![]() This I put down to one thing: in a Jackie Chan movie, you were not only guaranteed some kick ass martial arts action, you were also likely to find yourself hitting the rewind button on the remote to bear witness again to some death-defying stunt, car crash or display of pyrotechnical wizardry. ![]() Still, for all their ingenuity, grace and skill, their movies didn’t impress me as much as Jackie’s did. We scooped them all up alongside other movies featuring Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung and Jet Li and directed by the likes of Tsui Hark and Yuen Woo-ping names that were new to me, but who soon became household favourites too. Their titles included many a Jackie Chan film, all dating from between the 1970s to early 90s. A lot of these DVDs and video cassettes found their way onto second-hand market stalls and video rental shops. What’s more, they were remastering these movies and presenting them in their original cinematic ratios with an option to view them in Cantonese or dubbed English. So, it was off to the video store again to see what else we could rent.Īround this time, a UK distribution company called Hong Kong Legends was raiding the vaults of Golden Harvest and making accessible again films that had fallen through the cracks. Jackie, on the other, acted better than them all in a second language. They weren’t as lean (well, maybe Cynthia was), and, above all, I never really liked them as actors. They were all okay and their films were passable, but compared to the speed and audaciousness of Jackie, they suddenly looked like lumbering pretenders. Nice Guy with my friend and housemate (no doubt with a joint or two passed back and forth), I knew I had to check out more of this incredible talent I’d been neglecting in favour of American and European martial artists like Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Cynthia Rothrock. Bruce Lee was always talked about in the school yard in the same breath as Rocky Balboa, but I never felt the urge to explore the genre beyond Enter the Dragon (1973). I arrived late to the Jackie Chan party and martial arts movies in general. Nice Guy when I rented it from my local Video World. No, the first image that sprang to mind was of him punching his way through the videocassette cover of Mr. Well, when John and Georgia took momentary leave of their senses and asked me back as a guest on their wonderful podcast, the first image that sprang to mind wasn’t Jackie hanging from a clock face in Project A in homage to Harold Lloyd in Safety Last (1923) or the awe-inspiring mall climax in Police Story. ![]() Nice Guy, one of his mid-period and largely forgotten starrers? Why would I skip past the films that made audiences sit up and pay attention to his unique, comedy driven kung fu, namely Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow, Half a Loaf of Kung Fu or Drunken Master (all released in 1978)? And why, for crying out loud, would I not nominate any of the films he made during the 1980s? I’m talking about the four-punch whammy that is Project A (1983), Wheels on Meals (1984), Police Story (1985 in my opinion, his masterwork as both director and star) or Armour of God (1986)? Why not any of the films that saw him rise to prominence in Hollywood, like the three Rush Hour movies (1998-2006), the Shanghai movies (2000-2003), or even 2010’s remake of The Karate Kid, a film I was surprised to find improved on the Ralph Macchio starring original? Or why not 2008’s The Forbidden Kingdom, the film that brought him together with Jet Li, or his labour of love, the criminally overlooked Little Big Soldier (2010)? ![]() Of all Jackie Chan’s films, why would I choose to discuss 1997’s Mr.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |