Chan's distinctive style combines slapstick, acrobatics, martial arts, and astonishing stunts he performs himself.
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Our top 10 Jackie Chan movies
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His early films are fantastic and his talent is unquestionable, but it's unfortunate no reference is made to his grim personal life - assaulting his young son, cheating on his wife, abandoning his daughter, and being hated in his home country for selling out to the CCP. Jackie Chan is not someone to celebrate.
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Doomlord_uk
Ars Legatus Legionis
I grew up watching and loving Jackie Chan movies and he is easily one of the great movie stars of the 20th century. I've seen way more of his movies than I can ever name or remember. But Hollywood - in particular Rush Hour - was for me the death knell of classic Jackie Chan movies. I did not like that film and I can't think of any he did after that that I liked either. He should have stayed in Hong Kong and continued growing Chinese cinema.
Glad to see my all-time favourites here, especially Wheels on Meals, Armour of God and the original Police Story. I watched those so many times. <3
Glad to see my all-time favourites here, especially Wheels on Meals, Armour of God and the original Police Story. I watched those so many times. <3
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I still have a soft spot for the silliness that is City Hunter. He makes for a very good Chun Li.
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You gotta take your brain out and put it in a jar for that movie, but if you do, both you and the jar will have a blast.
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The Rockies are much further inland. The mountains behind Vancouver are the North Shore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Shore_Mountains part of the aptly named Coast Mountains
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I've forgotten which movie it was where he broke his ankle (but I can still picture the scene in my head), but when it happened he had sock(silicone?) painted up to look like a shoe and pulled over his cast, and then he continued filming.
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No kidding. My immediate thought was, is this how I find out Jackie Chan passed? Man they need to reword that title to reflect that this is his birthday celebration.
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Slight correction … not the Rocky Mountains, but the North Shore Mountains. The Rockies are over on the east side of British Columbia.
Edit: darn, ninja‘d by chanman819
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If you are a Chan fan I would recommend his book, "I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action". It has been awhile since I read it but it is definitely a good read.
-kp
-kp
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I forgot about that movie! I liked it, too. It led to a rather funny moment where my mom and I were reminiscing (& arguing) about the plot (I forget how it came up) and I brought it to watch with her since I had a copy only to realize she had been talking about the Frank Capra film and we had both been unaware that eachother's film existed.
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Forbidden Kingdom is wildly underrated. I consider it better than most of his 90's movies.
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agreed, weird, but I still found Chan and Brosnan to work well: the plot holes were annoying though: I think if another writer had been in for some script polish (or a different director
How Martin Campbell could do both Casino Royale and yet have The Foreigner be so uneven...) it could have been a superb movie vs "ok" .
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Agreed, the urge to not sympathetically wince in pain at the failed takes is high and a testament to the stunt teams skill that there aren't MORE injuries on his movies.
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I'd like a third choice... I keep the disk, and I throw you both off!Who am I?
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Isn't that the one where he fought under the train? Because that scene was beyond badass.
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I just saw a trailer somewhere for a Karate Kid movie with Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio set in New York City.
I’ll watch.
View: https://youtu.be/LhRXf-yEQqA?si=wS0HxEYC2DqzKHMF
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That was Rumble in the Bronx - broke his ankle jumping off a bridge onto the hovercraft. They show it in the outtakes at the end. Loved that movie.
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I'd probably put City Hunter in over Forbidden Kingdom for the former being somewhat iconic; the latter committed the film crime of smooshing a bunch of great talent into a very soft script and choreography, slathering them in CGI, and just being boring. Police Story 2 also clears the bar of Less Boring, fwiw, but skipping that is understandable.
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Yeah honestly growing up he was one of my action heroes ahead of everyone but Arnold honestly. And... Then he became a terrible human being.
This interview is damning.
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My first Jackie Chan movie was Rumble in the Bronx. I saw it with a bunch of friends in a packed theater. So much fun! We randomly yelled "Hovercraft!" for days after.
I'm very fond of that movie.
I'm very fond of that movie.
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having worked with Jackie Chan (decades ago on Rumble)
sorry to disillusion but Jackie doesn’t perform all his stunts
this is now way a slight on Jackie, he does perform most his major set piece stunts but he is also a very extensively injured man.
The word was there were three guys who would have to show up and massage him each morning just so he could get out of bed
First time I met him we were shooting on a roof in a back alley and you had to step over a railing to get on to it
we had appleboxes set up to make it doable for people carrying gear and stuff but I happened to be standing next to it when Jackie arrived and he held out his hand for assistance
- I of course was expecting him to jump or somersault over me as a gag (practical jokes are very much part of the Jackie experience) but was surprised that he really needed allot of help gingerly negotiating the railing
actually that same scene showed the unique method Jackies team used.
