'Jackie Chan'
SBS, (born
April 7,
1954), also known as 'Sing Lung' (), born 'Chan Kong Sang' (), is a
Chinese actor,
director,
martial artist,
film producer,
screenwriter,
singer and
stunt performer.
Chan is one of the best-known names in
kung fu and
action films worldwide for his
acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, use of
improvised weapons and innovative
stunts. He has appeared in over 100
films and has received stars on the
Hong Kong Avenue of Stars and the
Hollywood Walk of Fame. A
Cantopop star, he has released 20 albums since 1984 and sung many of the
theme songs for the films in which he has starred.
Childhood and beginnings
Jackie Chan was born in 1954 on
Victoria Peak,
Hong Kong, as Chan Kong Sang (meaning "born in Hong Kong") to
Charles and Lee-Lee Chan, refugees from the
Chinese Civil War. He was nicknamed ''Pao Pao'' (, literally meaning "Cannonball") because he was always rolling around as an infant.
[1] Since his parents worked for the French
ambassador to Hong Kong, Chan spent his formative years within the grounds of the ambassador's residence in the Victoria Peak district.
[ Biography of Jackie Chan ]
Chan attended the Nah-Hwa Primary School on
Hong Kong Island, where he failed his first year, after which his parents withdrew him from the school. In 1960, his father emigrated to
Canberra,
Australia to work as head cook for the American embassy, and Chan was sent to the Chinese Drama Academy, a
Peking Opera School run by Master
Yu Jim Yuen.
[ Jackie Chan Battles Illegal Wildlife Trade ]
Chan trained rigorously for the next decade, excelling in martial arts and acrobatics.[2] He eventually joined the Seven Little Fortunes, a performance group made up of the school's best students, gaining the stage name Yuen Lo in homage to his master. Chan became close friends with fellow group members Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, the three of them later to be known as the ''Three Brothers'' or ''Three Dragons''.[3]
At the age of 8, he appeared with some of his fellow "Little Fortunes", in the film ''Big and Little Wong Tin Bar'' (1962), with Li Li Hua playing his mother. Chan appeared with Li again the following year, in ''The Love Eterne'' (1963) and had a small role in King Hu's 1966 film, ''Come Drink with Me''.
After an appearance as an extra in another King Hu film, ''A Touch of Zen'', Chan began his adult career in the film industry. At the age of 17, he worked as a stuntman in the Bruce Lee films ''Fist of Fury'' and ''Enter the Dragon'' under the stage name Chen Yuen Long.[4] He received his first starring role later that year, in ''Little Tiger of Canton'', which had a limited release in Hong Kong in 1973.[5]
Chan joined his parents in Canberra in 1976, where he briefly attended Dickson College and worked as a construction worker.[6] A fellow builder named Jack took Chan under his wing, earning Chan the nickname of "Little Jack" which was later shortened to "Jackie".[7] In addition, Chan changed his Chinese name to Fong Si Lung, since his father's original surname was Fong.7
Film career
Early exploits: 1976–1980
The 1978 film ''
Drunken Master'' brought Jackie Chan into the mainstream.
In 1976, Jackie Chan received a telegram from Willie Chan, a film producer in the Hong Kong film industry who had been impressed with Jackie's stuntwork. Willie Chan offered him an acting role in a film directed by Lo Wei, who planned to model him after Bruce Lee with the film ''New Fist of Fury''. His stage name was changed to Sing Lung (Chinese: 成龍, literally "become the dragon") to emphasise his similarity to Bruce Lee, whose stage name was Lei Siu Lung (Chinese: 李小龍, meaning "Little Dragon"). The film was unsuccessful because Chan was not accustomed to Lee's martial arts style. Despite the film's failure, Lo Wei continued producing films with similar themes, resulting in little improvement at the box office.[8]
Chan's first major breakthrough was the 1978 film ''Snake in the Eagle's Shadow'', shot while he was loaned to Seasonal Film Corporation under a two-picture deal.[9] Under director Yuen Woo Ping, Chan was allowed complete freedom over his stunt work. The film established the comedic kung fu genre, and proved to be a breath of fresh air for the Hong Kong audience.[10] Chan then starred in ''Drunken Master'', which finally propelled him to mainstream success.[11]
Upon Chan's return to Lo Wei's studio, Lo tried to replicate the comedic approach of ''Drunken Master'', producing ''Half a Loaf of Kung Fu'' and ''Spiritual Kung Fu''.7 He also gave Chan the opportunity to co-direct ''Fearless Hyena'' with Kenneth Tsang. When Willie Chan left the company, he advised Jackie to decide for himself whether to or not to stay with Lo Wei. During the shooting of Fearless Hyena Part II, Chan broke his contract and joined Golden Harvest, prompting Lo to blackmail Chan with triads, blaming Willie for his star's departure. The dispute was resolved with the help of fellow actor and director Jimmy Wang Yu, allowing Chan to stay with Golden Harvest.[12]
Success of the action comedy genre: 1980–1987
The film ''
Police Story'', nicknamed "Glass Story" for its stunt work, is set in a modern period.
