Next up, I’m looking at someone I’ve barely talked about
here: Chan Kong-sang. For those who don’t know, his professional name is Jackie
Chan. I think it’s safe to say that Chan’s one of the best actors to come from
China. The guy’s done a lot in 50 years, so I obviously haven’t seen all of his
filmography. The first I ever heard of him was a trailer for Rumble in The Bronx.
Since then, I seen a lot more of his American-made and Chinese-made films.
I think one reason I’ve barely talked about him here is
because there are so many movies. I’ve only mentioned him in a post and talked
about his Bruceploitation movie, New Fist of Fury. So, I might as well continue
from there since it did get better… I think. Today, I got five movies. I was
planning on doing a movie from each decade, but it looks like I’m only making
it to the 90’s today. Someone had gotten my dad a DVD set with some of Chan’s
movies there. I also own The Legend of Drunken Master, so I tried to watch some
over the last few days.
Magnificent Bodyguards
Magnificent Bodyguards was released in 1978. It also stars
James Tien, an actor who co-starred with Bruce Lee in The Big Boss, Fist of
Fury, and the original Game of Death. We even get the Lee clone, Leung
Siu-lung, from The Dragon Lives Again. Here, Chan plays as Ting Chung, a
powerful fighter. He and other fighters are hired to escort a woman’s sick
brother to the doctor. If you think that sounds easy, just know that she is
rich and the area (Stormy Hills) they’re going through is full of danger.
During their journey, they run into bandits, evil monks, a criminal kingpin,
and Darth Vader… wait, I think it was Jeff Vader. Thanks, Eddie Izzard!
So, this movie was pretty decent in the end. It’s a straight-up,
old-school kung fu flick. It’s not too much in the style that Jackie Chan’s
known for, but it’s kind of there. The story is a pretty simple one but it one
that had an interesting twist toward the end. I liked Chan’s character, Tsang
(James Tien), and Chang (Leung Siu-lung). The fight scenes here range from fine
to pretty cool. One of my favorite ones was this where the three fighters
fought a bunch of monks. The final fight was also pretty cool but then I get to
the weirdness.
While I do like it, it’s not that good in spots. It could
get kind of dull here and there. We got a really abrupt ending. Some shots
during the fights were also really in your face. Apparently, this was one of
the first Chinese movies to use 3D technology and it painfully shows. There
were also a couple of places where the production got really cheap. Finally,
there’s the Star Wars music to mention. Towards the end, we start getting a lot
of reused music from A New Hope and it was hilarious in how it barely fit this
movie. While Jackie Chan himself said that he doesn’t like this movie, I can’t
call it a total loss.
Project A
Project A was released in 1983 and it also stars Sammo Hung
and Yuen Biao. It also takes place in the 19th century. IN the
movie, Chan plays as Dragon Ma, an officer in the Hong Kong Coast Guard.
They’re trying to stop pirate activity in the area but constantly get thwarted
by gangs and corruption. The group even gets dismantled after another sabotage
incident. Dragon decides to go rogue and team up with another associate in
order to stop the pirates. It takes him a while, but he’s able to get more folk
on his side to deal with the pirates.
I thought this movie was a blast. While the story was a
simple one, it was a good one. The thing that made it all work for me was the
characters, the comedy, and (of course) the action. I thought Chan’s character
was cool and pretty funny. The same goes for pretty much every person in the
movie. While it’s full of slapstick humor, it’s good humor. The movie also
knows when to get serious too.
The action in the movie awesome. It’s fast-paced, fun, and
well-done. Chan, Hung, and Biao made for a great trinity especially in that
final fight. By the way, that is probably the best villain death I’ve seen in a
movie. There really isn’t anything bad about the movie. Even the dub I saw
wasn’t too bad. The story is a bit on the light side, though. Overall, Project
A is one fun movie.
The Protector
Next up is The Protector and it was released in 1985. Just
don’t get it confused with Tony Jaa’s movie nor a failed 2011 crime drama. This
was actually Chan’s second attempt to make it in American markets when an
earlier movie, Battle Creek Brawl, failed to do well over here. In the movie, Chan
is Billy Wong, an NYPD officer. After his partner is killed, he’s placed with a
new one, Danny Garoni (Danny Alielo). When the daughter of a wealthy man is
kidnapped, Wong and Garoni get sent to Hong Kong since she was kidnapped by a
Chinese drug kingpin. When they get over there, they constantly get into trouble.
Eh, I'd take Crockett and Tubbs, please.
