Hey folks, Harry here... I discovered Jackie Chan, very early in life. My first cinematic fetish were what I called Kung Fu Movies. I love them. Admittedly, it was initially Bruce Lee that attracted my attention, but then as I discovered the Shaw Brothers flicks, then Samurai films... Well, it was a blissful parade of discovery. One thing was sure, for the rest of my life - I had decided. I love badass kung fu flicks. When I saw CANNONBALL RUN, I wished that Jackie Chan would've had a larger part. I had to explain to my friends that didn't know their Kung Fu films who that guy was and why I was so excited to see him in a Western made film.
Through most of my High School years - I lost track completely with what Jackie was doing. When you live 40 miles from a Video Store - and 72 miles from a movie theater - it made being a film geek, difficult at best. Then I moved to Austin for College and a friend introduced me to THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE FILM SHOW
That caught me up - gave me titles to become a mad man trying to track down. That was the impossible part. They were absolutely not easily available in the United States. Luckily at the University of Texas - in HOGG Auditorium - they had managed to secure 35 mm subtitled prints of all the great Jackie Chan and the John Woo HK action flicks. It was heaven. New films couldn't play soon enough - and rewatching them with friends became an additional thrill.
Then the films started hitting VHS, then DVD... and I'm still waiting for them all to make themselves available on Blu Ray. Jackie Chan is a worldwide treasure. Combining the elegance of Buster Keaton with the jaw-dropping wow factor of Bruce Lee - Jackie has owned us as viewers all the way up until Hollywood cast him in a ton of really badly conceived comedic martial arts films - that we all watched out of dedicated loyalty to the great man, Jackie Chan.
Then he left the U.S. - went back to China - and started making some pretty good films. Now he says he's through attempting to star in action films, his body just can't do what it used to. But for the past 7 years he's been writing, directing and choreographing his swan song to the genre he brought such glory to. Called, CHINESE ZODIACS. Here's the trailer - and I can't see this movie soon enough. Behold the trailer for the last Jackie Chan Action Film - done exactly as he wanted. Here ya go:
