Building Slide

You can't go wrong with Jackie Chan.  From Who Am I? (1996), this slide is on a building in Rotterdam, Netherlands.  It was so much fun seeing Jackie's movies in the 90s with the THC Son.  Movie like this were made by Jackie and his Hong Kong production team and featured stunts much more daring than he was allowed to do during his time in Hollywood.

As long as we're here, this is a video on his craziest stunts (which includes the building slide).  I think the craziest are the leap off the snowboard onto a helicopter and sliding down a pole with light bulbs and live electricity.  The #1 stunt here was actually fairly routine but went badly wrong giving Jackie the worst injury of his career, a fractured skull.  Notably this video does not include his jump off a skyscraper in Kuala Lumpur on to a ladder hanging from a helicopter.

The Master Of Action Comedy

A video by the same guy who did Art Of The Gag, featuring Buster Keaton.  This features the one and only Jackie Chan.  The first Jackie movie I saw was Rumble In The Bronx in the early 90s.  After that I tracked down his older movies and saw every new one that came out, most of them with my son.  Some of those fights and stunts are simply astonishing.  Long cuts, no CGI.  The video does a fine job explaining the essentials of Jackie's approach to comedy and action, including explaining the difference between his Hong Kong and American films.

At around 7:30 you see the mall stunt from Police Story, when he slides down a light pole, with live wires and bulbs of course.  Don't try any of this at home.

Art Of The Visual Gag

Good explainer on the silent movie star Buster Keaton, why these gags hold up so well a century later, and how he inspired so many film makers over the years.  One of my favorites, Jackie Chan, has often spoken of his admiration for Keaton and you can see Keaton's inspiration in many of the Jackie's memorable stunt scenes.

 

The Helicopter Hang

Jackie Chan turns 65 today.  Happy birthday Jackie!  In honor of this auspicious occasion here is Jackie telling the story of his famous helicopter hang scene from Supercop, filmed in Kuala Lumpur.

First, here's the scene (the girl in the scene is the fabulous Michelle Yeoh):


And now Jackie tells the story:

Jackie Chan acts out, retells helicopter stunt in "Supercop" [8:04] from r/mealtimevideos

And for those wanting more this is Michelle Yeoh's motorcyle leap from the same film.

The Legend Of Drunken Master

As an aficionado of Jackie Chan films we've featured many of his stunts and comic turns on this blog.  The climax of The Legend of Drunken Master is considered by many his best fight scene.  Without further ado:

The Master Of Comedy/Action

Combining the comedy chops of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd with martial arts and acrobatics skills learned at the China Drama Academy, Jackie Chan is the finest practitioner of action and comedy in film.  THC has been a huge fan ever since seeing Rumble In The Bronx many years ago which prompted him to go back and watch the catalogue of Jackie's China-made films.

While he's enjoyed Jackie's more recent American-made films, particularly his partnerships with Owen Wilson (Shanghai Noon) and Chris Tucker (Rush Hour), they felt less satisfying than his China movies because of the truncated action scenes.

Now thanks to this primer (brought to his attention by the THC Son) we can understand better from a technical perspective how Jackie combines comedy and action and why his American films are so different from Hong Kong-made classics like the Police Story series and Legend Of Drunken Master.  Jackie himself appears in the video to explain.  The key differences; camera placement, editing and the extraordinarily long time he is allowed to take perfecting action and comedy sequences for the China films.  Plus, one factor not mentioned - insurance coverage in the U.S. will simply not allow him to take the same risks as in China.

The video also features some of his best action/comedy sequences including, at 7:27, the climax of the first Police Story movie featuring one of Jackie's craziest stunts, sliding down a pole festooned with lightbulbs and the electricity on (yes, he was injured)!

Best Movie Of 2015?

What might be the best new movie of 2015 will be released (in China) next month.

What is it? 

As readers of this blog know, THC holds Mr Jackie Chan is the highest regard (he's even read I Am Jackie Chan) and also fascinated with ancient Rome.  So what could be better than Roman soldiers encountering the Han Dynasty in a film starring Jackie Chan (along with John Cusack and Adrian Brody)?

It's called Dragon Blade.  Can't wait for the U.S. release!  Here's the trailer:

Be Careful

As you're getting ready to go out tonight remember to be careful and don't do anything crazy!

Supercop

Last night THC caught Supercop for the first time in several years.  It's the third film in the great Jackie Chan's Police Story trilogy and co-stars Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).  Michelle, playing a Chinese Police Inspector, holds her own with Jackie, as a Hong Kong cop, in the 1992 film.  They are both undercover seeking to break up a drug smuggling gang with action set in China, Hong Kong, Thailand and Malaysia.

The climactic action sequence is set in Malaysia's capitol of Kuala Lumpur and includes incredible stunts by both Jackie (the helicopter sequence) and Michelle (a motorcycle leap on to the top of a moving train).  No CGI or blue screen here and you can't say no one was hurt in the making of the film.

Below are the three key final sequences along with the outtakes showing what happens when the stunts don't go quite as planned.

In this first sequence it's Michelle with the headscarf and Jackie dressed in yellow.

Next up is the helicopter hang.

Michelle's cycle leap.

The outtakes including the botched cycle leap.

Chan The Man Unusual 2

Jackie Chan is the best, and funniest, movie action star and has been featured before on THC.  His finest movies were made before he became a star in U.S. productions like Shanghai Noon and Rush Hour.  While THC enjoyed those films, the insurance and liability concerns of U.S. producers and studios limited the extent of stunt craziness that Jackie was allowed.

Below is a compilation of his ten favorite stunts according to his autobiography I Am Jackie Chan, a book THC proudly owns and has read - twice.  No doubles and no CGI on any of it.  Stunts 8 and 5 are tributes to two of his inspirations, Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton, and if you're familiar with their silent films you'll recognize the set ups.  Stunt 9, the Glass Slide, was done with live electricity and Stunt 6, the Building Slide (shot in Rotterdam) involved sliding down a 22 story incline with no net.  And, yes, on Stunt 7 he jumped onto a rope ladder hanging from a helicopter and on Stunt 3 he jumped onto a balloon.

The video quality is not the best, but it's good enough.

Chan The Man Unusual

The best stunt and fight guy ever, and very funny.  Jackie Chan took his Chinese martial arts training and influences and added inspiration from Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, the great silent film comedy stars.   I've seen more than 20 of his movies and, yes, I've actually read his autobiography, I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action.

Here's a fight scene from Rumble in the Bronx, his breakthrough film in the U.S, and the first Jackie Chan film I saw (my son and I immediately went out and rented five more of his movies).  Although the film is set in the Bronx it looks to me like it was filmed in Vancouver, Canada (unless there is a mountain range in the Bronx and regular Hovercraft service between Manhattan and the Bronx - note: the Hovercraft runs over Jackie!).