All About Jackie Chan

Top 10 Jackie Chan Movies



1. Drunken Master
Probably the most famous of Jackie Chan's Hong Kong work, and possibly the most popular of all his movies, Drunken Master is also one of Jackie's personal favorites. He plays the legendary Wong Fei Hung during his younger days. Wong Fei Hung endures lengthy sessions of extremely difficult training to master the art of drunken kung fu. The film concludes with a fight scene in which Jackie Chan displays all the traits of the 8 Drunken Immortals. This film is not only a great Jackie Chan film, but a great kung fu movie in general.
Vendor's Site2. Rush Hour
Everyone loves Rush Hour! The pair of Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker makes for a perfect comedy, even if Jackie has to carry all the action. Jackie plays Lee, a Hong Kong detective in Los Angeles to rescue the daughter of a politician, kidnapped by the criminal Lee spent most of his career trying to catch. Carter is a police officer that is barely holding on to his job, who is partnered with Lee simply as a babysitter to keep Lee away from the investigation. Eventually Carter and Lee steal the show and save the girl, proving themselves in the process.
Vendor's Site3. The Fearless Hyena
This film was Jackie Chan's first as director. He plays Lung, a lazy troublemaker who likes to get into fights, despite the fact that his grandfather warns him not to. Unknown to Lung, a murderous general is killing all of the members of his grandfather's clan. When the general sees Lung in a fight, he follows him and murders his grandfather. The grieving and guilt ridden Lung finds a new master and seeks revenge.
Vendor's Site4. Armour of God AKA Operation Condor 2
This Jackie Chan film doesn't get the attention that I think it deserves. It is entertaining and filled with classic Chan comedy and action. It is also famous as the film that nearly killed Jackie. He was supposed to make a jump into a tree, but instead took a nasty fall and was rushed away for emergency surgery.
In this film, Jackie Chan plays Hawk, an adventurer who has to help his friend to save his girlfriend, who also dated Hawk at one point. Cult monks have kidnapped her to force Hawk to find the Armour of God. The ending fight scene is something any Jackie Chan fan will love.

Vendor's Site5. The Young Master
The Young Master is Jackie Chan's first film for the famous Golden Harvest Studios. It also features an amazing, twenty minute long fight scene with Whong In Sik, a Korean Hapkido master who uses the style against Chan's kung fu. Jackie Chan stars as Dragon. Dragon's kung fu brother Tiger betrays the school and goes against them in the annual lion dance competition. He leaves and continues to get into more trouble so Dragon decides to go after him to save the day.
Vendor's Site6. Wheels On Meals
This is one of my favorite films featuring the famous trio of Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung. Wheels on Meals boasts a wonderful fight scene between Jackie and legendary kick boxer Benny "The Jet" Urquidez. The movie as a whole is a showcase of Jackie Chan's comedic acting style and innovative fight scenes, including one involving skateboards. Despite it's silly reversed title, Meals on Wheels is a movie that is worth adding to any Chan collection.
Vendor's Site7. Police Story
In this action flick, Jackie is a cop assigned to take down a drug czar. After successfully arresting the villain, Jackie is forced to watch him walk free on a technicality. As revenge for his arrest, the drug dealer frames Jackie for the murder of another police officer. The only way out of that mess is for Jackie to use any means necessary to prove his innocence and take down the bad guy.
Vendor's Site8. Supercop AKA Police Story 3
Supercop was released in the US in 1996, but the film was originally released in 1992. This film also stars Maggie Cheung and Michelle Yeoh. Jackie plays a cop partnered with a Mainland Chinese policewoman (Yeoh) who is trying to take down a weapons smuggler. Excellent action and fast paced. This is my favorite of the Police Story films, and one the movies that shot Jackie to stardom in the USA.
Vendor's Site9. Rumble In The Bronx
Jackie plays Keung, who is in the US to attend his uncle's wedding. His uncle sells his grocery store to a very unlucky buyer (Anita Mui) and leaves Keung to help her out. Keung ends up fighting with gang members who were stealing. Things get worse when he gets set up by the gang leader's girlfriend, who turns out to be his neighbor! She later apologizes and they become friends. Meanwhile two low level members of the gang steal some diamonds from mobsters. In order to beat them and save all of their lives, Keung and the gang have to team up. This movie features amazing stunts and creative, non-stop action.
Vendor's Site10. Mr. Nice Guy
This movie is hilarious! Jackie is a TV chef in Australia. He meets a reporter and accidentally switches one of his cooking show tapes with one of hers, a surveillance video showing a gang meeting going wrong. The gang of course wants the tape back! The chaos that ensues is the result of the mob and a rival gang all going after this tape, Jackie and the reporter. An entire mansion even gets demolished. If you want a film that has more of the comedy styling of Jackie Chan this is the one for you.
Vendor's Site

From WIKIPEDIA:
Jackie Chan, SBS, MBE[1] (born Chan Kong Sang, 陳港生, on 7 April 1954) is an actor, action choreographer, film director, producer, martial artist, comedian, screenwriter, entrepreneur, singer and stunt performer from Hong Kong.

