Jackie Chan: The Best of 2015

January:

Jackie sends a message to fans at the release of the MV for Dragonblade.

Jackie and Willie Chan at the wedding of Yuen Biao's daughter.

Jackie's toe socks made a guest appearance.

February:

Jackie gives a quick interview at the airport after receiving the Panglima Mahkota Wilayah award in Malaysia.

Jackie signs his own design T-shirts at a promotional event for Dragon Blade.

Jackie plays piano during the "Hidden Energy" talent show.

March:

Jackie launches his book.

Jackie watches a video for the Shanghai Baby House.

Jackie records a documentary with Tim Cahill.

April:

Jackie promotes the Legacy 500 at ABACE in Shanghai.

Jackie takes a selfie with a fan's camera at AIFFA in Kuching.

Jackie smiles during the Far East Film Festival in Udine.

May:

Jackie sings with Jonathan Lee and Emil Chau at "Love From The Stars" Singapore.

Jackie promotes an anti-drug program in Singapore.

Jackie laughs during the opening of the Jackie Chan Movie and Media College.

June:

Jackie Chan Action Movie Week.

Giving aid to victims of the Nepal Earthquake.

2nd highest paid actor in the world!

July:

Jackie receives an award for his special contribution to Chinese Film.

Jackie records 2 new songs.

Photoshoot for Bazaar Men's Magazine.

August:

Jackie donates songto Changting County.

Jackie delivers aid in Tibet.

Fans donate to Jackie for Tianjin explosion victims.

September:

Jackie snaps pics at the 70th Anniversary Parade.

Jackie attends the Shanghai Design Week.

Jackie attends the Silk Road Film Festival.

October:

Jackie meets Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge and President Xi Jinping.

Jackie poses in front of the Burj Khalifa.

Jackie signs on for "The Foreigner".

November:

Filming for "Railroad Tigers" continues in sub-zero temperatures.

Jackie presents Lee Li-hua with Lifetime Achievement Award.

Jackie sponsors David Cheng racing.

December:

Police Story celebrates its 30th Anniversary.

Jackie arrives in Linyi for the last ten days of "Railroad Tigers".

Jackie donates a set of his reproductions of the 12 Zodiac heads.

30th Anniversary of Police Story

Today is the 30th anniversary of Police Story. Police Story was first released on 14.12.85. Jackie made "The Protector" - a Hollywood cop movie with Danny Aiello. Jackie was so unhappy with the movie that he returned to Hong Kong with one goal in mind - to make a cop movie the way he thought it should be made. The result - Police Story or 'Glass Story' as the stuntmen working on the movie named it.

Police Story did extremely well at the 1986 Hong Kong Film Awards:-

• Won: Best Picture
• Won: Best Action Choreography (Jackie Chan Stunt Team)
• Nominated: Best Director (Jackie Chan)
• Nominated: Best Actor (Jackie Chan)
• Nominated: Best Actress (Brigitte Lin)
• Nominated: Best Cinematography (Cheung Yiu Cho)
• Nominated: Best Film Editing (Peter Cheung)

The movie has generated 5 sequels:-

• Police Story II
• Police Story III - Super Cop
• Police Story IV - First Strike
• New Police Story
• Police Story 2013

On Display at the Golden Horse Awards

Jackie's costume from Police Story was part of the display at the Golden Horse Awards. The other costumes in the background belong to Andy Lau.

PS2013 in Malaysia

Jackie will be in Malaysia on 18 December 2013 to promote Police Story 2013.

VIDEO: POLICE STORY INTRO

Jackie introduces Police Story at TIFF "A Century of Chinese Film"

Jackie Back at TIFF

Jackie will be visiting TIFF again this year, this time presenting three of his movies at the TIFF Lightbox - A Century of Chinese Cinema program running from June 5 to August 11 2013. Police Story is among the films Jackie is presenting, as well as a special look at Police Story 2013.

Jackie will present:

Drunken Master - 12 June 2013 at 6 pm

Legend of Drunken Master (Drunken Master II) - 12 June at 9 pm

Police Story - 13 June at 6 pm

and a trailer for Police Story 2013.

