A boy named Chan Kong-sang was born on Victoria Peak in Hong Kong in 1954, the son of two servants to the French ambassador there. He spent his toddler years within the confines of the embassy where they all lived. Despite the rigid discipline of his father, the young Chan showed a great dislike for academic study, instead preferring his lessons in kung fu and the ingestion of large quantities of food (both provided by his father, the cook for the embassy). After only one year at school, it was clear he was struggling, and his parents took the decision to pull him out of school and look for another solution.

The Academy

The search for a way to educate Chan became more important when his father was offered a job in Australia. The benefits of the move were clear - Australian citizenship, and more money for the family (enough to save rather than merely survive on). But Chan and his mother would have to stay behind initially, and without the discipline of his father he would have slipped into delinquency. But eventually, his father's friends suggested a course of action which would provide support, education and discipline for the boy.

And so one day Chan was sent to Master Yu’s China Drama Academy on Kowloon Island. In return for
teaching the skills of dramatic performance (which included music, gymnastics and martial arts) and
housing and food for the boy, he would be expected to remain under Master Yu’s tutelage for a period
of ten years. At first, he found it difficult to fit in with the rigid hierarchy imposed on himself and his
fellow students, but gradually he began to demonstrate competence (if not outright excellence) in every
area of study. Chan was frequently in confrontation with the elder students who had disciplinary power
over the younger children - an echo of his days back home when he used kung fu against the local
bullies, and a glimpse of his future personality.

Eventually the students of the Academy were sufficiently practised in their given profession, and they
began putting on performance of classic Chinese operas in a theatre at a local amusement park. These
provided the money to keep the Academy running, along with providing students as extras in film
productions. It was here, in the spotlight, that Chan realised what he wanted for his future - to be a star.
Indeed, he took leading parts in the Academy productions, garnering praise from audiences and earning
the respect of his Master.

But, as the years moved on and he neared the end of his ten-year contract, it was clear that traditional
Chinese opera was becoming an increasingly difficult way to make money. The entertainment business
in Hong Kong was now centred around the film studios, and that is where Chan’s elders graduated to
after their stay at the Academy. They went to every conceivable position in the industry, from acting
talent to behind-the-scenes production roles (many retained the name given to them by their master -
Yuen). When it came Chan’s turn to leave Master Yu behind, there was only one viable choice for
someone with his mix of acting and martial arts skills, and so he became a stuntman.

Action In The Movies

He had performed a few stunt roles during his days as a student, but now he had to find enough work to
support himself (his mother had also moved to Australia during his time at the Academy). Luckily for him, cinema production in Hong Kong exploded in the early 1970's, thanks in no small part to the emergence of Bruce Lee as a superstar. Suddenly action and martial arts films were in huge demand in Asia, and that meant no shortage of work for the stuntmen. In this environment, Chan worked quickly at building a reputation for attempting seemingly impossible (and usually very dangerous) stunts. He even worked with Lee on two of his films. Unfortunately, this brief period of success was tragically cut short. When Bruce Lee met his untimely death, it signalled the end of the lucrative years for the studios, and many people lost their jobs - including Chan.

Unable to make money in Hong Kong, he travelled to Australia and lived with his parents, working on construction sites to make ends meet. One of his workmates was a fellow named Jack, who took Chan under his wing - the pair were jokingly referred to as Big Jack and Little Jack on site. Over time, Little Jack became Jackie, the name which finally stuck and became known worldwide.

Even through this period, Jackie did not give up on the dream of stardom, and he kept in regular touch with contacts in the film industry back home. One of these contacts was Willie Chan, a manager working for one of the most famous directors in the business, Lo Wei. They were looking for a young actor to mould into a star. When Jackie was offered the job, he hesitated - the money was nowhere near what he had been making previously - but the lure proved too great, and he agreed to a 10-year contract with the company.

Their initial efforts did poorly at the box office, mainly because of Lo Wei's refusal to open up to new ideas. Instead, he attempted to recreate the Bruce Lee era (the first Lo Wei/Jackie Chan film was New Fist Of Fury, in fact), resulting in films completely lacking in originality.

