Jackie Chan: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''"I don't want no trabble!"''|'''Pick a movie. Any movie!'''}}
'''Jackie Chan''' is, quite simply, Made of Awesome. He has hit the big time since being "discovered" by Hollywood in the mid-90s and films such as ''[[Rush Hour]]'', ''[[Shanghai Noon]]'', ''[[The Tuxedo]]'' and ''The Medallion'' have made him an American household name.
Chan is best known as a stunt performer and fight choreographer, and really that's the entire point of going to see any of his movies - watching dumbfounded as he does all sorts of insane tricks and stunts in jaw-dropping fight scenes. He reportedly says that he loves action, but hates violence. Rather than being bone-crunching kung fu instead he is heavily inspired by the physical comedy of [[Buster Keaton]] and [[Charlie Chaplin]] (being that those were silent films, he was able to watch them without a problem with the language barrier). Most of his films are just backdrops to amazing stunts, creative fight scenes and little wire work.
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Traditionally, Chan [[Doing It for the Art|does all his own stunts]] and in his days of producing low-budget Hong Kong chop-socky that was the only way it was ever done. So, if you see Jackie Chan's character fall through three awnings onto the street below? Really him. You see Chan's character roll artfully over a running circular saw - ''a [[Rule of Cool|running circular saw]] people!'' - really him.
And in case you don't believe it, there's usually a montage of outtakes over the end credits showing things going wrong while filming (go to Youtube and search for Jackie Chan outtakes... and prepare to be amazed!). Often involving ambulances. It's a good thing he's been so successful, because he's gone on record in many interviews as saying that ''no insurance company in the world'' will give him coverage. As he's grown older, despite being one hell of a [[Badass Grandpa]] at the [[Younger Than They Look|age of 57]], he understandably [https://web.archive.org/web/20100322232534/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,410040,00.html has stopped doing 100%] of his stunts, partly because he has been told that if he falls on his head ''one more time'' it will KILL HIM, also in part because in the Hollywood system, insurance for the stars is a must and, as aforementioned, he has a little trouble with that.
Chan has developed a distinctive fighting style, quite comedic and usually making extensive use of props, even those at first sight [[Improbable Weapon User|most unsuited to fighting]], such as a <s>[[Ace Attorney|ladder]]</s> [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcvXqLrgf0k stepladder]. (Seriously, if you've somehow never seen his work before, you can spend many happy and amazed hours on [[YouTube]] watching fight scenes.)
Needless to say, he's been injured fairly frequently. His closest brush with death came from ''Armour of God'' when he fell from a tree and fractured his skull. A comparatively "safe" stunt, it was a reminder that he can't be casual about anything he does. Among his injuries he has dislocated his pelvis, broken his fingers, toes, nose, both cheekbones, hips, sternum, neck, ankle and ribs on numerous occasions.
[[He Also Did|A lesser-known aspect of his career]] (at least in America) is that he is also a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t80k2sBZmY professional singer], having recorded many albums and often performing the [[Theme Song|Theme Songs]] for his movies (ex. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29nd5P_KqKg Who Am I?]). This is a little less surprising when you know that he originally trained for Chinese opera, which features acrobatic fight scenes. He also has his own [[Animated Adaptation]], ''[[Jackie Chan Adventures]].''
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In the last decade, Chan has been the subject of much controversy in Asia. His political stance that Taiwan should reunite with China earns him few friends outside [[Red China|the People's Republic]], but he cannot be accused of not putting his money where his mouth is, because this devastates his box-office profits in Taiwan.
In some parts of the global Asian community, he is also accused of being [[The Quisling|a sellout to his own culture, pandering to the western market]] by repeatedly portraying caricatures of the Chinese man. Reportedly advising that the protagonist role in ''[[The Forbidden Kingdom]]'', originally intended to be a Chinese-American boy rediscovering his roots, be recast as a kung-fu obsessed [[Mighty Whitey|white boy]] is sometimes advanced as evidence for this view. Further rubbing salt in wounds is his compliance to Sony's decision to force the ''[[The Karate Kid]]'' remake to bear its original title, rather than the proposed ''The Kung Fu Kid'', in spite of the fact that the film is set in China and is ''about'' the Chinese martial art of Wushu (aka kung fu). The people who accuse Chan of this are probably right, in that [[Brutal Honesty|Chan has admitted he does this]]. He claims he [[Money, Dear Boy|does it for the money]], so that he can finance the films he actually ''likes'' to make, as well as fund his not-inconsiderable charity work.
It seems possible, however, that the strains of old age may have finally caught up with him, as is painfully evident from ''[[Rush Hour]] 3''
When his series/movies is dubbed in Japan, his voice is usually dubbed by [[Hiroya Ishimaru]]. In [[Latin America]], he's dubbed by Juan Alfonso Carralero, who also dubs-over for [[Will Smith]] and David Hasselhoff.
Anyway, here's a list of some of his most famous and/or best movies. Note that many fans consider his pre-Hollywood movies to be better.
* ''[[Fist
** ''New Fist Of Fury'': After Bruce's death, Jackie starred here as the successor of Bruce, in what would be called a [[Bruce Lee Clone|Brucesploitation]]. Unfortunately, this movie ''bombed'' big time, and could've been a [[Career Killer]] for Jackie. Fortunately for Jackie, future movies after this start developing his character in his much more well known slapstick badass style rather than imitating Bruce, growing out from his shadow, and it was good for his career from that point on.
