Quick Takes on Rhubarb, The Big Brawl, and Hit!

Ray Milland and Rhubarb.

Rhubarb (1951). This occasionally diverting comedy concerns a wealthy eccentric (Gene Lockhart) who leaves his fortune to a feisty alley cat instead of his spoiled daughter. She is miffed, to say the least, and so is the old man's baseball team, a group of superstitious losers who believe it's unlucky to be owned by a cat. Although its outstays its welcome and wastes the talent of Ray Milland, this silly effort still contains some inspired lunacy (e.g., a court case to determine if Rhubarb is an imposter). It's also notable as one of the first films to satirize television commercials. The supporting players include Strother Martin, Alice Pearce (the original Mrs. Kravitz on Bewitched), someone who looks like Leonard Nimoy, and a photogenic kitty with more star quality than Morris. For a better Ray Milland baseball comedy, check out It Happens Every Spring (1949).

Jackie Chan gets ready!

The Big Brawl (1980). This was Fred Weintraub's and Robert Clouse's second attempt to repeat the success of their 1973 martial arts smash Enter the Dragon. And though it's better than their first effort, Black Belt Jones with Jim Kelly, it's still an uneven mixture of broad kung fu comedy and Depression-era gangster drama. The plot, loosely borrowed from the 1975 Charles Bronson film Hard Times, is about a bare-knuckle fight staged by rival gangland bosses (Jose Ferrer and Ron Max). Perennial loser Ferrer blackmails martial artist Jackie Chan into being his fighter at an unofficial national competition (hence, the film's title). The affable Chan provides plenty of comedy as well as some amazing acrobatic feats. However, at that point in his career, Chan lacked Lee's intensity. Also, director Clouse never gives him an opportunity to display his skills against a fellow martial artist. Mako, who plays Uncle Herbert, comes off best, spouting lines such as: "Sometimes, you make me tremble--with disgust"). Fortunately, Jackie Chan eventually found the right vehicle to reintroduce him to mainstream American audiences: 1995's Rumble in the Bronx.

Billy Dee Williams looks cool!

Hit! (1973). When his teenaged daughter suffers a drug-related death, a government agent (Billy Dee Williams) goes to Marseilles in search of the drug dealers responsible. This brutal revenge tale, obviously influenced by The French Connection (1971), was made at the peak of the "Blaxploitation" film era. These modestly-budgeted movies cast Black stars in violent action films such as Slaughter, Black Caesar, Coffy, and Superfly. This was one of the better efforts, though the film's slow-moving second half and uninspired ending take the edge off a promising premise. A typical 1970s anti-hero, Williams' revenge-minded father resorts to blackmailing prostitutes and killers in order to exact his wrath. Displaying no signs of his future stardom, Richard Pryor has a supporting role as one of Williams' allies (however, it you watch the film on TV, you may miss half of his profanity-filled dialogue). Hit! is sometimes confused with another Blaxploitation film made a year earlier: Hit Man, which stars Bernie Casey. That film is a respectable remake of Get Carter (1971).

Black Belt Jones Lacks Punch, Needs More Kicks

The popularity of Blaxploitation films had already begun to wane by 1974, just three brief years after Shaft made a box office splash. The genre needed a kick and producer Fred Weintraub hoped to provide that--literally--with his urban martial arts film Black Belt Jones. Weintraub and director Robert Clouse were responsible for the previous year's international hit Enter the Dragon, which sealed Bruce Lee's superstardom. Their idea to blend Blaxploitation and kung fu must have seemed like a natural fusion. To ensure a smooth transition, they cast American African karate champion Jim Kelly, who appeared in Enter the Dragon, in Black Belt Jones.

Kelly plays the title character, a streetwise kung fu master, who comes to the aid of his mentor Pop Byrd (Scatman Crothers). Pop's inner city Black Bird Karate School has attracted the attention of a local Mafioso with inside knowledge of the real estate's future value. When Pop refuses to sell, Don Steffano sends some thugs (led by Pinky...nice name!) over to rough him up. During the fight, Pop has a heart attack and dies. Belt Belt is determined to avenge Pop, save the school, and help out the Feds--with some unexpected help from Pop's black black belt daughter Sydney (Gloria Hendry).

