In Project A’s most memorable scene, Chan pays direct homage to Lloyd’s famous Safety Last! stunt. Like Chan, they may have been trying to make the audience laugh but there’s definitely nothing funny about the astonishing physical feats they achieved while doing it. I have to admit, I had no real appreciation for the likes of Harold Lloyd or Buster Keaton prior to watching Chan’s films but learning more about how they did what they did and seeing them through his eyes, it’s easy to see how incredible and obsessively daredevil they were. Chan’s adoration of silent cinema comes to the fore here, blending action and classic comedy like never before. With three of the greatest onscreen fighters of all time at the forefront (Biao, Hung, and Chan), these scenes are a treat to watch.īeyond the dynamic, modern martial arts on display, the stunts are off the scale complicated, dangerous and exhilarating.
This bit is enormously impressive, especially when you see the cast do their usual gravity-defying precision martial arts while the boat rocks from side to side uncertainly… And the brawls are all first rate throughout. Visually, it blends real life historic locations like the original Hong Kong police station with elaborate studio-built sets and an actual friggin’ pirate ship. The attention to detail is meticulous, to the point where Chan and co trained with the Hong Kong police force to ensure they got their marches right, and touches like this are backed up with an immersive production design.
But really, the story’s a foundation on which to build everything else that makes Project A so stunning. It’s a simple plot but one that manages to generate enough emotional resonance to carry itself, thanks to some rousing speeches from Chan and an earnest approach to a classic good versus evil narrative. When following protocol gets him nowhere and a good man is hard to find, Dragon teams up with hardass police inspector Tzu (Yuen Biao) and loveable rogue Fei (Sammo Hung) to tackle the pirates head-on. However, the city is rife with corruption, the coast guard are at war with the police and every wall has ears. Here, he plays Dragon Ma, a plucky coast guard in colonial Hong Kong whose unit sets out to stop a group of murderous pirates, led by the evil San-Po (Dick Wei).
ENGINEERING STRESS VS TRUE STRESS, DIFFERENCE SIGNIFICANT FULL
Times were changing and, frustrated by an inability to really communicate the full extent of his vision, Chan approached Golden Harvest boss Raymond Chow with a new idea, requesting complete creative control on an ambitious big budget film he was certain would succeed. The first one was shot after Chan’s early attempts to break Hollywood ( which I wrote more about here) and the relative failure in Hong Kong of his directorial effort Dragon Lord (1982).
A good introduction to Chan’s golden era, for the curious or the sceptical, would be his two Project A films (19 respectively). Perhaps the problem is that two of the most critically dismissed or maligned genres in film are action and comedy, which also happen to be the two things Jackie Chan does best.Ĭhan’s work as a director is a small part of his overall filmography (less than a tenth of the movies he appeared in) but the run of films between 19 – his most prolific era behind the camera – is as strong as it comes and shows a master so phenomenally in control of his work, it still dazzles. Yet, outside the genre fandom, he rarely seems to get the respect he deserves as a filmmaker. I mean, sure, he’s a household name and any martial arts enthusiast, no matter how deep or casual, will be quick to let you know how good he is at fighting. It’s a mystery to me why Jackie Chan appears in so few Greatest Director Of All-Time lists.