Willie Chan had become Jackie's personal manager and firm friend, and has remained so for over 30 years. He was instrumental in launching Chan's international career, beginning with his first forays into the American film industry in the 1980s.
His first Hollywood film was ''Battle Creek Brawl'' in 1980. Chan then played a minor role in the 1981 film ''The Cannonball Run'', which grossed US$100 million worldwide. Despite being largely ignored by audiences in favour of established American actors like Burt Reynolds, Chan was impressed by the outtakes shown at the closing credits, inspiring him to include the same device in his future films. After the commercial failure of ''The Protector'' in 1985, Chan temporarily abandoned his attempts to break into the US market, returning his focus to Hong Kong films.
Back in Hong Kong, Chan's films began to reach a larger audience in East Asia, with early successes in the lucrative Japanese market including ''The Young Master'' (1980) and ''Dragon Lord'' (1982).
Chan produced a number of action comedy films with his opera school friends Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. The three co-starred together for the first time in 1983 in ''Project A'', which won the Best Action Design Award at the third annual Hong Kong Film Awards.[13] Over the following two years, the "Three Brothers" appeared in ''Wheels on Meals'' and the original ''Lucky Stars'' trilogy.[14][15] In 1985, Chan made the first ''Police Story'' film, a US-influenced action comedy in which Chan performed his own stunts. It was named the "Best Movie" at the 1986 Hong Kong Film Awards.[16]
In 1987, Chan played "Asian Hawk", an Indiana Jones-esque character, in the film ''Armour of God''. The film was Chan's biggest domestic box office success to date, grossing over HK $35 million.[17]
Acclaimed sequels and Hollywood breakthrough: 1988–1998
In 1988 Chan starred alongside Hung and Yuen for the last time to date, in the film ''Dragons Forever''. Hung co-directed with Corey Yuen, and the villain in the film was Yuen Wah, both of whom were fellow graduates of the China Drama Academy.
In the late 1980s and early 90s, Chan starred in a number of successful sequels beginning with ''Police Story 2'', which won the award for Best Action Choreography at the 1989 Hong Kong Film Awards. This was followed by '', and ''Police Story 3'', for which Chan won the Best Actor Award at the 1993 Golden Horse Film Festival. In 1994, Chan reprised his role as Wong Fei Hung in ''Drunken Master II'', which was listed in ''Time Magazine's'' All-Time 100 Movies.[18] Another sequel, '', brought more awards and domestic box office success for Chan, but did not fare as well in foreign markets.[19]
Jackie Chan rekindled his Hollywood ambitions in the 1990s, but refused early offers to play villains in Hollywood films to avoid being typecast in future roles. For example, Sylvester Stallone offered him the role of Simon Phoenix, a criminal in the futuristic film ''Demolition Man''. Chan declined and the role was taken by Wesley Snipes.[20]
Chan finally succeeded in establishing a foothold in the North American market in 1995 with a worldwide release of ''Rumble in the Bronx'', attaining a cult following in the United States that was rare for Hong Kong movie stars.[21] He then co-starred with Chris Tucker in the 1998 buddy cop action comedy ''Rush Hour'',[22] grossing US$130 million in the United States alone.
Dramatisation: 1998–present
In 1998, Chan released his final film for Golden Harvest, ''Who Am I?''. After leaving Golden Harvest in 1999, he produced ''Gorgeous'', a romantic comedy that focused on personal relationships.[23] Chan then helped create a PlayStation game in 2000 called ''Jackie Chan Stuntmaster'', to which he lent his voice and performed the motion capture.[24] Starting that year, Chan voiced a fictionalised version of himself in the animated series ''Jackie Chan Adventures'', which ran until 2005.[25]
Despite further success with ''Shanghai Noon'' in 2000, ''Rush Hour 2'' in 2001 and ''Shanghai Knights'' in 2003, Chan became frustrated with Hollywood over the limited range of roles and lack of control over the film-making process.[26] In response to Golden Harvest's withdrawal from the film industry in 2003, Chan started his own film production company, Jackie Chan Emperor Movies Limited (JCE).[ His films have since featured an increasing number of dramatic scenes while continuing to succeed at the box office; examples include ''New Police Story'' (2004), ''The Myth'' (2005) and ''Rob-B-Hood'' (2006).[27][28][29]]
Chan's most recent release was ''Rush Hour 3'' in August 2007, which performed well at the U.S. box office, grossing over US$100 million.[30] However, it performed poorly in Hong Kong, grossing only HK$3.5 million during its opening weekend.[31] Chan has begun work on ''The Forbidden Kingdom'', his first onscreen collaboration with fellow Chinese actor Jet Li.[32][33] In November 2007, Chan will begin filming ''Shinjuku Incident'' with director Derek Yee, which sees Chan take on the role of a Chinese immigrant in Japan.[34] According to his blog, Chan wishes to direct a film after completing ''Shinjuku Incident'', something he has not done for a number of years.[35] The film is expected to be the third in the Armour of God series, and has a working title of ''.[36]
Stunts
Jackie Chan prepares to slide down the side of a building in ''
New Police Story''.