If you ever wondered how Jackie Chan would look on Miami
Vice, this is your cue. This movie was okay as a whole. It’s pretty much a dark
buddy cop movie taking place in Hong Kong. Just throw in a lot of violence,
swearing, and some unnecessary nudity for good measure. The action scenes were
quite nice. You could tell that someone was trying to sell folk on Chan with
all the okay stunts he does here. He doesn’t do anything too ballsy.
Other than the good action, that’s about all I can say
that’s good about it. This was far from what Chan’s usual style and while that
tends not to be a bad thing, it kind of is here. The story is not that great.
It’s like they’re trying too hard with the cussing and the nudity. I can see
why Chan later re-edited the movie for Chinese audiences. The raunchy stuff was
removed and new stuff was added in. I kind of wonder if that version was
better than the US version I saw. Chan’s next movie, Police Story, was done in
reaction to this and most of you probably know how that went. Overall, it was
alright but far from good.
Crime Story
Next up is Crime Story from 1993. It’s actually based around
the true events surrounding the kidnapping of a Chinese businessman. In the
movie, Chan plays as Inspector Eddie Chan of the Hong Kong Police Force. He’s
assigned to watch over Wong Yat-fei, a businessman who believes he’s being followed.
When Wong gets kidnapped by a group with a vendetta, Chan has to do all he can
in order to get him back. It’s not helped that one of the kidnappers is also
part of the police force. Inspector Hung Ting-bong (Kent Cheng) does what he
can to get Chan off their trail.
I’m kind of shocked that I haven’t seen this movie until
now. I thought this was a pretty good one. It’s not as flashy nor comedic like
most of Chan’s movies. It’s a serious drama and it works. The story is pretty
good for the most part. Chan plays this burnt-out officer who takes things
really personally. Hung Ting-bong, the corrupt officer, was also a nice
villain. The movie followed him as much as it did Chan. It was interesting to
see those two go against each other.
You only get a few action scenes and the kung-fu action
doesn’t even come into until much later in the movie. What action we get is
really good. The final action sequence was so well done. There really isn’t nothing bad about the
movie. The story can drag at times. Also, the dubbing wasn’t all that good at
times. I think I remember why I try to watch foreign movies undubbed these
days. Overall, it’s a good one. It may not be heavy on the action, but it still
works well.
The Legend of Drunken Master
Finally, here is Drunken Master 2, aka The Legend of Drunken
Master. It was originally released in 1994 but it was later released (and
redubbed) in the U.S. in 2000. While it says it’s a sequel to 1978’s Drunken
Master, it’s more of a reboot. In the movie, Chan reprises the role of folk
hero, Wong Fei-hung. Wong gets caught up in a struggle between foreigners who
are stealing Chinese artifacts and locals who want to keep their heritage
in-country. While he is a gifted fighter, Wong’s father doesn’t want him using
his style of drunken boxing. Things go downhill as he gets into some fights. Wong’s
first experience with alcohol also doesn’t help things.
A couple of years ago, I said that this was one of my
favorite movies from Jackie Chan. Now that I’ve seen it again, I can still can
say that. Pretty much everything works in this movie. The story is a pretty
good one and one that has some meat to it. Chan’s character is a little
rebellious but pretty likable. I also liked Ting (Anita Mai), Wong’s
stepmother. She was a hoot throughout the movie. The comedy was on point
throughout the movie. It also knew when to get pretty serious too and it did
that well.
Sweet.
Of course, the fight scenes are excellent. There’s no other
word I can use. All of them are intricate, well-shot, fun, pretty risky, and
straight-up cool. While the warehouse fight is awesome, my favorite one is
Wong’s and Fu Wen-Chi’s fight against the Ax Gang. The dubbing (Chan actually dubbed himself) and music is also on point.
There really isn’t anything wrong with the movie. Yeah, you
could say that Chan is too old for the character since he was pushing 40 by
this time. It still works since he originally played Fei-hung and did all of
those crazy stunts. It also ends pretty weird. It turns out that there was more
to that ending. It got removed from the 2000 release and after seeing it on
YouTube, I can see why. Other than those things and a couple of small nitpicks,
this was pretty awesome.
……………………………………………………
Well, I gotta end this somewhere. Chan has done and is still
doing good movies. I may make this a thing since there is a lot of his stuff
out there. I’ve been wanting to touch on the Rush Hour movies but haven’t found
the time to do that yet. All I know is that I really need to watch more Jackie
Chan movies.
So, I’m at the end of another Martial
Arts Month. Even though I started late again, it’s been good. There were some
stuff I wanted to get to, but I’ll leave them for later. I may even get to some
of that stuff later this year. For now, I think I’m really going to get back on
the exercise train again. Peace, God Bless, and just know that Jackie Chan would make a good Jedi.
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