Kelly in fight mode as Black Belt Jones.

There are numerous excellent action films--Enter the Dragon and Where Eagles Dare spring to mind--that cast credibility aside. If the action scenes are well-staged and frequent enough, the viewer won't have time to dwell on plot flaws. It helps, too, if the performers are charismatic. Unfortunately, Black Belt Jones falls flat in these areas. The title sequence, consisting of freeze frames that interrupt Kelly's swift punches and powerful kicks, is indicative of the film's problems. It robs a potentially exciting fight scene of its speed and rhythm. As the film progresses, the pacing problem worsens and the more time we have to dwell on its plot, the more incredulous Black Belt Jones becomes. A toupeed Scatman Crothers as a kung fu master?

With John Saxon in Enter the Dragon.

Kelly was fine as a supporting player in Enter the Dragon (especially considering he was a last minute replacement for Rockne Tarrington). It helped, of course, that the screenwriters gave him many of the film's memorable quips ("Man, you're right out of a comic book!"). Also, if you add up his screen time, Kelly wasn't in much of Enter the Dragon, which was designed as a star vehicle for Lee. In Black Belt Jones, Kelly is expected to carry much of the load. He manages well in the fight scenes (though, even there, his martial arts style is not as fluidly cinematic as Lee's). In his "acting" scenes, he tries to exude cool--though his cool quotient  is relatively low compared to charismatic actors such as Richard Roundtree in Shaft.

Surprisingly, Black Belt Jones has its admirers, which I attribute to its karate scenes and camp factor. I suppose one could argue that it was always intended as camp, making my criticisms pointless. My belief is Weintraub and Clouse wanted to make a mindless genre film mixing action and humor. Achieving that right amount of balance (as Jackie Chan did in many of his films) can be challenging and that's where Black Belt Jones fails for me. Still, it did well enough at the box office to garner a sequel, 1976's Hot Potato, which sends Black Belt to an Asian country to rescue a senator's daughter.

Kelly worked steadily throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, with lead roles in films like Black Samurai. He also appeared in three films with Jim Brown and Fred Williamson: Three the Hard Way; the unusual Blaxploitation-Spaghetti Western Take a Hard Ride; and One Down, Two to Go (also with Richard Roundtree). Except for occasional film appearances, he retired from acting in 1982. He subsequently became a professional tennis player and appeared on the USTA Senior Men's Circuit.

It doesn't even look like a
Jackie Chan movie.

Filmmakers Fred Weintraub and Robert Clouse continued to make occasional martial arts films with splashes of humor. They introduced Jackie Chan to American audiences with The Big Brawl in 1980. Unfortunately, it veered too much from Jackie's natural persona and never found an audience. Jackie Chan wouldn't hit it big in the U.S. until 15 years later when Rumble in the Bronx became a sleeper hit.

Jackie Outdoes Himself in “Armour of God II: Operation Condor”

Jackie (Jackie Chan), also known as Condor, is a man who, in the style of Indiana Jones, secures (and occasionally steals) rare artifacts. When a Baron is commissioned by the UN to recover 240 tons of gold, purloined and hidden by the Germans during World War II, he sends Jackie to locate the sequestered fortune. Ada (Carol “Do Do” Cheng) of the UN and Elsa (Eva Cobo de Garcia), a descendant of the German officer ordered to hide the gold, accompany Jackie. Trekking through the deserts of Africa, Jackie and the team search for an underground base, with Momoko (Shoko Ikeda) joining them along the way. In the course of their journey, they must battle hapless treasure hunters, as well as mercenary soldiers working for a mysterious man in a wheelchair (Aldo Sambrell).