Jackie Chan performs most of his own stunts, which are choreographed by the Jackie Chan Stunt Team. Since the team's establishment in 1983, Chan has used it in all his subsequent films to make choreographing easier, given his understanding of each member's abilities.[23] Chan and his team undertake many of the stunts performed by other characters in his films, shooting the scenes such that their faces are obscured.[38]
The dangerous nature of his stunts makes it difficult for Chan to get insurance, especially in the United States, where his stunt work is contractually limited.[ Chan holds the Guinness World Record for "Most Stunts By A Living Actor", which emphasises "no insurance company will underwrite Chan's productions, in which he performs all his own stunts".[39] In addition, he holds an unrecognised record for the most number of takes for a single shot in a film, having shot over 2900 retakes for a complex scene involving a badminton game in ''Dragon Lord''.[40] ]
Chan has been injured numerous times attempting stunts; many of them have been shown as outtakes or bloopers during the closing credits of his films. He came closest to death filming ''Armour of God'', when he fell from a tree and fractured his skull, resulting in a permanent hole in his head. Over the years, Chan has dislocated his pelvis and broken his fingers, toes, nose, both cheekbones, hips, sternum, neck and ribs on numerous occasions.[41][42]
Screen persona and filmography
Jackie Chan created his screen persona as a response to Bruce Lee, and the numerous imitators who appeared before and after Lee's death. In contrast to Lee's characters, who were typically stern, morally upright heroes, Chan plays well-meaning, slightly foolish regular guys (often at the mercy of their friends, girlfriends or families) who always triumph in the end despite the odds.
In recent years, the aging Chan grew tired of being typecast as an action hero, prompting him to act with more emotion in his latest films.[43] In ''New Police Story'', he portrayed a character suffering from alcoholism and mourning his murdered colleagues.[44] To further shed the image of Mr. Nice Guy, Chan played an anti-hero for the first time in ''Rob-B-Hood'' starring as Thongs, a burglar with gambling problems.[45]
Image and celebrity status
Jackie Chan's fashion shop on the Avenue of Stars, Hong Kong
Jackie Chan has received worldwide recognition for his acting, having won several awards including an Innovator Award from the American Choreography Awards and a lifetime achievement award from the Taurus World Stunt Awards.[46] He has stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Hong Kong Avenue of Stars.[47] Chan is a cultural icon, having been referenced in Ash's song "Kung Fu" and television shows ''Celebrity Deathmatch'' and ''Family Guy''. He has been the inspiration for manga such as ''Dragon Ball'' [48], the character Lei Wulong in ''Tekken'' and the fighting-type Pokémon Hitmonchan.[23][23][51]
A number of video games have featured Jackie Chan. Before 'Stuntmaster', Chan already had a game of his own a PC-Engine video game, Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu was released in 1990 followed by an NES version. In 1995, Jackie Chan The Kung-Fu Master (aka Jackie Chan in Fists of Fire), an arcade fighting game from Kaneko, was released. The game features digitized fighters and the bosses are three different versions of Jackie Chan. There were a series of Japanese Jackie Chan games released on MSX by a company called 'Pony', which were all based on his movies (Project A, Project A 2, Police Story, The Protector and Sparatan X "Wheels On Meals").[52]
Jackie Chan is a successful singer in Hong Kong and Asia, having begun producing records professionally in the 1980s. He often sings the theme songs of his films, playing them during the closing credits.[[53] In 2004, Chan launched his own line of clothing, which bears a Chinese dragon logo and the English word "Jackie".[54]]
Despite considerable box office success in Hollywood, Chan's American films have been criticised with respect to the action choreography. Reviewers of ''Rush Hour 2'', ''The Tuxedo'', and ''Shanghai Knights'' criticised the toning down of Chan's fighting scenes, citing less intensity compared to his earlier films.[55][56][57] The comedic value of his films is questioned, some critics stated it can be childish at times.[58]
Chan has always wanted to be a role model to children, remaining popular with them due to his good-natured acting style. He has refused to play villains and has never used the word ''fuck'' in his films.[59] Chan's greatest regret in life is not having received proper education,[60] inspiring him to fund educational institutions around the world. He funded the construction of the Jackie Chan Science Centre at the Australian National University[61] and the establishment of schools in poor regions of China.[62]
