So, it would be highly relatable if you are born in India in the 90s, there was a time in early 2000s when we were much attached to our Bollywood movies, Hollywood movies were just limited to theaters or we were just buying some pirated DVDs which offered us 8 movies in 1. South Indian dubbed movies were out of the question, back then at least Hindi movies channel acknowledged Hindi movies and did a mercy by showing them, now these channels are just dubbed Hindi versions of south-Indian movies or they just show their all-time favorite Sooryavansham. I don’t remember but it was one particular channel which used to show Hindi dubbed movies of Jackie Chan every Saturday night at 8 pm. I clearly remember, after school on Saturday I used to wait eagerly for Jackie’s movies. Jackie’s movies’ one of the main highlighting points is Innocence.
©Giphy
He used to capture natural reactions of humans in emergency situations that were always funny and relatable. No matter in whichever situation he was stuck, he never forgets to be sarcastic. Be it’s his lover, his partner, his boss or even the villain. If you look at the way he used to defeat villain it was always the most lovable manner you would come across the movies, even if he did too many stunts and kicking the ass of almost everybody but there was never bloodshed or killings. If you notice he single-handedly beat the shit out of everyone till those people are unable to get up and fight anymore. He is unlike James Bond, who lives by the quote of “Be polite, be courteous, show professionalism and have a plan to kill everyone in the room.” That is something which makes him different or rather I would say unique in a way of dealing with crime. He literally took Martial Arts to a different level. Back in time, we all knew it was Bruce Lee who brought international attention to martial arts. But his way of dealing with it was “Dead Serious” or intense way, also looking him on-screen, audience used to know some shit’s gonna happen. Unlike our Jackie Chan who seemed like a common man trained in martial arts and do all unavoidable mistakes while dealing with villains. He used to make us laugh till our stomach started aching and also make us emotional, till you find a tear coming out from a corner of your eye.
©tumblr
His identity in all the movies was more of a middle-class person, less of the aura of some leading hero, simplicity and his ever-smiling face made him favourite worldwide. His first reactions to fighting were just like us and yes it was running away from it, no matter how much you laugh but we all have done it at some point in time. But difference is he knew always when to stand and fight those bad people. And yeah not to forget this small man from Hong-Kong always or most of the time, if I don’t exaggerate did all the heart-stopping stunts by himself. His stunts always made us go like “OOOOO”. We would always find one particular scene where Jackie is dealing with uncountable people at once, jumping from one corner to other, throwing stuff at them, getting out easily through narrow paths and I always tried practicing it on my friends which obviously related to the ruthless beating of me by my enemies (friends). Seriously, Kudos to his body which always had to suffer a lot in a way to maintain his professionalism.
These sufferings or mistakes happening he always showed to the audience after the end of the movie and during the credit scenes. Perhaps he was the one of the first one to bring BTS(Behind the Scenes) for audiences. These BTS were always full of fun, as it showed their errors and also showed how he risked his life for the perfect takes. Seriously to that dedication, HATS OFF!!! I think over the time, people (actors) have become conscious about their body and that’s why we rarely find an actor doing stunts by himself.
©Giphy
Movies will keep coming but Jackie Chan stood apart from everyone as he created his own kind of genre of movies which were a total entertainer, anybody and everybody could watch them and also I think those running hours were an escape for the people from their everyday lives.
And who can forget one of the most beloved cartoons that used to air on Kids’ WB every Saturday “Jackie Chan Adventures”, where we followed a fictionalized version of Jackie Chan, his niece Jade, his Uncle, simply known as “Uncle Chan”, and of course the group’s sizable sidekick Tohru as they go on adventures and fight dangerous villains.
RandomChikibum 