Armour of God II: Operation Condor (1991/Fei ying gai wak), which Chan also co-wrote and directed, is a sequel to Chan’s 1987 film, Armour of God (Long xiong hu di), but it sometimes gives the impression of a remake. Chan is playing the same character, though he is called Asian Hawk in Armour of God and referred to as Condor in the second film. Both movies have similar openings, with Jackie stealing from an African tribe and narrowly escaping (a small plane in the original, a giant inflatable sphere in the sequel). In the first film, Jackie needs to trade the Armour of God for the safe return of his ex-girlfriend, Laura (Rosamund Kwan). There are five pieces, and he borrows three of them from a Count, played by the same actor who plays the Baron in Operation Condor, although they are evidently two different characters. In Armour of God, the Count sends his daughter, May (Lola Forner), along with Jackie, much like Ada being assigned to the mission in the sequel. Both films have elaborate car chases before the seeking of the treasure begins.

The differences in Operation Condor, however, are marked improvements. One of the most notable distinctions is the treatment of women. In many of Jackie Chan’s early films, female characters are rarely seen or insignificant. In Armour of God, May boasts of winning a marksman championship, but not only does she miss an opportunity to fully display her skill, Jackie also mocks her champion status, suggesting that only two people competed. Laura is little more than the woman to be rescued, and she even proves a deterrent when she is freed only after being brainwashed by her captors. In contrast, Ada, Elsa and Momoko are strong supporting characters, even superior to Jackie’s male companion in Armour of God, Alan (Alan Tam). Ada is intelligent and knowledgeable of deserts, Elsa’s familial background is an asset, and Momoko is helpful by having befriended the locals in Africa.

Jackie’s relationship with the women is one of the film’s most rewarding components. He acts as a protector, but without a sexual tie to any of the women, there is no machoism to his constant safeguarding. In fact, his protection comes across as paternal. In one sequence (which was excised from the U.S. version), the group is being led across the desert by armed men. When they are refused water, Jackie crawls to each lady (having all collapsed from the heat) and allows them access to a hidden water pack in his jacket with a thin tube. He tries to hide it from the other men, giving the appearance of Jackie embracing each woman. The men initially attribute their actions to lust, but the scene is in actuality more akin to a mother feeding her children. Later in the film, during a monumental fight scene, the ladies are being chased by one of the soldiers, and they call for Jackie, who is occupied with three villains. Ada, Elsa and Momoko persevere and subsequently knock unconscious one of Jackie’s opponents. Jackie smiles at the three women, like a proud parent. Additional instances include Jackie leading the women away during chases and, at one point, helping keep Ada covered when she’s draped in only a towel and held at gunpoint.


Regarding the female characters as Jackie’s “children” is not meant to undermine them as women. It’s well established that none of them have experience in combat, and it’s therefore refreshing that they don’t spend the film shrieking and cowering in fear. Their sheer determination is strength enough, as, for instance, Ada and Elsa do not even entertain the idea of giving up a key when being pursued by armed soldiers. The most significant element to the ladies’ fight with the aforementioned soldier is that, after knocking down the three women (viewers only witness the outcome), the man is apparently shocked to see Ada, Elsa and Momoko stand up again. What holds more weight than their unified force is their tenacity, as they are unwilling to stay down. A standout moment is another soldier, having been struck by all three women, slapping each lady. He is visibly surprised when Momoko returns to him an expression of defiance. In the very basic sense, the soldiers desire control, but the women never yield.

In a country where most films are made quickly, Jackie Chan has long been notorious as a perfectionist, meticulously working on his movies until he is satisfied. (The studio typically doesn’t complain, as the box office returns are exceptionally profitable.) Nevertheless, the well known wind tunnel sequence near the end of Armour of God II required a lengthy shoot even by Chan’s standards. Though it runs at a little more than 10 minutes, the scene took an astounding four months to complete. Production was plagued with many problems, the most interesting of which was the filmmakers accused of counterfeiting, after some of the film’s artificial currency (stamped with Golden Harvest, the studio) made it off the set. Armour of God II cost an estimated 115 million Hong Kong dollars (roughly 15 million U.S.) to make, which at the time was the most expensive film produced in Hong Kong.

