Those young whippersnappers out there may only know Chan from more recent far, such as Chinese Zodiac and The Legend of Silk Boy, the latter of which may be our favourite film title of all time. But there was a time, not so long ago, when Jackie Chan was the lord of all cinema stunts. Heck, he probably still is. We haven’t even seen The Legend of Silk Boy, so we’re hardly in a good position to judge anything, film or not.
Drunken Master and it’s sequel have some of the best fight scenes ever committed to film. Sure, Bruce Lee could kill you in one blow, but Jackie Chan knew that there was no point killing someone in one blow when you could do it falling out of a skyscraper with nothing but a bucket to deliver the blow and a teddy bear to brace your fall. Jackie Chan’s fight scenes were like watching great dance choreography, only better because he kicked people. We say with confidence and without hesitation that there is no one else in the world of cinema like Jackie Chan.
And now, as we just mentioned, he’s gone done and won himself an Academy Award! Celebrate that fact with this wonderful video essay, from the kindly folks over at Every Frame A Painting. If you’re after some insight into why we’ve been waxing lyrical about Chan over the past two-hundred and fifty words, this video essay would be a pretty good place to start.
Here’s a comment from Norwegian punter, Lucius Hale – “I’m really glad that Jackie Chan got an Oscar,” he said. “That man has been part of my life so long, and his movies are so goood.” That’s exactly right Lucius. They’re goooooooood.