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Jackie Chan 1996 Black Belt Magazine's Kung Fu Artist of the Year |
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Jackie Chan 1996 Black Belt Magazine's Kung Fu Artist of the Year |
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The Jackie Chan phenomenon is finally starting to catch on in the United States. Of course, thousands of closet Chan fans across the country are probably thinking, "It's about time!" That's because they've known for years that Chan makes some of the most entertaining martial arts movies in the world.
You see, 1996 turned out to be the year that Chan and his production people really strove to make inroads into the American action-movie market. For starters, there was Rumble in the Bronx, which, although not a blockbuster by Hollywood terms, did well monetarily. No sooner had Rumble left the theaters when Supercop was released. Publicity snafus reduced the film's box-office take, but it did qualify as another Chan movie getting exposure in American theaters. Shortly afterward, First Strike trailers started showing up on television | |
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screens. When the film was screened for critics, it was heralded as a Chinese James Bond epic-only more fun.
Chan can be seen frequently in a wacky Mountain Dew commercial that looks like it is part of one of the Hong Kong films for which the action star is famous. He also received MTV's Lifetime Achievement Award for his distinguished career in movie production and acting. Jackie Chan has definitely arrived in the West. Just what makes this action star so popular when loads of others have tried-and failed-to cash in on the post-Bruce Lee kung fu craze? Some say it's the fact that Chan has had real martial arts training, yet has never claimed to be a world-class champion of any art. Others say it's because he is the perennial nice guy, displaying humor during his fight scenes and even during out-takes in which he breaks a leg, sprains a wrist or worse.
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Another Chan claim to fame revolves around the fact that he performs many of his own cinematic fights and stunts, no matter how dangerous they are. Very few other action stars attempt-or are allowed to attempt-such stunts. Fans get a warm feeling inside whenever they see a bad guy side-kick their hero through a plate-glass window because they know it was the real Chan who took the shot and went crashing through the glass. |
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But Chan movies were not always stocked with humor. "The films that followed Bruce Lee's death [in 1973] were known as Bruce Lee-style films," Chan said in an interview Rut because Lee wasn't the star, no one really wanted to watch. That's when Chan, who has been cast in some of those films, thumbed his nose at the Hong Kong movie executives and
pushed to have comedy added to the scripts. He had found his niche and started developing that unique mixture of kung fu and comedy that would become his trademark. Audiences loved it, and they knew they could expect the same with every new Chan release. That's when he started growing into a cult-film hero. By 1978, his movies in Hong Kong were grossing more than those of Lee.
Chan had previously tried to break into the American action-film market. In 1980, he did a film titled The Big Brawl. Chan played Jerry Kwan, a character who ended up defeating an American bad guy in a 1930s bare-knuckle prizefight, then rode off into the Texas sunset with an American beauty. | ||
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Chan made another effort to duplicate his Asian superstar status in America. It was titled The Protector and co-starred Danny Aiello, but it also met with limited success. A long dry spell followed, and it looked as though Chan had given up on winning over the American public. He seemed content to be a superstar in Asia. Then Rumble in the Bronx rolled across the United States and raked in more than $30 million.
Obviously this made a big enough impression in America that Chan was recently asked to leave impressions of his hands and feet in cement on the sidewalk outside Mann's Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard.
With these accomplishments fresh in mind, Black Belt magazine welcomes Jackie Chan into its Hall of Fame as Kung Fu Artist of the Year. Black Belt Magazine, 1997, Rainbow Publications |
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