Jackie Chan is undoubtedly the King when it comes to martial arts and fight scenes in movies. For one who does almost all the fight scenes and dangerous stunts in his films, the 69-year-old actor is nothing less than a martial arts icon. By going against the norm and creating hilariously comedic martial arts movies, the actor established a completely different era than the one during the time of the late Kung Fu legend Bruce Lee’s stardom.
Jackie Chan is regarded as a martial arts icon
However, this going against the norm almost destroyed the martial arts icon’s career as the late Bruce Lee’s serious and aggressive movies were the talk of the town in his era.
Also Read: “The modern-day American Jackie Chan”: Dangling Freestyle From A Chopper In Mission Impossible Almost Killed Tom Cruise in $791M Movie
Jackie Chan Nearly Destroyed His Career With His ‘More Comedic’ Resolve
Jackie Chan and the late Bruce Lee in a still from Enter the Dragon (1973)
Also Read: Jackie Chan Was Pressured to Marry His Pregnant Girlfriend: “It was an accident…I had never thought of getting married”
Even though Jackie Chan is the current legend of martial arts in the industry, it was not always this way. Way before Jackie Chan took over, there was the late Kung Fu legend Bruce Lee’s era, which comprised more serious and aggressive movies that became the talk of the town at the time.
During the 1970s, when martial arts movies gained popularity, Bruce Lee took advantage of the opportunity to market his art with movies like Enter the Dragon. But when Chan entered the industry, he wanted the movies to have a more comedic approach.
Naturally, Jackie Chan expected that with the inception of his career, people would adapt to martial arts movies going hand in hand with comedy as compared to the tough protagonist approach of Lee. However, this dream of the 69-year-old actor didn’t take too long to crash as his career began with a remarkable flop, judging how it went against the norm.
But despite the fact of the beginning of his career was a failure, the Supercop actor didn’t give up and instead chose to rebel until the era took the face of the one he had in mind.
Also Read: Jackie Chan Could Not Understand Why Crew Members Were Laughing at His Dialogues, Claims He Was Pressured to Do Less Action in ‘Rush Hour’
Jackie Chan Wanted His Movies to Have More Entertainment
Jackie Chan in a still from his iconic action comedy movie series Rush Hour
Being a rebellious kid since the beginning, Jackie Chan didn’t take failure as a ‘no’. Instead, he took it as an encouragement to do better and make a change. Collaborating with his martial arts choreographer, Woo-Ping-Yuan, Chan decided he wanted to do everything opposite to what the late Bruce Lee did. Recalling that time, the Honorary Oscar winner said,
“Everything at that time was Bruce Lee. So we decide, we’ll do the opposite. We be more fancy, more pretty, more comedy.”
As a result, came movies like Rush Hour, which portrayed the protagonist to be silly and goofy combined with the appropriate proportion of action and fighting, thus providing the ultimate entertainment content. And just like that, Jackie Chan ended up creating a new sub-genre on his way to go against the flow.
Source: Los Angeles Times