Jackie Chan Armour of God

crom

crom

Joined
Mar 29, 2007
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Watching old Jackie Chan movies with a sick 10 year old. During the opening credits Chan can be seen strapping on a Buckmaster. That is all. Oh, my 10 year old loves these old ones.
 
You don't have to pretend you are watching it because of your kid ;) Those Buckmasters are really cool knives.
 
My favorite Jackie Chan movie in a modern setting is Wheels on Meals (1984). The end fight between Jackie and Benny "the jet" Urquidez is one of the best-choreographed one-on-one screen fights of all time, IMO. Although I don't recall any knives in Wheels on Meals.

Jim
 
Yeah Benny the Jet also had a cameo in Gross Point Blank. I never saw the movie you reference but remember seeing a highlight reel of Chan fights with him and Urquidez on VHS!
 
Yes, they fought in two movies. The other one is Dragons Forever (1987). The final fight in Dragons Forever takes place in a warehouse, whereas Wheels on Meals' end fight takes place in a castle. I've been watching Jackie Chan and other old-school Kung fu/ martial arts/action movies from Hong Kong/Taiwan for nearly 40 years now.

To keep the subject on knives, check out Full Contact (1992) starring Chow Yun-Fat. He uses a balisong in a couple of scenes, one of which is, IMO, one of the best balisong scenes in a movie (meaning, NOT just fancy twirling, opening and closing the knife, etc.). And the villain, played by Simon Yam, carries what looks to be a Cold Steel tanto. But the movie is mostly gun action. A word of warning: this movie is definitely not for children.

Jim
 
I bet the 10 year old felt better! Jackie Chan movies are so much fun, I look up You Tube videos to tide me over in between streaming another movie.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
I bet the 10 year old felt better! Jackie Chan movies are so much fun, I look up You Tube videos to tide me over in between streaming another movie.
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I had forgotten the blooper scenes run with the after credits. That guy was killing himself to entertain his fans. He could be credited with inventing Parkour if he hasn't been already. Like a spider monkey. My girl loves these movies for sure. We just watched Enter the Dragon earlier this winter.
 
James Y said:
Yes, they fought in two movies. The other one is Dragons Forever (1987). The final fight in Dragons Forever takes place in a warehouse, whereas Wheels on Meals' end fight takes place in a castle. I've been watching Jackie Chan and other old-school Kung fu/ martial arts/action movies from Hong Kong/Taiwan for nearly 40 years now.

To keep the subject on knives, check out Full Contact (1992) starring Chow Yun-Fat. He uses a balisong in a couple of scenes, one of which is, IMO, one of the best balisong scenes in a movie (meaning, NOT just fancy twirling, opening and closing the knife, etc.). And the villain, played by Simon Yam, carries what looks to be a Cold Steel tanto. But the movie is mostly gun action. A word of warning: this movie is definitely not for children.

Jim
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Thanks I will kee an eye out for it. For a second I thought you were referring to the chubby guy in Chan's movies who ended up making films of his own too. Forget his name but yeah I know who you are talking about.
 
Would that be Sammo Hung? He was Jackie Chan's senior classmate at the Peking (Beijing) opera school, along with several others who were/are in movies. IMO, Sammo is actually better than Jackie at acting, directing, fight choreography, and was Jackie's equal at performing. I also prefer his style of comedy over Jackie's. In fact, Sammo directed both Wheels on Meals and Dragons Forever. He's been in movies since at least 1961 and like Jackie, is still active in movies, though also like Jackie, his heyday was in the 1970s and 80s. Sammo also fights Bruce Lee in the opening scenes of Enter the Dragon. When Jackie and Sammo appear in movies together, Sammo tended to downplay his own performances to highlight Jackie.

A few of Sammo's other films you may want to check out:
The Prodigal Son (1981)
The Victim (1979)
Warriors Two (1978)
The Odd Couple (1979)
The Pedicab Driver (1989)
Eastern Condors (1987)*
The Iron-Fisted Monk (1977; contains a rape scene, so not for children)
Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog (1978)
Skinny Tiger, Fatty Dragon (1989)
Enter the Fat Dragon (1978)

*There is some 'combat knife action' in Eastern Condors.

Note: also in Enter the Dragon, Bruce Lee "breaks" Jackie Chan's neck near an elevator. And when Bruce Lee does the "backflip kick" on Bob Wall, Bruce was actually doubled by Yuen Wah, another of their opera school classmates.

Jim
 
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Jim, thanks man! I love this stuff too. I overheard my daughter telling the neighbor kid she was watching drunken boxing haha!
 
Did you guys know that he was actually a well accomplished pop singer in china .
My 2 favorites are drunken master and rumble in the Bronx,
He actually broke his foot during a stunt and they put a sock over the cast that sorta made it match his tennis shoes. I also like shanghai noon and shanghai knights.
 
I love the older Jackie Chan stuff. Unfortunately, I'm of the opinion that modern cinematography trends have almost entirely killed off really great martial arts scenes in movies. Bourne-style shaky cam and the insistence on jump cuts every 3 seconds destroys any ability to really see the action and appreciate what's going on.
 
Yes, "modern" cinematography. Make the camera tell the story,
don't let the story tell the story. Mood triumphs over meaning.
 
crom said:
Jim, thanks man! I love this stuff too. I overheard my daughter telling the neighbor kid she was watching drunken boxing haha!
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Lol! Start them on the kung fu young! :D

A few more really good Sammo films I forgot to mention:
Knockabout (1979)
The Magnificent Butcher (1979)*
Encounter of the Spooky Kind (AKA Spooky Encounters, 1980)

*The Magnificent Butcher is the only Sammo film I've listed that wasn't directed by him; it was directed by Yuen Woo-Ping.

Some of the really old stuff Jackie did was phenomenal, like:
Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin
Fearless Hyena
The Young Master
Etc., etc....

The only up-and-comer now who even comes close to replicating Jackie's '80s-era choreography (albeit much more brutally) is Indonesia's Iko Uwais. But NOT ONE of the new guys from there, from China or from Thailand will ever equal the sheer volume of work over as long a career as Jackie (or Sammo). I'll be turning 53 this year, and Jackie, Sammo and their classmates started out as child actors before I was even born! And many are still active today.

Donnie Yen is the number one action star in Asia now, but his career is winding down; he'll be turning 53 this year as well. Oddly enough, he started in films around 1984, but didn't become a really popular star until the first Ip Man film, more than 20 years into his film career.

Jim
 
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I saw Wheels on Meals in Japan, where it was called Spartan X.
Sammo also did a short-lived network TV series, called Martial Law, where he was a more extreme McCloud figure in a California PD. Always a great climactic fight, especially the one in the giant tree.
 
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