JAKIE CHAN - 
THE MARVELOUS MARTIAL ARTS STAR  AND AN INCREDIBLE ENTERTAINER

Today I saw the latest Jackie Chan action flick `CZ12’  which is a released after a long gap from his earlier movie.  It was widely reported and publicized as the last major action movie of Jackie Chan as he has decided to hang his boots and take care of body, which has been subject to torturous stunts for a very long time.   The type of action scenes he conceives and executes on his own without using doubles, with such agility even at the age of 58 years is absolutely amazing.     Undoubtedly though at this ripe age for action movies, he has slowed down compared to the high standards he set which we all are used, but still he is far better than any our bollywood/tollywood/kollywood action stars almost half of his age.     Thankfully he has not lost even a bit of his comic touch and timing and keep creating funny situations even in action scenes which is unique to Jackie Chan only. 

CZ12 which was tipped as Armour of God Part III is not a patch on Armour of God I or II.    Both the earlier versions specially Armour of God II (Operation Condor) was a roller coaster ride with lavishly mounted and death defying stunts and chasing scenes with rip roaring comedy (including the climax scenes) sprinkled in.    There were hardly any significant action scenes except the opening action sequence using a unique skates.    All of a sudden post interval he realized that the movie doesn’t have enough action scenes and from there it picks up and the last 40 minutes has some interesting Jackie Chan trade mark stuns.    Age definitely is showing on his face and moments and good that he took a decision to bow out from out and out action movies.  

Jackie Chan started his career as a child artist at the age of 8 years and in the initial part of his life he worked as a stunt-man in many listless Chinese kungfu movies.   He had `you-blink-you-miss’ half a minute role in Bruce Lee’s Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon.    It is because of a posting with caption `Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan stunt scene’ in the youtube that one could make out that one of the 50 odd guys who jump on Bruce Lee and get thrashed in the villain’s den in the Enter the Dragon was Jackie Chan.     The untimely death of Bruce Lee has thrown the arena wide open to countless number of Bruce Lee clown with martial arts movies getting released in dozens in late 1970s and 1980s.   But most of the martial art stars could not last beyond few movies.   

Around the same time Jackie Chan too was peeking with Chinese/Hong kong action movies which were poor in their production values but high on skillfully mounted stunts.    I took notice of Jackie Chan, out of many action stars of 1980s, for the first time in very popular movie `Young Master’ which was a run away hit in India, followed by Rumble in the Bronx.    Then came the very successful franchise of Police Story series (under which 5 movies were made) and by that time Jackie Chan has established himself as undisputed action star in Asian countries and I became a die hard fan of Jackie Chan.   

What made Jackie Chan to extend his career without getting saturated is the uniqueness of staging of the very long drawn action scenes, almost using everything around, (chairs, tables, sofas, fridge, carpets, dishes in the kitchen – and the list goes on)  as a weapon and the unbelievable flexibility, agility – jumping, dropping, rolling, sliding from unconceivable heights.   Another secret of his longevity is his impeachable comic timing and his ability to create humour while executing toughest stunts which helped him to develop a huge base of children as his fans.     Jackie Chan was smart enough to realize that children form a big fan base, he consciously ensured that his movie, though out and out action movies, will not have blood spitting gory scenes or sex.  

Having been stuntman himself in his early days, he and his stunt team (with which he worked for over 25 years) created some of the most interesting and elaborate stunt scenes, which could not be matched even by Hollywood movies which are made at much bigger project cost,  and his doing all his stunts himself has lent lot of credibility.     The high voltage stunts of Youngmaster, Police Story 1 and 2, Dragon Forever, Armor of God 1 and 2, Who am I, Project-A stand out.   


Having established himself as undisputed action-king, he set his eyes in Hollywood.    Though he could not succeed much in his earlier attempts, he stormed Hollywood by pairing with Chris Tucker in Rush Hour followed by Rush House-2 and 3 all of which were huge hits.      This established him as the most popular and highest paid Asian star.    He also featured in Shangai series with moderate success.   After dabbling with Hollywood movies for some time, he fell back upon his roots and started concentrating on his HongKong based movies.     Right from Star Movie to Movie Now, HBO, WB, Sony Pix you name any English movie channel  they all started with a series of action movie and more than 80% of them were Jackie Chan, which is a true reflection of his universal popularity 

Besides me, everyone in my family, specially my second daughter,  are die-hard fans of Jackie Chan, and we never miss an opportunity to see a Jackie Chan on TV/theater any number of times.   I might have seen his movies like Project-A, Police Story, Armour of God, Medallion, Rush Hour, Who Am I, atleast 20 to 25 times without suffering `diminishing marginal utility’.      He, like Kamal Hassan, are my very long standing favourites and I hardly find them putting a foot wrong and always look forward for their movies and never missed any of their movies.  

Though Jackie Chan has decided to go slow on his stunts, we can still expect him to entertain us he has more to offer than his stunts being a producer, director, screenplay writer, action choreographer and singer.   Thanks Jackie Chan for entertaining millions fans like us for such long time, I will always enjoy repeat viewing of all your stunning action movies.  

S. Prabhakar

5.1.2013