Welcome to Sunday All Day Brunch. This is an open topic thread so help yourself to the goodies and sit a spell and let us know what is new with you. I was the first in my family to discover Jackie Chan films. I was able to introduce them to my Dad and brother Eric who has a second degree black belt in hapkido and is now studying a second form and is up to brown belt.
The movie that I first saw was Rumble in the Bronx. I found that I really enjoyed the combination of martial arts and comedy. I soon realized that you watched these films for the fight scenes and to see what Jackie was going to use to fight with. Plots are pretty much secondary to the films. As he has a tendency to use the same actors over and over again the movies have an "old friend" feeling to them.
Supercop has the great Michelle Yeoh in it. That lady can definitely kick butt. They were wonderful together. She is also in one of my favorite movies of all times Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Armour of the Gods 1 & 2 are Indiana Jones tributes and are a lot of fun. They are not believable in the least but you watch them because they are fun. Jackie Chan films aren't really meant to educate they are meant to enjoy.
America really doesn't know what to do with Jackie Chan. It helps if they pair him with someone like Chris Tucker in the Rush Hour movies or Owen Wilson in Shanghai Noon and sequels. Unfortunately the American producers are afraid to let him loose on the stunts so they aren't really as good as the Hong Kong ones.
The movie that most Jackie Chan enthusiasts claim as the best martial arts is Drunken Master. It was re-cut and dubbed The Legend of Drunken Master for release in the United States. I actually have a tape of the original in Cantonese with badly subtitled English which is fine because I am watching it for the fight scenes only.
My three favorite Jackie Chan films are Who Am I?, The Myth, and Forbidden Kingdom. Who Am I? follows a spy who has lost his memory and doesn't understand why people are trying to kill him. This story had a better plot line then most. The Myth was one I picked up in the bargain bin and I think it shows that Jackie Chan does have acting chops. The story goes back and forth from the present to Qin dynasty. In many ways Forbidden Kingdom is similar to The Myth in that they both have present day and back in time and the search for the elixir of life. I freely admit I went immediately to the Jet Li and Jackie Chan fight when I first got the disc and then went back and watched the movie as a whole.
Jackie Chan
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon