JACKIE CHAN MOVIES

TWO MODERN MASTERS OF ACTION DISCUSS THE BONE-SNAPPING, CAR-SMASHING, WISE-CRACKING STUNT GURU

Jackie mega-fans, and two of the best action directors in the world, Edgar Wright and Gareth Evans, talk about the Chinese legend.

You’re both huge Jackie Chan fans. When did you first discover him? What was the movie that made you fall in love with him? Edgar Wright:

The first time I ever saw Jackie Chan was in The Cannonball Run on TV, when I was eight or nine. It’s not a good movie, but when you’re that age it seems like the best movie of all time. And there was this guy, Jackie Chan, who’s not in the film for long, but he’s so engaging and charming that you immediately love him. Then Jonathan Ross on Channel 4 did The Incredibly Strange Film Show, and Jackie was on that. That blew my head off, and I wanted to see everything. The film I fell in love with first was Police Story.

Gareth Evans: We saw the same stuff, but in a slightly different order. My first experience of a Jackie Chan film was quite short-lived. I convinced my mum to let us rent Magnificent Bodyguards. We stuck it on and it’s strongly violent in the beginning. My mum stopped it and said, “You’re never watching a Jackie Chan film again!” But two months later my dad brought back Armour Of God, and he said it was different, an Indiana Jones-type thing. And I was just sold.

Wright: The first time I saw a Jackie Chan film at the cinema was Rumble In The Bronx, at the Prince Charles in London. It was absolutely rammed. It felt like everybody was watching a Jackie Chan film on the big screen for the first time. I cried at the end when Jackie turned to the camera and did a thumbs-up. I remember being so happy that something that had felt like, in the Western world, a cult phenomenon for so long, had broken through. That’s an amazing thing.

Evans: I had exactly the same experience with Rumble In The Bronx. It was playing in Cardiff, and I remember thinking, “I am going to see this, no matter what.” Was it the best Jackie Chan film? No. Was it a magical experience? Absolutely.

Why did you fall in love with him? Evans:

When I saw Bruce Lee for the first time it was like, “This guy is like a superhero but he’s a human being.” Jackie had all that, but he added acrobatics and humour. I’ve been watching a lot of Buster Keaton films, and I’ve been blown away seeing the comparisons between the two. Buster

Keaton almost invented that kind of action. [Chan] keeps it fun and entertaining. Even in his darker films, where Sammo Hung is directing, there are little punchlines and slapstick gags.

Wright: The thing about Jackie Chan is this everyman quality. He has a connection with the audience. You want to believe that you could be Jackie Chan. The fights are incredible. There’s this whole other level where there’s some insane stunt you can’t believe somebody is doing on camera.

Evans: He puts himself in a place of vulnerability all the time. In earlier stuff, like Dragon Lord and The Young Master, he’s not the best fighter in the film by any stretch. It’s about not giving up.

Wright: Jackie is willing to let himself get really beaten up on screen. That’s always a key element of the films. Seeing Jackie Chan take a punch is as important and dramatic as him winning. Even down to the idea that he would get injured. For example, he nearly died after a massive fall on Armour Of God. Did that element of danger help? Wright: For sure. The Jonathan Ross

documentary put into context how close to death he had been. He was really putting himself in the firing line. You look at the end of Police Story and Project A, where he seriously injured himself. But Armour Of God is the one where he nearly kills himself. His haircut changes in that movie because in-between certain bits he’d been in a coma or something for about three months.

Let’s talk essential films... Wright:

The first one on my list is Project A, from 1983. It’s just extraordinary; the action is amazing. There’s the bicycle chase and the famous canopies stunt. You have the ending, with the sticks of dynamite and rolling people up in carpets. Pound for pound it’s one of the best Jackie Chan films.

Evans: 100 per cent. I rewatched that film so often it was unreal. It was his first film that had a scale to it. A lot of those films predating it were mainly traditional martial-arts films, with that old- school vibe. They would climax in a big fight in a field. Project A was still a period piece, technically, but it had big set-pieces and big sets. It’s beautifully made as well. But one of my favourites, a film that stuck with me, is Shaolin Chamber Of Death, from 1976. It was one of his early films and he has maybe three lines of dialogue. He plays a mute student at the Shaolin Temple, and it climaxes with a duel where he’s learned all the bad guy’s dirty tricks but has also taken on the good teaching of the Shaolin monks. It’s a traditional revenge tale, as cheesy as anything, but I remember being taken by it.

Wright: I’ve never seen that one. I should see it. Evans: It doesn’t get talked about a whole lot, but it meant a lot to me as a kid.

Wright: My next one is Wheels On Meals. It’s most famous for a showdown between Jackie Chan and Benny Urquidez, aka ‘Benny The Jet’. He was John Cusack’s trainer and was in Grosse Pointe Blank. The legend goes that Benny The Jet did not know how to pull his punches, and wasn’t doing stage fighting, so there are several parts where Jackie gets hit and you can see that he looks a lot more angry than he ever had before.

Evans: There are loads of little details in that fight. Benny throws a kick and Jackie ducks it but the wind of the kick blows out four candles. I’m going to go for Police Story next. That changed everything for me in terms of my appreciation of action cinema and martial arts. That finale in the shopping centre I don’t think has been topped. It’s got so much energy and drive, and the gags are brilliantly designed to fit that location. I never knew a human being could fit between the barriers of an escalator before.

Wright: I agree. When people say, “What’s the best Jackie Chan film?” I usually waver between Project A and Police Story. He was coming off his second or third failure in the US, but he went back to Hong Kong and didn’t just double down. He tripled down. Police Story kind of erupts onto the screen with such ferocity. It really feels like a ‘fuck you’ to America: “I’m going to make the best action film of all time!” There’s the opening car chase through the shanty town, which is ripped off in Bad Boys II, and the whole bus sequence is incredible. It just keeps on going.

Evans: There’s loads of gnarly little moments in there that don’t feel like martial arts. When we were doing The Raid, that was a major influence

on us. It was about adapting to the moment. But in 1985, he was shooting Heart Of Dragon at the same time as Police Story. He’d grab two hours’ sleep in the car. Police Story is a film he’s directing as well. So he’s jumping off a balcony in a shopping centre and getting third-degree burns on his hands in Police Story, and the next day he’s doing a gentle drama with Sammo Hung. It’s insane.

Wright: We’ve already mentioned Armour Of God, which maybe isn’t quite as sophisticated as Project A or Police Story, but it’s so much fun. It’s overshadowed a bit by his near-fatal accident, but the actual film is a good caper.

Evans: That’s why I love it as well. When I was writing Merantau, I knew I needed to rewatch everything, to learn the genre inside out. And the fight against the monks was the first time I was consciously aware of why I was responding to his fight sequences. They have an internal rhythm. I’ve always found that fascinating and have strived to achieve that ever since.

Wright: It’s almost like it’s got a click track or something. You can close your eyes and hear it. He did a couple of sequels, which are really good. Project A Part II is maybe not quite as distinguished as the first, but it has more death-defying Buster Keaton stunts in it. It seems that Jackie is going all out to kill himself in Project A Part II and it’s highly entertaining.

Evans: That’s another one he directed. The set-pieces are incredible. The structure falling down around him is pure Keaton.

Wright: Is your next one Police Story 2?

Evans: Either that or Dragons Forever. Wright: Dragons Forever we have to talk about. But Police Story 2 is another one that doesn’t quite have the charm of the first, but it has a couple of really ferocious bits. There’s a set-piece where Jackie Chan takes on a gang in a children’s playground, and it’s brutal. But Dragons Forever is peak Jackie. The ending of that movie, the rematch with Benny The Jet, is astonishing. I’ve watched that whole film once, but I’ve watched the last 25 minutes 20 times.

Evans: I love the boat fight where they come to attack him and there are some great rhythms and energy in that. But the finale is so, so good.

Wright: The next one I have is Miracles. I think that’s Jackie Chan’s favourite movie of his. It’s really lushly done. There’s great action, but the feeling you take away is how well-made it is.

Evans: It’s a shame Jackie didn’t direct more after Miracles. It’s a nostalgia piece; it’s not cruel or mean, it’s joyful to watch. Some of the stunt work in that film is tough. There’s stuff on a spiral staircase which is incredible; the timing is perfect.

It feels like Jackie is balancing his filmmaker sensibilities and his action sensibilities.

Wright: It feels like the apex of what he’s doing in Hong Kong. What happens next is the start of breaking into international stardom. But the next one, which is sort of ruined in its American version, is Police Story 3: Supercop. The Hong Kong version is extraordinary. The final sequence, with Michelle Yeoh riding a motorbike onto a moving train, has some insane stunt work. And I have one more. I’m sure you have this as well: Drunken Master II.

Evans: It’s widely considered to be the last of his big, big hitters. It’s peak Jackie in terms of the choreography and the action design. The fight with Ken Lo and Jackie against the fire and the coals is extraordinary.

Wright: There’s a fight with an axe gang and Jackie eventually defends himself with split bamboo. It feels like the end of something, in terms of he can’t go any further with that.

There are none of his Hollywood films on your lists…

Wright: They’re fun, but there’s nothing in any of those movies where you say, “If you want to see the best of Jackie Chan, see this.”

Evans: I have a soft spot for Shanghai Noon.