Word: chan
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Jackie Chan? In the U.S., only a figure with a small if intense cult. His volcanic comedies are not shown on the pay-movie channels, not released in theaters except for the rare showcase, like the "Super Jackie" retrospective now at New York City's Cinema Village. But back home in Hong Kong-throughout Asia, in fact, and in South America and Australia-Chan is movie-action incarnate. He has made 40 films since 1976, when he was promoted as the new Bruce Lee. Now, at 40, Chan is that and more: the last good guy and, arguably, the world...
...American terms he's a little Clint Eastwood (actor-director), a dash of Gene Kelly (imaginative choreographer), a bit of Jim Carrey (rubbery ham) and a lot of the silent-movie clowns: Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. Says Chan fan Sylvester Stallone: "Jackie has elongated a genre that had grown pretty stale. He's infused films with humor and character-driven story while giving audiences these extraordinary stunts that are unparalleled anywhere in the world...
...Hollywood, special visual effects define the action film. In Hong Kong, stunts-the human body spinning and bending without a computer's help-define the Chan film. By displaying his death-baiting acrobatic virtuosity, he has returned the action movie to the actor. "Audiences know that if they want special effects, they go see Schwarzenegger," he says. "If they want a tough movie, they go see Sly. If they want an action movie, they choose Jackie Chan-because I do a lot of things that normal people...
...biggest hits (Drunken Master, Project A, Police Story, The Armour of God) and their sequels, Chan has scooted across burning coals, eaten red-hot chili peppers, swallowed industrial alcohol. He has bounced down a hill inside a giant beach ball and leaped from a mountaintop onto a passing hot-air balloon. As weapons he has used bicycles, rickshas, chairs, plates, a hat rack, a ketchup dispenser, overhead fans and Chinese folding fans. Bad guys have depantsed him, strapped a ton of tnt to his body, doused and scalded him, set him afire, dumped him down a well, hanged him naked...
...Chan-whose Chinese screen name, Sing Lung, translates as "becoming the dragon"-is so fearless as to seem, by mere human standards, senseless. In Police Story he hitches a ride on a speeding bus by running up from behind, hooking an umbrella handle onto a window ledge and hanging on while fighting off a brood of bad guys. (Gape in envy, Keanu Reeves!) In The Armour of God II: Operation Condor he drives his motorcycle off a riverside pier and leaps off in midair to catch onto the net of a passing mechanical crane. (Page your stunt double, Mr. Seagal...