Jackie Chan and "extreme" sports

[walter-konkrete]

Jackie Chan's legendary status touts that he has always done his own stunts, but I am a bit skeptical of his stuntwork involving the skateboarding in WHEELS ON MEALS, and CITY HUNTER, and a friend of man swears his "Stance" changes in the snowboard scenes of FIRST STRIKE.

Does anyone know if he uses stand-ins in these sequences for more nuanced skating/snowboarding shots, like the leap over the car in CITY HUNTER?

[calros]

The stunt double of Jackie Chan in the skateboard sequence of "Wheels on Meals" was Shigeru Ishihara, who also choreographed this sequence.

But this is not a secret, Ishihara is credited in that movie for that work.

[Brian Thibodeau]

Freeze framing many of Jackie Chan's action sequences reveals his occasional use of doubles for much of his modern career. Sometimes it's revealed in a changed stance, as you mentioned, or a nano-second insert, or one of those moments where the continuity just feels a teensy bit "wrong" between actual shots, in spite of the crucially tight editing required to hide the seams (and NOT owing to the well-known HK style of shooting little bits of film to edit into full sequences later on - those kinds of inconsistencies are acceptable once you've watched enough of this stuff). This is not to say he doesn't deserve credit for the jawdropping stunts he HAS done, particularly in the 80's: it's just that any claims by either Chan or his press agents that he does ALL his owns stunts are, at best, embellished. Seems practical that, even in a film industry without mindful insurance companies, there would be times that even a rough 'n tumble mega-star might resort to the odd close-up of someone else's leg throwing a kick.

[dleedlee]

I think that I've read elsewhere that the 'Jackie Chan does all his own stunts' came out of the Rumble in the Bronx promotion. And that prior to that he, or his press releases, never claimed that. Since then, he's been saddled by this bit of hyperbole. Remember the line from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance? 'Sell the myth, not the man'. In this case, the man, Jackie Chan is the real deal and is more than equal to the myth. It's too bad he has to live down some PR flack's attempt to sell a movie.

[walter-konkrete]

Never meaning to diss jackie Chan. I've never bought the hype that he does absolutely ALL of his stunts either , and it doesn't matter. The man is always putting himslef on the line. I just would have been amazed if that was actually him skating in those movies, not so much because of the danger involved (which is small) but because of the style he showed doing it, which is something subtle that can take years to pick up...

Of course I KNOW the man does his own rollerskating.....

[illuzionmod]

Well first of all to try and argue that the Skateboarding scene in City Hunter was nothing more than SFX stuntwork would be a waste of time. No way in hell you smash through a scenic window on a board and land on your wheels. Or jumping over a car spinning 4 times and landing on the board again doesnt tend to sound very realistic. In City Hunter's case you just have to look at how its shot and its pretty apparent that its stunt work and not just Jackie running around on a skateboard.

Its true that the "stigma" of doing his own stunts have dogged him because as soon as something happens in a Jackie movie that doesnt have him doing it everyone is so quick to jump all over him wich I think is a real shame.

[Brian Thibodeau]

I have a sneaking suspicion that just about anyone with a serious interest in Hong Kong action cinema - and probably many without - would be able to spot the fakery in a lot of Jackie Chan's stunt sequences. It's really teh editing of all these short snippets of movement that add up to a satisfying whole, anyways.

I don't get the feeling that people in this thread are necessarily complaining about Jackie Chan occasionally not doing his own stunts, or building an impressive stunt sequence out of small bits and pieces (which is far and way the norm), so much as simply pointing out, and generally agreeing, that the man's publicity people and trailer-makers have given him a reputation that would be tough for ANYONE to live up to.

Dollar for dollar, he's still been involved in some of the greatest action sequences of all time.