Everybody loves Jackie Chan – if that’s not a universal truth, it’s close enough to one to make no difference. However, the martial arts superstar is not without his controversies, which are delved into in the new documentary, Jackie Chan: Building an Icon. The film manages the impressive balancing act of lauding the comedic kung fu exponent’s considerable filmic and physical achievements while acknowledging both his hard partying at the height of his fame and his recent unrelenting support of the Chinese Communist Party (indeed, if anyone doesn’t love Jackie, it’s probably pro-democracy activists in his native Hong Kong).
But we are not beholden to balance here! We adore Jackie Chan for the insanely talented, suicidally brave, frequently hospitalised absolute champion that he is. Shall we count the ways?
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Jackie Chan at SBS On Demand
He brought comedy to kung fu
Back in the ’70s when Jackie was making his bones as a stuntman and featured extra in Hong Kong’s martial arts movie factories, kung fu flicks were a pretty serious subgenre. While not bereft of humour, they took the gentle art of kicking people half to death as something not to be made light of.
The big breakthrough star of the period was, of course, Bruce Lee, who carried himself onscreen with a fierce intensity that brooked no levity. Everyone wanted to be Bruce and, after Lee’s 1973 death, everyone wanted a new Bruce, leading to both the short-lived fad of “Brucesploitation” films and one of Jackie’s first starring roles in New Fist of Fury, a sequel to Lee’s 1972 film, Fist of Fury.
But as any fan can tell you, Jackie Chan is not Bruce Lee, and he bucked against pressure to emulate the Dragon’s style. Chan found his feet with Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow and Drunken Master (both 1978) for director Yuen Woo-ping (later action choreographer on The Matrix). These movies combined blistering action with broad but complex physical comedy and saw the early development of Chan’s goofy everyman persona. They were smash hits at the box office and suddenly Jackie was a star, not as a Bruce Lee clone but on his own terms.
Jackie Chan with Bruce Lee in ‘Enter the Dragon’. Source: Warner Bros.
1984 film Wheels on Meals is now streaming at SBS On Demand.
He’s an auteur
While he’s worked with a number of directors, with Sammo Hung and, er, Brett Ratner, Jackie has long known that the best man behind the camera on a Jackie Chan film is Jackie Chan. Starting with The Fearless Hyena in 1979, Chan began directing his own movies, giving him unparalleled control over his output.
While he is, of course, a nigh-peerless martial artist, his filmmaking idols include silent comedians like Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, physical funny-men who also directed, and knew exactly how to stage and frame their stunts and pratfalls for maximum effect. Chan adopted the same approach, and many of his best and most well-known films, including (1985), (1986), and Drunken Master 2 (1994) were directed by him. He eventually founded his own production company, Jackie Chan Emperor Films, in 2004.
He helped popularise Asian action cinema in the West
We’re a much more pluralistic global culture now, but back in the day there wasn’t a whole lot of East/West cinematic crossover until the martial arts boom of the ’70s. That died away quite quickly following the death of Bruce Lee, but Jackie Chan always had dreams of multi-market success. However, his early forays into American cinema, such as 1980’s The Big Brawl, 1985’s Cannonball Run II, and 1986’s The Protector, were less than spectacular and he returned to Hong Kong to continue making movies there.
This was Jackie’s golden era as both filmmaker and star, and it coincided with the popularity of home video. While Jackie couldn’t crack the American theatrical market, home audiences hungry for action were gobbling up (1983), Dragons Forever (1988) and the like. A generation raised on VHS became Chan fans and were primed when his actual crossover breakthrough, 1995’s Rumble in the Bronx, became his first bona fide box office hit. From there came Rush Hour, Shanghai Noon, and all that followed.
But Jackie’s popularity also helped other Chinese filmmakers get recognition in the Anglophone world. Fans scouring the shelves for Jackie Chan movies also found Jet Li and Donnie Yen, Ringo Lam and Tsui Hark, and John Woo. These stars and filmmakers, along with Chan, set the benchmark for action cinema for decades to come, but Jackie’s video store heyday was the tip of the spear.
He revolutionised the Hong Kong stunt industry
When Jackie was starting out, performers in martial arts movies largely did their own stunts on a fairly ad hoc basis and the line between “featured extra” and “stunt performer” was particularly blurry. The work was dangerous and poorly paid, which is not an ideal situation when you’re relying on people to not actually kick your head clean off your shoulders while looking like they’re doing exactly that. The formation of the Jackie Chan Stunt Team in 1976 changed that.
Part union, part school, the Stunt Team saw that its members got decent pay and insurance coverage and worked to improve safety on set. Other noted martial arts filmmakers, including Sammo Hung and Yuen Woo-ping, followed suit, formalising their regular stunt collaborators into official organisations, and along the way producing some of the most incendiary action films ever made.
Armour of God and its sequel, are now streaming at SBS On Demand.
He did his own stunts
That past tense is regrettable, but time catches up with us all and Jackie Chan is now 67 and , but in his prime…
“He does his own stunts” is, of course, one of the first things people think of when it comes to Jackie Chan, but it always bears repeating. Chan at his performing and filmmaking peak is simply something to behold. It’s not just his ridiculous agility and ability to take a beating that would land a lesser man in the morgue. It’s not just his consummate command of staging and choreography, using every element of scenery and set dressing to mess up mooks or batter bad guys. It’s the combination: the long takes that let you see that an actual human being is doing this crazy stuff, the goofy sense of humour that pervades even the most brutal fight, the props, the precision of execution, even the accidents – almost every Jackie Chan film ends with a blooper reel that amply demonstrates just how dangerous and impressive every stunt and fight sequence really is.
These days, of course, CGI and virtual backlots can create any scenario we can imagine, and it’s nothing to watch, say, Captain America tussle with the Mad Titan Thanos or flit from one end of the galaxy to the other in the Millennium Falcon. Spectacle has become cheap. But when you know that this goofy-grinning guy is putting life and limb on the line, sliding down those lights, running up that ladder, fighting off that horde of mooks? That’s a gratifying thrill no amount of computing power can replicate.
Jackie Chan talks about his illustrious career in new documentary, Jackie Chan: Building An Icon. Source: INA
And if If all of the above is not enough Jackie, check out Jackie Chan: Kung Fu Master, now at SBS On Demand.
Watch 'Drunken Master' on SBS World Movies
Thursday 16 September, 9:30pm on SBS World Movies (NOTE: No catch-up at SBS On Demand)
Saturday 18 September, 2:55am & 10:30am on SBS World Movies
Saturday 18 September, 2:55am & 10:30am on SBS World Movies
M
China, 1978
Genre: Comedy, Action
Language: Mandarin, Cantonese
Director: Woo-Ping Yuen
Starring: Jackie Chan, Siu Tin Yuen, Jung-Lee Hwang
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