Jackie Chan: Difference between revisions

'''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 (Film)|The Tuxedo]]'' and ''The Medallion'' have made him an American household name.

Traditionally, Chan [[Doing It for Thethe 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.

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 (Animation)|Jackie Chan Adventures]].''

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'' onwardsonward wherein he is no longer able to perform stunts without the aid of computers that were second-nature to him only 5 years ago. As he has become more and more overshadowed by his younger and more athletic co-stars, as well as trapped by the formula of wholesomeness that the fans have come to expect from him, Chan finally announced that ''Armour of God 3'' will be '''the last''' "big action movie" of his career, and intends to go out with a dignified slam-bang of a finale rather than as a faded shadow of his former glory.

=== {{actorroles|Movies that Jackie has starred in include ===}}

* ''[[Fist Ofof Fury]]'' and ''[[Enter the Dragon]]'': Yes, [[Bruce Lee]]'s last movie was also one of Jackie's first... as one of the goons in the cave (Bruce snaps his neck). Even earlier, in ''Fist of Fury'', Jackie was a stuntman, most notably standing in for the [[Big Bad]] [[Disney Villain Death|when he falls to his death]]. He recalled that Bruce Lee was a harsh taskmaster but very appreciative of hard work, and as Chan got injured doing several stunts, including an accidental blugeoning by way of nunchaku. After said incident, rumors state he was promised to be in all of Bruce Lee's movies.

* ''[[Drunken Master (Filmfilm)|Drunken Master]]''. One of his first breakout hits in Asia.

* ''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''.

* ''[[Drunken Master (Filmfilm)|Drunken Master II]]'': Selected as one of [[Time (magazine)|''Time'' magazine]]'s [[wikipedia:Time magazinechr(27)magazine's chr(22)All-TIMEchr(22) 100 best movies|All-TIME 100 Best Movies]] and the last 20 minutes has a fight that, according to [[Roger Ebert]], 'may not be possible to film a better fight scene'.

* ''[[The Tuxedo (Film)|The Tuxedo]]'': Bad, Hollywood. Bad. No biscuit.

** [[WTHWhat the Hell, Casting Agency?|And has roughly two lines.]]

* The Beast in the Chinese dub of ''[[Beauty and The Beast (Disney)|Beauty and Thethe Beast]]''.

* ''[[Wheels Onon Meals]]'', which has what many consider to be [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVsigkUmvy8 one of the greatest fight scenes put on film.]

* ''[[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.

* ''[[Around the World Inin Eighty Days]]'' (2004)

=== {{examples|Video games starring Jackie Chan include ===}}

* ''[[Jackie Chans Action Kung Fu (Video Game)|Jackie ChansChan's Action Kung Fu]]''. Also known as ''Jackie Chan''. - [[Nintendo Entertainment System|NES]] and [[Turbo Grafx TurboGrafx-16]]

* ''Jackie Chan: Stuntmaster'' - [[Play StationPlayStation]]

* ''[[Jackie Chan the Kung Fu Master|Jackie Chan: The Kung-Fu Master]]'' - Arcade

{{quote| "I asked [[Steven Spielberg|Mr. Spielberg]] how he put all the [[Jurassic Park|dinosaurs and people toogether]] and he says it's easy, just push button, button, button. Then he asks me how I can jump from building to building. I say that's even easier. [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Rolling, jump, cut, hospital.]]"<br />

* [[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 De GeneresDeGeneres|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.

[[Category:Jackie Chan{{PAGENAME}}]]

[[Category:CreatorComic Actors]]