the stunt in question was being kicked off a roof onto a dumpster and chainlink fence
each of Jackies team (about 6-8 guys most of which you would recognize if you watch many of his films) would play Jackie and take the fall in a different creative way, when they picked which one they liked for the shoot the two most senior guys would try it themselves a couple times and then whisper in Jackies ear for a bit and we would set up cameras and Jackie would perform the stunt -ideally once- without rehearsal
and Jackie would ideally try to perform every stunt - especially the big ones
despite the obvious pain he was in
he did much of Rumble with a cast on his ankle painted to look like a tennis shoe
but occasionally he wasn’t up for it
Jackie also liked to drink and quite a few morning were spent just waiting around for him to move off his director chair ( or finding out if Anita was even going to show up)
and occasionally the director Stanley would get frustrated and put on Jackies jacket and just do the stunt himself- seriously
first couple times he did it there was no warning given to the western crew
so your standing on a parkade rooftop (hurrying up and waiting) and suddenly the director runs past you and jumps from the roof across an alley and onto a fire escape landing on the other side
very disconcerting
sorry to disillusion but Jackie doesn’t perform all his stunts
this is now way a slight on Jackie, he does perform most his major set piece stunts but he is also a very extensively injured man.
The word was there were three guys who would have to show up and massage him each morning just so he could get out of bed
First time I met him we were shooting on a roof in a back alley and you had to step over a railing to get on to it
we had appleboxes set up to make it doable for people carrying gear and stuff but I happened to be standing next to it when Jackie arrived and he held out his hand for assistance
- I of course was expecting him to jump or somersault over me as a gag (practical jokes are very much part of the Jackie experience) but was surprised that he really needed allot of help gingerly negotiating the railing
actually that same scene showed the unique method Jackies team used.
the stunt in question was being kicked off a roof onto a dumpster and chainlink fence
each of Jackies team (about 6-8 guys most of which you would recognize if you watch many of his films) would play Jackie and take the fall in a different creative way, when they picked which one they liked for the shoot the two most senior guys would try it themselves a couple times and then whisper in Jackies ear for a bit and we would set up cameras and Jackie would perform the stunt -ideally once- without rehearsal
and Jackie would ideally try to perform every stunt - especially the big ones
despite the obvious pain he was in
he did much of Rumble with a cast on his ankle painted to look like a tennis shoe
but occasionally he wasn’t up for it
Jackie also liked to drink and quite a few morning were spent just waiting around for him to move off his director chair ( or finding out if Anita was even going to show up)
and occasionally the director Stanley would get frustrated and put on Jackies jacket and just do the stunt himself- seriously
first couple times he did it there was no warning given to the western crew
so your standing on a parkade rooftop (hurrying up and waiting) and suddenly the director runs past you and jumps from the roof across an alley and onto a fire escape landing on the other side
very disconcerting
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Surprised to see no love for First Strike. The ladder fight scene is the very first thing I think of when I imagine a Jackie Chan fight scene and there's even a slow speed underwater fight scene in a shark tank
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back when we were doing Rumble the open talk on set amongst the HK crew was that Jackie and Golden Harvest were looking for escape hatches to get out before the handover (same reason for his Australian films around this time)
Canada fucked this up by arresting Jackies main backer (guy with the hat- sorry can’t remember his name) upon arrival and holding him in customs for a day or so
but the few times I talked to Jackie he was definitely not a fan of CCP (and I never saw him smoke pot but he sure expressed some liberal attitudes towards its use)
but remember he was basically sold into slavery (or next to it) as a kid
destroyed his body as a way to get out
he also sold big chunks of his soul -the criminal element in HK cinema was pronounced
(The stories I’ve heard from HK crew on various films is kinda upsetting- especially for a fan of 80-90s HK cinema )
and he was definitely aware how precarious his situation was
I’m not saying there’s anything admirable about him selling out
or betraying people who trusted him
but Jackie has always been intensely focused and ambitious
we admired his focus when it was producing things we enjoyed
now that focus is on preserving what he has.
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Drunken master 2 was great but the American edit, they butchered it. They even removed the actual ending where Jackie chan's character is blind and messed up because he drank that industrial alcohol in the final fight. American censors said something like, it makes alcoholic troubles a joke so we cutting the end out
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Loved that film, except for what was done to the poor hovercraft.
And, after the wreck, it so desperately needed the Monty Python line, in bad hungarian accent, "My hoovercraft is full of eels!"
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From what I remember of it, City Hunter was an entertaining Jackie Chan film but the real City Hunter never misses, so it was as disconcerting as a Star Wars film in which the Jedi and Sith just went at it with cricket bats.
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Another shout-out to Sammo Hung, because he's 1. a great actor, 2. shows you can be fat and a great martial artist, 3. his grandmother was the first martial artist movie star (starting in the silent era).
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Police Story 3 was my first one. It's pretty perfect. Side notes: it made me love the sound of the Cantonese language; and it took years before I saw Maggie Cheung in other roles and realized that she is a serious dramatic actress, but it took me a while to stop thinking of her as Annoying Girlfriend.
From what I hear, the scene where he lands in mainland China and everyone is riding bicycles was considered hi-larious in Hong Kong.
From what I hear, the scene where he lands in mainland China and everyone is riding bicycles was considered hi-larious in Hong Kong.
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there's one in Drunken Master II and Young Master.
The rhythm of the choreography in Young Master is very much old kung fu flick.
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