Just when it looked like Jackie's dreams were finally ending, Willie found a temporary solution in a loan deal to a rival studio, Seasonal Films. Infused with more creative freedom than he had ever before experienced, Jackie scored his first big hits - Snake In The Eagle's Shadow, and Drunken Master. The rise was meteoric, from relative obscurity to household name in three months. But the solution was only temporary, and he did not relish his return to Lo Wei's studio. Even when Wei relented and let Jackie direct Fearless Hyena, the amount of control he exhibited over wages and creative output became too much. Finally matters came to a head, and Willie announced he had secured a deal for Jackie to join Golden Harvest Productions - without Lo Wei's consent.

Increasingly desperate to remain in the film industry, Lo Wei turned to the Triads to force Jackie to stay with him. Fortunately, negotiations took place before the situation could become more serious (although Jackie was forced into brief exile in America by the experience), and Golden Harvest bought out Lo Wei's contract.

With the switch to Golden Harvest, for whom he had worked for years earlier as a simple stuntman, came full creative freedom and even directorial duties in some cases. That first benefit gave rise to Jackie's trademark - the superstunt, an enormous one-take scene involving large amounts of destruction and danger. An example from Police Story 2: Jackie is riding on the top of a double-decker bus, and dives off the roof and through a second-floor plate glass window. This is the kind of spectacular moment which sells movie tickets, and Jackie has provided over two decades worth of them.

The Pacific Divide

Jackie’s star status in Asia has been unquestionable ever since those first films in the late 1970’s.
Translating that success into global stardom has proved much more difficult. In particular, the
American market was very unreceptive, due to a combination of bad marketing and bad casting. For
example, his first U.S. feature Battle Creek Brawl saw him portraying a vengeful loner, a routine which had already been done before by countless actors and was not suited to Jackie's comedic talent. His next American film (Cannonball Run) was a hit, but it was an ensemble piece and did not give a good idea of audience reaction to Chan.

A further complication was the restriction to Chan's style of working, enforced mainly by the studios fearful of legal action if their investment were ever to injure himself on set. The lack of actual contact during action scenes removed the intensity which was his hallmark, which added to the frustration.

This initial flirtation with the U.S. market soured his opinion and he resolved to stay away, reasoning that the Asian market was bigger anyway. However, he did not give up completely on breaking into
other markets, and he raised the international appeal of his films by including actors from many other countries.

It was not until 1994 that Jackie finally decided to try the States again, when Rumble In The Bronx was released. When it made almost $10 million on its opening weekend and became the first Hong Kong film to make it to number 1 at the U.S. box office, he had finally cracked it. Every film Jackie has made since has seen a successful American release, making him a true global phenomenon.

Hazards Of The Job

Success for a stuntman comes at a price, perhaps the ultimate price if luck is against them. Jackie has certainly had a severe physical toll exacted on him. Almost every part of his body has suffered some form of injury, whether it be simple cuts and bruises or dislocations and fractures.

The worst incident came during the filming of Armour Of God in Yugoslavia. The stunt itself was relatively simple, by Jackie's standards: A leap from the top of a fifteen-foot wall into a tree. However, he missed his landing and fell to the ground, hitting his head on a boulder below the tree. The blow resulted in a skull fracture so severe a bone fragment lodged itself in his brain, in turn causing a life-threatening haemorrhage. He survived because the nearest hospital happened to have the country's best brain surgeon on the staff. The accident left Jackie hard of hearing in one ear and a hole in his skull remains.

To give the audience some idea of just how dangerous the whole process is, Jackie began adding footage of stunts which went wrong during the end credits of his films, interspersed with shots of the setting-up of the superstunts and more comedic out-takes. He was inspired to include this footage after seeing the finished Cannonball Run, and the tradition has continued to this day.

Filmography

For a full accounting of Jackie's screen career, the best place to go is the Internet Movie Database.

Below is a list of recommended Jackie Chan films:

• the Police Story series
• Drunken Master
• The Young Master
• Thunderbolt
• Dragons Forever
• City Hunter
• Project A
• Project A 2
• Snake In The Eagle's Shadow
• Snake And Crane Arts Of Shaolin