Chan with Disney favourites during the opening ceremony of Hong Kong Disneyland
Chan is a spokesperson for the Government of Hong Kong, appearing in public service announcements. In a ''Clean Hong Kong'' commercial, he urged the people of Hong Kong to be more considerate with regards to littering, a problem that has been widespread for decades.[23] Furthermore, in an advertisement promoting nationalism, he gave a short explanation of the ''March of the Volunteers'', the national anthem of the People's Republic of China.[64] When Hong Kong Disneyland opened in 2005, Chan participated in the opening ceremony.[65] In the United States, Chan appeared alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in a government advert to combat piracy and made another public service announcement with Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca to encourage people, especially Asians, to join the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.[66][67]
Chan is a keen philanthropist and a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, having worked tirelessly to champion charitable works and causes. He has campaigned for conservation, against animal abuse and has promoted disaster relief efforts for floods in mainland China and the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.[[68][69] In June 2006, he announced the donation of half his assets to charity upon his death, citing his admiration of the effort made by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates to help those in need.[70]]
Personal life
In 1982, Jackie Chan married , a Taiwanese actress. The two had a son the same year, singer and actor Jaycee Chan.[ ]
See also
★ Cinema of China
★ Cinema of Hong Kong
★ Hong Kong action cinema
References
1. Biography of Jackie Chan
2. Biography of Jackie Chan
3. Seven Little Fortunes
4. Men of the Week: Entertainment, Jackie Chan
5. Real Lives: Jackie Chan
6. Jackie Chan's tears for 'greatest' mother Monika Boogs
7. Jackie Chan - Actor and Stuntman
8. Jackie Chan, a martial arts success story
9. Jackie Chan
10. Snake in the Eagle's Shadow
11. Drunken Master
12. Jackie Chan profile
13. Project A Review
14. Sammo Hung Profile
15. Yuen Biao Profile
16. Police Story (1985)
17. Armour of God
18. Drunken Master II - All-Time 100 Movies
19. Police Story 4 review
20. Black Delights in Demolition Man
21. Rumble in the Bronx review
22. Rush Hour Review
23.
24. Jackie Chan Stuntmaster Review
25. Voice actors of Jackie Chan Adventures
26. Jackie Chan Biography
27. New Police Story Review
28. The Myth Review
29. Rob-B-Hood Review
30. Rush Hour 3 Box Office Data
31. Jackie Chan's 'Rush Hour 3' performs poorly at Hong Kong box office
32. Rush Hour 3 Production Status
33. Jackie Chan and Jet Li Will Fight In "Forbidden Kingdom"
34. Shinjuku Incident Starts Shooting in November
35. Singapore Trip
36. Jackie Chan's Operation Condor 3
37.
38. Jackie Chan Interview
39. January 2003 News Archives
40. Dragon Lord Review
41. The Official Jackie Chan Injury Map
42. Jackie Chan re-injures back while filming
43. Jackie Chan: From action maestro to serious actor
44.
45. For the first time, Chan plays an unconventional role in his newest comedy (成龙首次尝试反派 联手陈木胜再拍动作喜剧)
46. Jackie Chan From Hong Kong to Receive Stunt Award
47. Jackie Chan's Walk of Fame Star
48. Inspiration for Dragonball
49.
50.
51.
52. Jackie Chan Video Games
53.
54. Fashion leap for Jackie Chan as Kung-fu star promotes new clobber
55. Rush Hour 2 Review
56. The Tuxedo Review
57. Shanghai Knights Review
58. Around the World in 80 Days Review
59. Jackie Chan Wants to Be Role Model
60. Candid Chan: Action star Jackie Chan takes on students' questions
61.
62. Biography of Jackie Chan (Page 8)
63.
64. Hong Kong marshal Jackie Chan to Boost Nationalism
65. Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-fat among VIPs invited to HK Disneyland opening
66. Anti-piracy advert
67. Jackie Chan Kicks Off Sheriff's Recruitment Effort
68. Jackie Chan Urges China to 'Have a Heart' for Dogs
69. UNICEF People: Jackie Chan
70. Jackie Chan looks to bequeath half of wealth
Further reading
★ Jackie Chan, ''I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action'', Ballantine Books (June 28, 1999), ISBN 0-345-42913-3.
★ Curtis F. Wong and John R. Little, ''Jackie Chan (Best of Inside Kung-Fu)'', McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (December 11, 1998), ISBN 0-8092-2837-8.
External links
★ Jackiechan.com - Jackie Chan's official website
★ Jackie Chan Kids Corner
★ Detailed biography on the life and works of Jackie
★ Jackie Chan at Rotten Tomatoes
★
★ Jackie Chan's charity work
★ More details on Jackie Chan's music career
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