Chan is one of the best-known names worldwide in the areas of kung fu and action films. In his films, he is known for his acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, use of improvised weapons and innovative stunts. Jackie Chan has been acting since the 1970s and has appeared in over 100 films. Chan has received stars on the Hong Kong Avenue of Stars and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. As a cultural icon, Chan has been referenced in various pop songs, cartoons and video games. Besides acting, Chan is a Cantopop and Mandopop star, having released a number of albums and sung many of the theme songs for the films in which he has starred. In 2008, Chan sang at the 2008 Summer Olympics closing ceremony.[2]
Childhood and beginnings
Chan was born in 1954 in Victoria Peak, Hong Kong (then a British Overseas Territory), 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 (Chinese: 炮炮, literally meaning "Cannonball") because he was always rolling around as an infant.[3] Since his parents worked for the French Consul to Hong Kong, Chan spent his formative years within the grounds of the consul's residence in the Victoria Peak district.[4]

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 China Drama Academy, a Peking Opera School run by Master Yu Jim Yuen.[4][5]

Chan trained rigorously for the next decade, excelling in martial arts and acrobatics.[6] 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.[7]


Jackie Chan began his film career as a stuntman in the Bruce Lee films Fist of Fury (1972) and Enter the Dragon (1973, pictured).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. In 1971, after an appearance as an extra in another King Hu film, A Touch of Zen, Chan began his adult career in the film industry, initially signing to Chu Mu's Great Earth Film Company.[8] 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.[9] He received his first starring role later that year, in Little Tiger of Canton, which had a limited release in Hong Kong in 1973.[10]

After the commercial failures in his early ventures into films and trouble finding stunt work, Chan joined his parents in Canberra in 1976, where he briefly attended Dickson College and worked as a construction worker.[11] A fellow builder named Jack took Chan under his wing, earning Chan the nickname of "Little Jack" which was later shortened to "Jackie" and the name Jackie Chan stuck with him ever since.[12] In addition, Chan changed his Chinese name to Fong Si Lung, since his father's original surname was Fong.[12]


Film career

The 1978 film Drunken Master brought Jackie Chan into the mainstream.
Early exploits: 1976–1980
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. Lo had seen Chan's performance in the John Woo film Hand of Death (1976) and planned to model him after Bruce Lee with the film New Fist of Fury.[8] His stage name was changed to Cheng Long (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.[13]

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.[14] 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.[15] Chan then starred in Drunken Master, which finally propelled him to mainstream success.[16]

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.[12] He also gave Chan the opportunity to co-direct The Fearless Hyena with Kenneth Tsang. When Willie Chan left the company, he advised Jackie to decide for himself whether 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.[17]


Success of the action comedy genre: 1980–1987
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.


The film Police Story, nicknamed "Glass Story" for its stunt work, is set in a modern period.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.[13]

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.[18] Over the following two years, the "Three Brothers" appeared in Wheels on Meals and the original Lucky Stars trilogy.[19][20] 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.[21] 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.[22]


Acclaimed sequels and Hollywood breakthrough: 1988–1998

Chan in his Hollywood breakthrough film Rumble in the Bronx.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 played by 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 Armour of God II: Operation Condor, 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.[23] Another sequel, Police Story 4: First Strike, brought more awards and domestic box office success for Chan, but did not fare as well in foreign markets.[24] 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.[25]

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.[26] The success of Rumble in the Bronx led to a 1996 release of Police Story 3 in the United States under the title Supercop, which grossed a total of US $16,270,600. Jackie then co-starred with Chris Tucker in the 1998 buddy cop action comedy Rush Hour,[27] grossing US$130 million in the United States alone.[17]


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.[28] Chan then helped create a PlayStation game in 2000 called Jackie Chan Stuntmaster, to which he lent his voice and performed the motion capture.[29]


Jackie Chan plays an anti-hero for the first time in Rob-B-Hood: A burglar with gambling problems.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.[30] In response to Golden Harvest's withdrawal from the film industry in 2003, Chan started his own film production company, JCE Movies Limited (Jackie Chan Emperor Movies Limited) in association with Emperor Multimedia Group (EMG).[17] 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).[31][32][33]

Chan's next release was Rush Hour 3 in August 2007. It grossed US$140 million – about $100 million less than the second film, but about the same as the first.[34] However, it performed poorly in Hong Kong, grossing only HK$3.5 million during its opening weekend.[35] The filming of The Forbidden Kingdom, Chan's first onscreen collaboration with fellow Chinese actor Jet Li, was completed on 24 August 2007 and the film was released in April 2008.[36][37] Chan voiced the character Master Monkey in the DreamWorks Animation film, Kung Fu Panda, released in June 2008, appearing with stars Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman and Angelina Jolie.[38] In addition, he has signed up to assist Anthony Szeto in an advisory capacity for the writer-director's upcoming film Wushu, which is currently in pre-production. The film will star Sammo Hung and Wang Wenjie as father and son.[39] In November 2007, Chan began filming Shinjuku Incident with director Derek Yee, which sees Chan take on the role of a Chinese immigrant in Japan.[40] Filming is now complete and it is currently in post-production. The film is due for release in Hong Kong cinemas on 25 September 2008.[41] According to his blog, Chan wishes to direct a film after completing Shinjuku Incident, something he has not done for a number of years.[42] The film is expected to be the third in the Armour of God series, and has a working title of Armour of God III: Chinese Zodiac. Chan originally stated that he would start filming on 1 April 2008, but that date had passed.[43] Because the Screen Actors Guild did not go on strike, Chan started shooting his next movie The Spy Next Door at the end of October in New Mexico,[44] leaving the status of Armour of God III: Chinese Zodiac up in the air. In The Spy Next Door, Chan plays an undercover agent whose cover is blown when he looks after the children of his neighbor.