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March 28, 2024, 12:44:40 PM

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Jackie Chan

Started by Chedney Honks, December 19, 2020, 04:50:54 PM

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Chedney Honks

I've really been getting into Chan of late, having watched and loved Drunken Master about fifteen years ago and recently watched this superb restoration on BD.



The humour is obviously dated and extremely broad but it's all part of the charm, really. It brings a lightness to some spectacular violence. The sound effects are superb, extremely unnatural but perfectly complement and lift the fight sequences.

This then led me to pick up a few more Chan and so far, I've watched the magnificent Police Story and I am hooked. It's also had a fucking brilliant restoration by Eureka along with its sequel, and I'd massively recommend it. The action sequences are frankly berserk.



I've now got the sequel, Project A 1&2, plus Meals on Wheels to watch. I do want to get Drunken Master 2/Legend of Drunken Master but the releases have largely been butchered. Best bet is to import the Japanese special boxset release but a bit pricey at this point. Fingers crossed that Eureka bang this one out, too!

Any other fans of the real JC?

I like his earlier stuff too, but Rumble in the Bronx is still my favourite in all its ridiculous, mountainous-New York City glory.

petercussing

Chan thoughts:

-Loved Jack Chan since i was about 11 and saw Wheels on Meal and Rozzer Story.

-At one time could easily be described as the biggest film star in the world and one of the most iconic actors ever. 

-The Young Master is a good one, watch it.

-I pilfered a huge file with all his films i keep meaning to get stuck into with my eyes.

-Heard rumours he's secretly a cunt, but he seems ace, superficially.

-Poor dude wanted to be loved so much he totes broke up his human body for us. Pure body of christ type stuff there, sunz.

BeardFaceMan

Because of unions/health & safety/Chan being pissed the fuck off with making shitty US films/common sense, youll never see the type of action scenes that Chan made in Police Story and the like ever again (sometime of the stuff that came out of Thailand and Indonesia came close but i don't think anything will ever beat the final sequence of Police Story for pure action and craziness). Dude was fucking fearless and had the talent to back it up.

Rizla

Not watched Police Story in years, magnificent film. His Hollywood work doesn't come close. I saw an interview where he explained that it's all down to the editing - HK editors will cut fight scenes so you basically see the punch twice, whereas a hollywood editor cuts around the blows to disguise the inferior stuntwork.

greenman

Quote from: BeardFaceMan on December 19, 2020, 05:30:13 PM
Because of unions/health & safety/Chan being pissed the fuck off with making shitty US films/common sense, youll never see the type of action scenes that Chan made in Police Story and the like ever again (sometime of the stuff that came out of Thailand and Indonesia came close but i don't think anything will ever beat the final sequence of Police Story for pure action and craziness). Dude was fucking fearless and had the talent to back it up.

The big difference as well is that Chan's 80's stuff is basically Buster Keaton with the danger dialed up, its typically quite good natured and focused strongly on originality rather than just brutality.

I would recommend the Project A films Ched, the original maybe my favorite Chan from that era and I think holds together nicely overall rather than just being about waiting for the big action scenes.

phantom_power

I got to watch a load of Chan films when Channel 4 had a season of his films. Remember when Channel 4 was good

BeardFaceMan

That was how I got into JC too, stumbled across one of his films during a season of them on Channel 4 one xmas and literally couldn't believe what I was seeing. They did a season of Chinese ghost story kung fu films too with Sammo Hung, proper good shit.

Magnum Valentino

Jonathan Ross did a good episode of his Incredibly Strange Film Show on the set of one of Jackie's films, which is on one of the Eureka blu-rays mentioned earlier, and probably Youtube too.

Remember when Jonathan Ross was good less not-as-good?

PlanktonSideburns

more stories about cunt-jackie-chan please

Magnum Valentino

No way. More stories about that film where he kicks fuck out of the IRA!

Urinal Cake

#11
Quote from: PlanktonSideburns on December 19, 2020, 11:08:28 PM
more stories about cunt-jackie-chan please
He had an autobiography where he came clean about his shiitiness. Pretty standard celebrity stuff -womaniser, big spender, treated people like rubbish, threw his infant son across the room and had a kid with his mistress who he doesn't really see. But the biggest sin on this forum is that he is an apologist for the CCP.

greenman

I'm guessing a lot of Chan's films are now made with mainland rather than Hong Kong money?

Urinal Cake

I presume so. Also from what I gather he's become more socially conservative (possibly due to learning lessons from his youthful hedonism) and is a 'law and order' guy especially with his son being found with drugs etc. For him the CCP offers that. I guess he's the Chinese Clint Eastwood but I guess more likeable in interviews.

That said for his movies he's indeed a fucking legend. Utterly fearless, great stunts and really flipped the script for martial arts films by making them set in the modern day and changing what was considered leading man material.

Naturally, there is a weird double standard where Chinese celebrities are deemed stooges if they don't publicly adopt an extreme minoritarian, possibly career-ending, and ultimately meaningless political stance against the Chinese government and in favour of the U.S. government.

