As the second biggest international martial arts movie star of all time, Jackie Chan was initially touted as the next Bruce Lee, but his film-icon status was cemented through his production of kung fu comedies. With his large nose and floppy hair, Jackie Chan quickly became the clown prince of kung fu films. He didn’t replace Bruce Lee, but his films broke new ground because of his fight choreography and theater-trained martial arts skills.
Jackie Chan’s martial arts abilities came from a Beijing opera school, where training focuses on the stage instead of martial philosophies or a code of martial ethics. Because of this, even Jackie Chan admits that he’s more of an entertainer than martial artist. However, with the 1978 productions of Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow and Drunken Master, Jackie Chan became a martial arts film superstar.
Jackie Chan’s greatest contribution to martial arts cinema was the creation of a whole new martial arts film genre, wuda pian. (See category Martial Arts Movies.) He also created the Suexploitation genre. These movies showcase a character based on real-life hero Beggar Su. In the films, the character is always the sifu to the downtrodden bumpkin that eventually becomes the film’s hero.
– March 24, 2011
This is an exclusive BLACKBELTMAG.COM preview clip for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s June 8, 2010 DVD release of SHINJUKU INCIDENT, starring martial arts legend Jackie Chan in the story of one man’s revenge against Tokyo’s criminal underworld. See the full trailer here! Shinjuku Incident is priced at $24.94 and is
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– March 23, 2011
From Sony Pictures Home Entertainment comes the exciting June 8, 2010, DVD release of Shinjuku Incident, starring martial arts legend Jackie Chan in the story of one man’s revenge against Tokyo’s criminal underworld. Chan plays Steelhead, a Chinese laborer who comes to Japan hoping for a better life. Unable to
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– March 23, 2011
This 2010 feature from Columbia Pictures features Jaden Smith as 12-year-old Dre Parker and martial arts action legend Jackie Chan as Dre’s kung fu teacher, Mr. Han. This update of the 1984 classic is set in Beijing, China, and will reportedly borrow elements of the original plot, wherein a bullied
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– March 19, 2011
Finally, a movie featuring Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Sammo Hung and director John Woo on the same screen has arrived.
While Chop Socky: Cinema Hong Kong isn’t a big-budget blockbuster, it’s an engaging documentary that explores the many facets of kung fu films by showing archival footage, analyzing fight scenes and
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– March 18, 2011
Jackie Chan. Jet Li. In the same movie. ‘Nuff said, right?
Well, not quite. But fans of “J&J” (Jackie Chan and Jet Li, as the studio calls them) have waited to hear those eight words in the same sentence for 25 years, and all it took was the director of Stuart
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– October 14, 2010
In celebration of the growing popularity of martial arts cinema, Black Belt asked me to devise a list of the top 20 martial arts film stars. In reality, this list could have been different for each decade since the 1970s because in years past, one could reflect only on names
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– October 13, 2010
I recently finished writing The Ultimate Guide to Martial Arts Movies of the 1970s. In one section, I list my 20 favorite films of the ’70s before and after I wrote the book. Why? Because after watching 600-plus movies during an eight-month stretch, my list had 14 changes. That got
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