If the Earth is ever visited by aliens, and we need an ambassador, Jackie Chan is really the only choice. Everyone likes him, and he is a badass. What’s better than that?
Plus, he speaks seven languages: Cantonese, Mandarin, English, German, Korean, Japanese and Thai, and knows American sign language. Whatever aliens speak, he probably knows it.
Beginning his film career as a stuntman in Bruce Lee’s Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon, he now holds two Guinness World Records: “Most Stunts Performed by a Living Actor and Most Credits in One Movie with 15, for the 2012 filn Chinese Zodiac. The credits were for director, writer, lead actor, executive producer, producer, unit producer, art director, cinematographer, manager, prop man, stunt coordinator, stuntman, gaffer, theme song vocalist, composer, and food caterer.
With a resume like that, there really is only one person to call if aliens ever come calling.
AND … he delivered the best killing blow, ever.
Jackie Chan – Planet Ambassador
Father spy, mother drug dealer
I never wanted to be the next Bruce Lee. I just wanted to be the first Jackie Chan.
Chan’s father Charles was a spy, working for the Chinese National government. His mother was an opium seller named Lee-Lee. His father arrested his mother, and later married her. Each had two children; to support the large family, his father joined the local organized crime group. When Jackie was born, his father tried to sell him to the doctor who delivered him for $26
He was born Chan Kong-sang. He got the name Jackie while working as a construction worker in Canberra, Australia.
What you see does not come easy; one scene in Dragon Lord took 2,900 separate takes.
The results are like nothing ever.
Jackie Chan’s scariest stunt
“A lot of people ask me when I do a stunt, ‘Jackie, are you scared?’ Of course I’m scared. I’m not Superman.”
Jackie Chan performs his own stunts, and has suffered an extraordinary number of injuries on set. He has broken his ankle, injured his neck, ruined his knees, crushed his thigh between two vehicles, dislocated his pelvis, shoulders and sternum, and hgas a permanent plastic plug in his skull.
He and his stunt team have no insurance, so Chan pays for himself and his team.
One stunt terrified him the most.
It was the climax of ‘Who Am I?’ where he ran down the 45 face of the 21-story Willemswerf Building in Rotterdam, Netherlands. It took him two weeks to build up the courage.
The documentary also contained the martial arts action we have come to expect.
Jacky Chan The Musician
When I got depressed, I watched Bruce Lee movies. I learned everything from Bruce Lee.
Jackie Chan is a classically-trained vocalist, and released more than 20 albums in five languages.
However, he attended opera school, where he learned music, martial arts, and acrobatics, but he was never taught to read or write, and struggles with literacy,
He is particularly moved by conductors, as you can see.
Jackie Chan the Martial Artist
We learn martial arts as helping weakness. You never fight for people to get hurt. You’re always helping people.
Jackie Chan was sent to the China Drama Academy, run by Master Yu Jim-yuen, where he trained for a decade in performance Kung Fu. After entering the film industry, Chan trained in Hapkido with Jin Pal Kim, eventually earning black belt. Chan also trained in other styles of martial arts including Wing Chun, karate, Judo, Taekwondo, and Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do.
Jacky Chan the Fighter
I hate violence, yes I do. It’s kind of a dilemma, huh?
His martial arts skills have been tested. He used to work as a bouncer, and after one encounter spent two days trying to push a bone in his hand back into place. He later found it was the other guy’s tooth.
He does not limit himself to unarmed combat.
Chan used to carry a handgun and even a grenade to protect himself from Triad organized crime group members in the 1980s and 1990s.
The Big Break
After Bruce Lee’s passing in 1973, Chan was groomed to be the next king of Hong Kong cinema, starring in a series of kung fu movies produced and directed by Lo Wei, who had worked with Lee. Jackie Chan was not Bruce Lee, and the attempts to cast him in the same mold were by and large not hits. By the late 70s, Chan and Wei no longer worked together.
Chan then determined to be his own man, combining his tremendous martial arts ability with his tremendous bravery (he really does do his own stunts) and adding a physical comedy perhaps inspired by Buster Keaton, who he admired greatly.
It was a hit, with a series of popular movies:
Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow (1978)
Drunken Master (1978)
The Fearless Hyena (1979)
Half a Loaf of Kung Fu (1980)
The Young Master (1980)
The Young Master began his collaboration with Golden Harvest, Lee’s old production company and the leading film studio in Hong Kong. Chan assumed total control over his movies, and became the highest-paid actor in Hong Kong and a huge international star throughout Asia and eventually the world.
Famous last words
1. I allowed myself to be bullied because I was scared and didn’t know how to defend myself. I was bullied until I prevented a new student from being bullied. By standing up for him, I learned to stand up for myself.
2. Why did I become Jackie Chan? Mostly because I work very hard. When people were sleeping, I was still training.
3. Do not let circumstances control you. You change your circumstances.
4. Don’t try to be like Jackie. There is only one Jackie. Study computers instead.
5. When you are learning about a martial art, it is about respect.
6. The best fights are the ones we avoid.
7. I only want my work to make people happy.
8. Family is not who’s blood is in you, is who you love and who loves you.