Urinal Cake

I think it's more about HK, Taiwan and the Chinese diaspora. It's about how Jackie built his career in HK due to it's freedom and money to later seemingly turn his back on it by extolling the CCP's virtues.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: phantom_power on December 19, 2020, 08:54:17 PM
I got to watch a load of Chan films when Channel 4 had a season of his films. Remember when Channel 4 was good

I discovered Chan via Jonathan Ross' The Incredibly Strange Film Show, which presumably triggered that C4 season. Yes, kids, there was once a time when Jonathan Ross was worth watching. I love the fact that, as soon as he became famous, he used that platform to promote all the 'nerdy' cult stuff he's passionate about.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Magnum Valentino on December 19, 2020, 10:04:50 PM
Jonathan Ross did a good episode of his Incredibly Strange Film Show on the set of one of Jackie's films, which is on one of the Eureka blu-rays mentioned earlier, and probably Youtube too.

Remember when Jonathan Ross was good less not-as-good?

Oops, sorry. I should've read on before posting.

Famous Mortimer

I used to love "Dragons Forever" as the purest example of everything he, Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung were best at; it's still a technically incredible film while having some plot elements that have aged less than well. Even by the standards of the location and time, its sexism is pretty bad.

Gulftastic

I liked that Prince cover he did.

Chedney Honks

Quote from: Famous Mortimer on December 20, 2020, 05:50:50 AM
I used to love "Dragons Forever" as the purest example of everything he, Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung were best at; it's still a technically incredible film while having some plot elements that have aged less than well. Even by the standards of the location and time, its sexism is pretty bad.

Thanks for this, never heard of it before but supposedly another stunning BD transfer released this year. Just ordered it. Looking forward to it!

Magnum Valentino

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on December 20, 2020, 05:05:37 AM
I discovered Chan via Jonathan Ross' The Incredibly Strange Film Show, which presumably triggered that C4 season. Yes, kids, there was once a time when Jonathan Ross was worth watching. I love the fact that, as soon as he became famous, he used that platform to promote all the 'nerdy' cult stuff he's passionate about.

Same, no matter how awful his chat show is and will always be, his documentary about Steve Ditko was fucking ace and he was an early important champion for the likes of Vic and Bob and Higson and Whitehouse.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

And The Last Resort, his first Channel 4 show, was great. People who slag him off presumably aren't aware of his early work, and all the good things he's done.

steveh

I once had a conversation about him with friends in HK, thinking they would be broadly supportive of a local figure who made some fun movies, only to have them lay into him massively over his personal behaviour and selling out to the CCP for money. They reckoned few people from HK would consider themselves fans of him now, and this was prior to the political protests.

Small Man Big Horse

I watched Police Story today due to this thread and liked it a fair deal and the set pieces are really fun. It needs a couple more of them to be deemed a classic however, and the court case in the middle drags on a bit, perhaps my expectations were a little too high and when it's great it's really great, but due to too much plot / filler I didn't enjoy it as much as I was expecting to given it's classic status. 7.2/10

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Pearly-Dewdrops Drops on December 19, 2020, 04:56:05 PM
I like his earlier stuff too, but Rumble in the Bronx is still my favourite in all its ridiculous, mountainous-New York City glory.

I too like this one.

I think Police Story 4/First Strike just pips it though.

Chedney Honks

Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on December 20, 2020, 02:46:49 PM
I watched Police Story today due to this thread and liked it a fair deal and the set pieces are really fun. It needs a couple more of them to be deemed a classic however, and the court case in the middle drags on a bit, perhaps my expectations were a little too high and when it's great it's really great, but due to too much plot / filler I didn't enjoy it as much as I was expecting to given it's classic status. 7.2/10

The court bit does go on a bit, you're right, but just about worth it for the comic denouement and reveal of why Brigitte Lin was giving him the come-on. I also love Maggie Cheung, his girlfriend, who obviously went on to become absolutely massive, most notably in Wong Kar Wai's In The Mood For Love.

I thought that final sequence in the mall was superb. Really made me want to beat up a load of people.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Chedney Honks on December 20, 2020, 03:07:50 PM
The court bit does go on a bit, you're right, but just about worth it for the comic denouement and reveal of why Brigitte Lin was giving him the come-on. I also love Maggie Cheung, his girlfriend, who obviously went on to become absolutely massive, most notably in Wong Kar Wai's In The Mood For Love.

I thought that final sequence in the mall was superb. Really made me want to beat up a load of people.

Yeah, the end to the court bit made it all worthwhile, I just wish it had been shorter, and in some ways it's a film which is a victim of it's own success as the action scenes really are fantastic and so I just wanted more of them.

And blimey, I didn't notice that was Maggie Cheung, I only watched her in Irma Vep about a month ago, and absolutely love her in The Heroic Trio and In The Mood For Love too.

Chedney Honks

Wheeewwww. Artwork on this.



Love it.

Chedney Honks

Quote from: petercussing on December 19, 2020, 05:11:33 PM
Chan thoughts:

-Loved Jack Chan since i was about 11 and saw Wheels on Meals and Rozzer Story.

-The Young Master is a good one, watch it.

I polished this off this afternoon and really enjoyed it. Second half moves through the gears nicely after a lighter, sillier first 45. Very very easy viewing, I love this kind of broad but very Chinese comedy, really reminds me of watching some junk in a little dumpling house, except this has also got some brilliant action in there. The fight at the end with Benny The Jet is superb. It's like me and my brother playing Tekken, no blocking, just pure footsies, ultimate beats.

Also, re: The Young Master

This labour of love fancy boy version is coming out in Jan via 88 Films so I've preordered it:



Seems a lot of people are very excited about it so I'm looking forward to it turning up!