How Jackie Chan filmed the best fight scene in the history of cinema

by Finn Patraic

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Although now in the 70s, Jackie Chan continues to appear on the big screen with regularity. For most of the world -renowned actors, it is hardly notable, but it is not as if Sir John Gielgud, let's say, had spent decades filming combat scenes with melee and undergoing serious injuries in the execution of elaborate waterfalls. Viewers of New police story 2 And Rush hour 4To appoint only two next franchise projects, will surely be delighted, as always, in the presence on Chan screen. But it goes without saying that he will not try anything like what he did in his Hong Kong films in the 1970s and 80s, which required a singular dedication both physical and cinematographic.

There are also fans who argue that Chan reached her peak in the 90s, most of whom would add the combat scene culminating above Drunken master II. Made in 1994, when Chan was 40 years old, he came as the ostensible continuation of Drunken masterFrom 1978, in which the representation of Chan of the folk hero of the Qing Department dynasty launched it in the fame in Asia.

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Released in the United States as The legend of the Master Drunk in 2000 – After Chan finally did it for the United States with Rumble in the bronx And the first Rush hour Master II met a critical astonishment. “This implies some of the most complex, most difficult and most executed action sequences that I have ever seen”, ” wrote Roger Ebert. His judgment on the final confrontation in steel-forge: “It may not be possible to film a better combat scene.” Rossatron video below Explain how the scene designed such reactions.

One element was the key to Chan's success from the start: his humor, visibly descended from the physical comedy of Western silent stars as Charlie Chaplin And Buster Keatonwhich even goes into the middle of the most intense hand -to -hand combat. In Master IIIt is “not only a pleasant addition to the film, but a necessary part of the story itself”, during which the protagonist of Chan must take control of the style of “drunk boxing” born on his own penchant for the bottle. It is controlled intoxication, of course, which ultimately brings him victory in his latest caricatural and masterful fight, which required four months to shoot under the direction of the star himself (the director of the film Lau Kar-Leung having ceded the control of the scene due to stylistic differences). Today, there may be no action comedy artist equal to Jackie Chan at his peak. But even if there were, a studio allowed him a large part of the other secret ingredient, time?

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Based in Seoul, Colin MArshall Written and broadcastTS on cities, language and culture. His projects include the substack newsletter Books on cities And the book The stateless city: a walk through Los Angeles from the 21st century. Follow it on the social network formerly known as Twitter in @ColinmArshall.

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