FORSGREN: Jackie Chan busts heads and tickles funny bones on Netflix - East Idaho News
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FORSGREN: Jackie Chan busts heads and tickles funny bones on Netflix

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You don’t have to peruse Netflix for too long to figure out it’s a treasure trove of low-budget B-movies, little-seen independent films and a whole spectrum of documentaries. But Netflix also has a good selection of classic films. This month, we’ll take a look at a pair of classic Jackie Chan action comedies to see how Chan set the bar for making funny movies that also kick booty.

The first time I remember seeing Jackie Chan was in “The Cannonball Run”. I had no idea that I would later come to regard this funny little guy as cinematic genius. And yet, all these years later, that is exactly what has come to pass.

You see, many movies try to successfully meld action together with comedy. With a few exceptions (“Hot Fuzz” and… and… gimmie a minute and I’ll think of another one), these fail to completely fuse the laughs with the butt-kicking. Some become funny movies with a few action scenes thrown in while other become action movies with a few laughs. It often feels like action scenes and the comedic moments come from two different movies. Few films ever succeed at making action funny.

That’s why Chan is an important filmmaker: he successfully turns action funny. To see why, you need only fire up Netflix. There are a dozen or so Chan films available to stream, but the two I will primarily looks at are “Project A” and “Legend of the Drunken Master”.

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In ”Project A”, a period piece set in the 1800’s, Chan plays Dragon, a sailor/police officer who goes rogue to bust up a band of pirates. He goes undercover to take down the crooks and free a bunch of hostages they’re holding. In the process, he punches, kicks and runs away from a whole gaggle of bad guys and even tries to ride a bicycle without a seat. Ouch!

This film shows what makes Chan a great protagonist. He creates an onscreen persona of a man who is capable, but not quite as capable as the thugs he’s facing. He’s overmatched by guys whose skills exceed his own. This weakness has worked well for other iconic film characters, too. If you don’t believe, just check out an Indiana Jones movie. Any of them other than “Crystal Skull”.

Being overmatched means Dragon must be resourceful, which means turning almost anything around him into a weapon. Chairs, benches and bottles are all weaponized by Dragon as he struggles to beat the bad guys.

Being overmatched also means getting beat down. A lot. And unlike so many indestructible action heroes like Ahnold or Stallone, Chan acknowledges when he’s in pain. And that gets laughs, because, I’m not sure why, but other peoples’ pain is funny. It also makes Chan’s characters much more likable than those other thickly-muscled movie hero robots.

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All those qualities of Chan’s comedy are on display in “Legend of the Drunken Master”, this time with a twist. Chan plays Fei-Hung, a Chinese folk hero whose skill as a fighter increases the more intoxicated he gets. This leads to some of the most imaginatively-staged fight scenes I’ve ever seen.

A huge portion of the laughs in “Legend of the Drunken Master” come from watching a guy who can barely stand nevertheless pound the crap out of the bad guys. There are moments during the fight scenes where even Fei-Hung seems surprised and impressed by what his drunken self is capable of. We, the audience, are every bit as surprised and delighted as he is.

One thing I noticed the last time I watched “Legend of the Drunken Master” is the way the fights have a rhythmic, almost musical quality to the hits. These scenes are almost like dance sequences, shot in a lot of long takes without a lot of camera movement. This differs greatly from the way action is captured in current Hollywood action flicks. Here, action is so broken down into short cuts, so full of sweeping camera moves and shaky-cam trickery, that we don’t really see the violence. We miss the moment of impact, meaning we get the impression of action, not the action itself.

”Project A” and “Legend of the Drunken Master” are two of the best Jackie Chan movies I’ve ever seen, and show that it’s possible to make action scenes and comedy bits feel like they belong together. Hollywood directors should spend some time with these, and other, Jackie Chan gems. Then maybe, just maybe, American action pictures might feel more fresh and inventive.

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