octopus, played by Louis Koo, is a young womanizer.⁵

The kidnapping succeeds, but the job turns on its employers. When the trio realizes that the triad is after both the ransom and the baby's life, they decide to make their hostage their protégé, and, cornered by police and threatened by gangsters, they set out to return the baby safely to his family.¹ The 1905.com synopsis describes the turning point as the moment the two men, handing the baby over to the Hong family, hear his tearful cry and decide to rescue him at the risk of their own lives, redeeming the reputations they had lost.⁵

Cast and characters

Jackie Chan plays Slipper (人字拖), a down-and-out gambler whose own father despises him; Louis Koo plays Octopus (八达通); and Michael Hui plays the Landlord (包租公).⁵ Gao Yuanyuan plays 淑芬 and Charlene Choi plays 白燕, while Chen Baoguo plays 洪峰 (Hong Feng).⁸ The baby is played by Matthew Medvedev, who received a Best New Performer nomination at the Hong Kong Film Awards for the role.¹ The supporting cast includes Yuen Biao, Teresa Carpio, Cherrie Ying, Terence Yin, Ken Lo, and Andrew Lin.²

Production

The film was produced by Jackie Chan Emperor Films (成龍英皇影業) and Huayi Brothers, with supervision by China Film Co-Production Corporation.³ Jackie Chan also served as executive producer and action director, with Li Chung-chi and the JC Stunt Team sharing the action choreography credit.²^•¹ The cinematographer was Pan Yaoming and the production designer James Choo Sung-Pong.⁴^•²

Chan's own account of his intentions, reported by 1905.com, was that he wanted to be an actor who performs action films rather than only an action performer.⁸ The site's commentary describes the film as the work the late director Benny Chan is praised by fans for as his most mature, and as the film in which Jackie Chan had the highest degree of completion as a participating screenwriter.⁸

Release

Rob-B-Hood had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival on 9 September 2006, opened in Hong Kong on 24 September with a general release on 29 September, and reached mainland China and South Korea on 28 September 2006; later releases followed in Singapore, Taiwan, and the Philippines.⁵ In South Korea it sold 406,558 admissions.⁶ The film remains in circulation on streaming services in the United States, including Philo, Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, and Tubi, and on digital rental stores.⁹^•¹⁰

Reception and awards

The film was selected at the 63rd Venice International Film Festival in 2006 and the 51st Asia-Pacific Film Festival the same year.¹ At the 26th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2007 it received two nominations: Best New Performer for Matthew Medvedev and Best Action Choreography for Jackie Chan, Li Chung-chi, and the JC Stunt Team.¹ At the 29th Hundred Flowers Awards in 2008, Gao Yuanyuan was nominated for Best Actress and Chen Baoguo for Best Supporting Actor.¹

Audience ratings have differed across databases. 1905.com lists a score of 8.8 out of 10,⁸ while IMDb lists 6.6 out of 10 from about 17,000 votes.¹⁰ The Korean site Cine21 recorded an expert score of 6.00 and an audience score of 7.30.⁶

Versions and runtime

Reported runtimes differ between releases and databases: 1905.com lists 125 minutes,⁸ the CinemaSi database lists 127 minutes,² the German Moviepilot listing gives 121 minutes,¹¹ and current U.S. streaming listings give 136 minutes.¹⁰ Pluto TV's listing dates the film 2007 and gives 2 hours 7 minutes, reflecting differing catalog conventions for the same title.¹²

Themes

The 1905.com commentary reads the film as a story of redemption in which a wastrel character, under the influence of an infant, becomes a defender of kindness and genuine feeling, a departure in Jackie Chan's screen image.¹³ The same commentary highlights the comedy of two men raising a baby without a mother, culminating in a supermarket sequence, and argues that the comic treatment dissolves the audience's hostility toward the thieves.¹³ A parents' guide characterizes the film as a mix of sentiment and stunt-driven action, recommending it for viewers about 12 and up because of the kidnapping premise, gambling themes, and scenes placing the baby in simulated danger.¹⁴

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Action and adventure films (individual works) › Action comedies › Action comedies, 2000 to 2019

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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