* ''[[Drunken Master (film)|Drunken Master]]''. One of his first breakout hits in Asia.
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* ''Project A'': His first film to feature a show-stopping, gratuitously dangerous stunt; in this case, Jackie falling from a clock tower and smashing through two awnings that slow him enough to make the fall survivable.
** Even crazier is that he wasn't satisfied with the first take, so he did it ''two more times''!
* ''Armour of God'', and its sequel ''Armour of God 2: Operation Condor'', later released in the US in reverse order as ''Operation Condor'' and ''Operation Condor 2: The Armor of the Gods''.
** ''Armour of God 1'' is notable for being the closest Jackie Chan has come to death, suffering a critical head injury after a stunt misfire. The irony is that the stunt wasn't one of his usual showstoppers; even the "little" stunts can kill you. The ending credit outtakes go into great detail on this.
* ''[[City Hunter]]'': Based on the [[Hojo Tsukasa]] manga, and most famous for [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4Psls1ngwM funny and enterprisingly well done] [[Street Fighter]] 2 parody, which is usually considered to be [[Better Than Canon|better than the movie]]! [[Old Shame|Jackie personally dislikes it, though]].
* ''[[Drunken Master (film)|Drunken Master II]]'': Selected as one of [[Time (magazine)|''Time'' magazine]]'s [[wikipedia:Time
* ''[[Rumble in The Bronx]]'': His breakout movie in the U.S.; prior to this movie, he had been offered a roles in Hollywood (such as the villain in ''[[Demolition Man]]''), but declined to avoid being typecast as either a villain or a bumbling Asian man. He wanted to succeed in Hollywood as Jackie Chan and not as a [[Bruce Lee Clone]].
* ''First Strike'', also known as ''Police Story 4'': The stepladder fight? This is the movie it's from.
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** Also notable for being his only collaboration to date with [[Jet Li]]. ([[Just Here for Godzilla|just that promise got asses in seats]], we assure you.)
* ''[[Kung Fu Panda]]'': Surprisingly, given his well-known difficulties in speaking English, he's the voice of master Monkey!
** [[
* ''[[The Karate Kid]]'': Jackie Chan as Mr. Miyagi? Actually not that bad.
** [[Actor Allusion]]: There is a poster in his room of the Mitsubishi he drove in ''Cannonball Run 2''.
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* ''[[The Twins Effect]]'': He has a supporting role as a paramedic in this Hong Kong vampire movie (the protagonists gate-crash his wedding).
* ''Half A Loaf Of Kung Fu'': One of his early films, and the first to show his trademark comedic take on martial arts.
* ''[[Who Am I]]?'': The climax features Jackie fighting two guys on a skyscraper rooftop, with all three actors spending a hair-raising amount of time close to the edge as they leap around fighting.
* ''Miracles'', also known as ''Ji Ji'' or ''The Canton Godfather'': One of Jackie Chan's lesser known movies, it's best described as [[X Meets Y|Frank Capra meets Kung Fu]]. Ever seen a man stop a running fan with one hand? Ever seen one man fight 20 people in a rope factory? You will in this movie. Unsurprisingly, the outtakes are ''painful''.
** Plus, Chan's own personal favorite of his films.
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* ''1911'', Chan's 100th film. It concerns China's 1911 Revolution, which [[No More Emperors|ended the rule of emperors]]. Unlike most of Chan's films, it contains little martial arts or comedy.
* ''[[Around the World in Eighty Days]]'' (2004)
* ''[[Jackie
* ''Jackie Chan: Stuntmaster'' - [[PlayStation]]
* ''[[
{{creatortropes}}
* [[Action Girl]]: Most of the women in his movies tend to not be typical [[Damsel in Distress]] characters. Even if not as crazy as he is, they tend to throw a hard punch or save his butt when necessary. Although Jackie admitted to being intimidated by [[Michelle Yeoh]], worried that she might outshine him in the martial arts and stunts.
* [[Afraid of Needles]]: Yes, even a guy like him who has gone through more near-fatal injuries than virtually any man could live through, has a fear of needles.
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* [[Money, Dear Boy]]: Does not hide the fact that he does movies, particularly American movies, for the money and makes pragmatic decisions to make them sell. He's also got his own clothing line among his many franchises. Also, in [[Ellen DeGeneres|Ellen's]] talkshow, he gives us this line:
{{quote|"(Talking about the elaborate setups for stunts in America) Just give me the money, and I'll climb that tree! No need for all this complicated stuff."}}
** In particular, [https://web.archive.org/web/20130908213505/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,298648,00.html he doesn't care for] the ''[[Rush Hour]]'' films, doesn't get the American humor, and only did a second film because they offered him an "irresistible" amount of money (reportedly something like 20 million to match his co-star Chris Tucker's salary). When it came time for a third one, they had to give Jackie and Chris Tucker both 25 million, promise Chris Tucker 20% of the gross, and give Jackie the distribution rights to the entire continent of Asia.
* Mr. [[Nice Guy]]: Despite the above trope, he's a genuine philanthropist who builds schools all across China where they are needed, among other things. He also has yet to play any truly villainous role.
** In fact, he does the money roles specifically so he ''can'' continue his philanthropy.
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