Word: chan
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...that the team mainstay wasn’t emo-haired Brit Jim Sturgess but Chinese-American mechanical engineering major Jeff Ma—less airbrushing than racial revisionist history. For his part, Ma has no problem with the casting, asserting that he understands that only Chinese superstars like Jackie Chan or Chow Yun-Fat can draw the mainstream audiences studios seek...
Today these one-time Hollywood studs are only occasionally doing action films, or they are working in the direct-to-DVD subbasement, or they have retired to government service. And Chan, 30 years after he became an East Asian star with Drunken Master, still has a two-continent career: Cantonese-language films at home, the Rush Hour movies here. Li, who became a Hong Kong superstar with the Once upon a Time in China series, segued to the West with hit movies in Hollywood (Romeo Must Die) and France (Fearless...
...true that they're both a bit younger than Stallone or Norris; this month marks Chan's 54th birthday and Li's 45th. But the two stars have been training and punishing their bodies since they were kids. When he was 8, Chan went to live and learn at a draconian martial-arts school. By 11, Li was the star of China's junior wushu team; in 1974 he performed on the White House lawn for President Nixon. So Chan's and Li's real ages, in Hong Kong action-movie years, are about 108 and 90, respectively...
...actors whom Chan and Li most closely resemble are the comedy stars of early Hollywood: Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, all onstage since youth. In films full of physical derring-do, they prided themselves on executing their own graceful maneuvers and extravagant stunts. The other big silent-action hero, Douglas Fairbanks, was famous for his perilous leaps between high structures. His reckless agility, as much as his radiant smile, made him a worldwide sensation...
Meanwhile, kicking, tumbling and sweating in The Forbidden Kingdom, Chan and Li continue to practically kill themselves for our pleasure. No wonder audiences are so loyal. They believe them...