critical research study

Born in 1954, Chan Kong-Sang (meaning born in Hong Kong), Jackie was the only son of Charles and Lee-lee Chan, who were very poor and worked for the French ambassador to Hong Kong. Charles was a cook and a handyman, while Lee-Lee worked as a housekeeper. Jackie’s parents had no money to pay for the surgery bills and had to borrow from friends and relatives, refusing the offer from the lady doctor who delivered him to ‘adopt’ him.
At 7, Jackie’s parents moved to Australia to work. Being a naturally energetic boy, Jackie was enrolled in Yu Jim Yuen’s Training Academy to study Peking Opera. It was a grueling process, where they had to wake up at five in the morning and turned in late at night. They spent most of their time learning acrobatics, martial arts , acting and putting on face make-up and minimal time on formal lessons. Jackie had said life in the Peking Opera School was tough, where one can easily get beaten up by Master Yu if one did not train hard enough or were naughty. Separate interviews with Yuen Biao, Sammo Hung and Mars (though not from the same school) also echoed that Peking Opera Training is extremely tough. Together with Sammo And Biao, the three were part of the Famous Seven Little Fortunes troupe. Jackie was to spend 10 years at the Opera School some sort like an apprentice learning an elusive skill, one which will put him in good stead for his superstar future.
With the decline of Peking Opera, Jackie entered the film industry in 1971 to work as an extra or stuntman.Jackie’s reputation as a daring stuntman made him well known in the circle. Young and full of drive, Jackie started from the bottom but quickly learnt the ropes of the trade – choreographing and directing martial arts scenes. From ’71 to ’78, the main highlights were easily the 2 Bruce Lee movies – Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon (left) – where Jackie played a stuntman and extra respectively. The bulk of this period was spent doing extras and being groomed by Lo Wei as the next Bruce Lee after the little dragon’s untimely death in ’73. This period was one of frustration as one movie after the other flopped – New Fist of Fury, Killer Meteors, To Kill With Intrigue, just to name a few. Tired of Jackie, Lo Wei loaned him to Seasonal Films for a 2 picture deal. Ng See Yuen’s, famous for his 6th sense in movie making, decided to cast Jackie as the lead in Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow, despite movie distributors advising him against. Having no idea that they are making a movie that will not only launch a future superstar but also one of the most fondly remembered HK movies of all time, Ng, Jackie and director Yuen Woo-Ping stayed back late after office hours every day to discuss how to make the movie more unique and special. The kungfu comedy genre was born. The rest is history. Drunken Master followed next with greater box-office success. After the Seasonal Films venture, due to contract obligations, Jackie went back to Lo Wei and directed Fearless Hyena (1979), a box-office hit as well. While filming the sequel to Fearless Hyena, Jackie broke his contract and left for the greener pastures of Golden Harvest, but Lo supposedly used his Triad connections and started having thugs sent to the set to threaten Jackie. With the help of ‘One-Arm-Swordsman’ Jimmy Wang Yu, the Triad affairs were taken care of and Jackie remained with Golden Harvest. Fearless Hyena II was abandoned, and Lo Wei finished it up using the shot footage and a stand-in for Jackie.

At Golden Harvest (GH), Jackie delivered his first hit for the company with the Young Master. To propel Jackie beyond Asia, GH then sent Jackie to the States to do a Hollywood movie – The Big Brawl – which unfortunately flopped everywhere, be it Asia or America, as Jackie did not have much say in fight choreography and editing. Ego bruised, Jackie returned from the States an angry man. Without careful planning and a complete script, Jackie rushed to shoot a semi sequel to the Young Master – Young Master in Love. More haste makes less speed. Dragon Lord, as it was finally titled, took several months to shoot and chalked up huge production costs, a lot of which were due to careless planning. Dragon Lord subsequently drew lacklustre box-office. Realizing his box-office draw was returning to the ‘good old days’, Jackie told Golden Harvest that he needed their full support for his next ambitious project, a period movie about battling pirates. Golden Harvest greenlighted the project, and Peking Opera buddies Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung were roped in to be the Jackie’s costars. The end movie, titled Project A, not only successfully launched the New Wave action/fighting, but also sported a solid soundtrack, a first for a Jackie Chan movie then. Most importantly, it made tonnes of money at the box-office. The rest of the 80s was regarded as the heyday of Hong Kong fighting movies, with Jackie and Sammo clearly leading the pack. Jackie’s 2nd Hollywood outing in 1985′s The Protector also ended in failure, and Jackie decided to concentrate on the Asian market. HK made hits like Wheels On Meals, Police Story I & II, Armour of God, Project A II and Dragons Forever etc established Jackie’s ‘kungfu superstar’ reputation and made ‘Cheng Long’ (rather than Jackie Chan) a household name in Asia, just as famous and familiar as Bruce’s ‘Li Xiao Long’. A generation of people grew up watching his 70s (even the Lo Wei ones) and 80s hits. To them, ‘Cheng Long’ is already big enough to qualify as an international superstar, Hollywood or no Hollywood, though i suspect that the man himself doesn’t feel otherwise, and understandably so.

http://www.jackiechanmovie.com/profile/biography/bio.htm