Tickets will go on sale 27 May 2013 for non-members. See HERE for further details of the full program. The TIFF website for details is HERE

SOURCE: NATIONALPOST.COM

And in 2013 we will have .....

On September 18th the ChinaVision Media Group held their 3rd anniversary banquet dinner at the Beijing World Trade Center. CEO Liu Xiaolin announced the company plans for the upcoming year which included a project reuniting Jackie and Ding Sheng (Little Big Soldier) tentatively titled "Police Story 2013". Filming is expected to get underway in November. SOURCE: XINHUANET.COM

Dragon Fist

I had the pleasure of watching 'Dragon Fist' today. It is one of Jackie's movies from the Lo Wei years. In fact one of the last Jackie made for Lo Wei. I stumbled across a bit of information the other day that I can't verify but it did come out of a Chinese Biography about Jackie so one assumes it to be fairly factual, which said that Lo Wei, after parting ways with Golden Harvest, had been black listed from making movies in Hong Kong by Golden Harvest which is why nearly all those movies were made in Taiwan or Korea. (It is also why Jackie signing with Golden Harvest was such a big deal at the time.)

'Dragon Fist' is a pleasant surprise, apart from being a little confusing in the beginning when you are not quite sure who is who, it warms up into quite a decent story with plenty of really good martial arts action.

There is one scene during the final extended fight sequence that leaves me breathless at the trust shown by the actor/stuntman in Jackie's accuracy. Even making allowances for a little speeding up in the playback of the film Jackie is still punching the guy repeatedly 'in' the face at very high speed. One mistake and some one is VERY sore! Sometimes it is not so much the incredible choreography (one expects this from Jackie) or the amazing agility and accuracy (again this is just expected) or even the martial arts prowess (what can I say - this is Jackie we are talking about) but what does leave me completely amazed is the incredible trust fellow actors/stuntmen show in each others' skill. Mostly it is other actors trusting in Jackie's control but sometimes it is Jackie who trusts some one to thrust (theoretically) very sharp objects near his face and neck (swords, spears and other weapons).

While Jackie's later forays into the never seen before crazy stunts left audiences gasping personally for me what really leaves me gasping is not the sheer bravery (or should that be stupidity) required to jump from a building onto a rope ladder or slide 3 stories down a pole but the incredible physical mastery of one's body in Jackie's martial arts/fight choreography. And that one mostly sees in his earlier movies.

This one is actually one of the better ones. Many of Jackie's really early films you have to say (with some apology) to newcomers 'Well you watch them to just to watch Jackie'. But Drunken Fist doesn't have a bad story even if it is prone to what Jackie calls 'Why you look at me? Fight! Why you look at me again? Fight!' moments. Jackie is of course the good-guy hero who eventually saves the day (but not before quite a few people are dead and EVEN some at Jackie's hand - hmmm Shinjuku Incident was so NOT the first movie in which Jackie killed people in a movie).

It really has some brilliant fight scenes all choreographed by Jackie and you can recognise his hand in the fight sequences even when he is not actually in them.

I know that he says that he thought of choreographing many opponents coming at him at the same time for the first time in later movies (referencing Police Story I think) but I don't agree with him. Even as early this you can see him starting to develop the idea of multiple opponents at once. Although at this point when he does choreograph multiple opponents he is more evasive than actually fighting them. Even at the end of Fearless Hyena when he clearly takes on 3 sword wielding opponents at once, that portion of choreography is much more evasive than confrontational and when he does dispatch his opponents it is back to one-on-one fighting but one can see the thought developing in his choreography even this early on.

Although if one does compare the very realistic fighting multiple opponents he choreographed in Police Story with the almost ritualised 'dance' from Spiritual Kung Fu when he takes on a group of monks with staffs one has to agree with him that he did really only do a proper fight sequence much later on.

Anyway for those of you who haven't seen Dragon Fist some one has kindly uploaded it onto youtube. But again ... if possible please buy a legal copy - apart from anything else it is actually MUCH better than the fuzzy compressed files from youtube.