Armour of God II received American theatrical release in the summer of 1997, after Chan’s films were playing to great success on U.S. screens. It was titled simply Operation Condor and was dubbed, re-scored, and missing approximately 15 minutes of footage, most of it at the beginning and resulting in some of the narrative making little sense (including an early introduction to both Elsa and Momoko, so that the recut version makes it look as if Momoko is a random hitchhiker that the team picks up in the desert). The first Armour of God has memorial sequences but is probably best remembered as the film that nearly killed its star: a routine jump resulted in Chan falling and receiving a serious head injury. This explains a continuity error, in which Chan’s character inexplicably has longer hair because, as Chan has stated, he needed to cover the hole in his head. Following the U.S. theatrical distribution of Operation Condor, Armour of God was released on VHS and DVD, recut and confusingly retitled Operation Condor II: The Armor of the Gods.

At the time of Armour of God II, Carol Cheng was one of the more prolific actresses working, but by the mid-90s, her cinematic output waned. In 2000, she starred in the popular Hong Kong sitcom, War of the Genders, on the network, TVB (Television Broadcasts Limited). She won a TVB Anniversary Award (similar to an Emmy) for her role in the series and was awarded again in 2005 as host of the game show, Justice for All. Cheng was also the host of Hong Kong’s version of The Weakest Link, and she co-hosted the TVB Anniversary Awards ceremony in 2010.

This is one of many of Chan’s films to feature Ken Lo, the actor’s former bodyguard and member of the Jackie Chan Stunt Team (reportedly the professional relationship between the two ended badly). Lo is the redheaded villain in the wind tunnel with Chan in Armour of God II. The actor and martial artist is prominently featured in much of Chan’s filmography, including the immensely popular final fight sequence in Drunken Master II (1994/released in the U.S. in 2000 as The Legend of Drunken Master), one of the villains in Police Story III: Supercop (1992), and even a notable character in Chan’s first hit of his U.S.-made films, 1998’s Rush Hour (he’s the one who proudly admits to kicking Chris Tucker in the face). Lo has also starred with Jet Li in Corey Yuen’s My Father is a Hero (1995/in the U.S. as The Enforcer) and in the Japanese film, Dead or Alive: Final (2002), helmed by cult director Takashi Miike.

The superiority of Armour of God II: Operation Condor over Armour of God is not an anomaly in Chan’s oeuvre. One of the actor/director’s most popular films is a sequel: Drunken Master II. Additionally, some fans tend to prefer Police Story III: Supercop over Chan’s international breakthrough hit, Police Story (1985) -- likely due to the pairing of Chan and Michelle Yeoh -- and others may argue that Project A (1983) is surpassed by 1987’s Project A II (favoring that sequel is debatable, but I’m of the opinion that Chan topped his ‘83 classic). Even his U.S. film, Rush Hour 2 (2001), was more comparable to his Hong Kong movies than the original.

Jackie Chan has named silent film star Buster Keaton as a strong influence in his work. Certainly his choreographed stunts are reminiscent of Keaton’s movies, and Chan has stated that the wind tunnel scene in Armour of God II was inspired by the cyclone sequence in Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928), especially the moments when Keaton tries walking against the heavy winds. But Chan, like Keaton, did not make films comprised solely of stunt work. His movies are filled with lively characters and comedy that’s delivered in forms other than action -- in Armour of God II, for instance, while in the German base, a missile’s warhead falls from a crate and slowly rolls across the floor, as every person freezes, cringes as it clangs against the wall, and sighs with relief before the fighting resumes. Chan is well known for his stunts, but he is also a gifted actor and an accomplished comedian, and he entertains on a multitude of levels.

Step Aside, Jackie Chan! Make Way for Michelle Yeoh

When I think of strong female characters, my mind tends to wander to the cinema of Hong Kong. Perhaps I’m taking the concept of “strength” too literally, but I often consider the many popular Hong Kong actresses whose cinematic physical prowess is unquestioned: Brigitte Lin, Sharla Cheung Man, and Moon Lee. One of the most recognizable actresses, particularly to Western audiences, to come from Hong Kong movies is Michelle Yeoh.

After winning the Miss Malaysia beauty pageant in 1983, Yeoh appeared in a television commercial with Hong Kong’s top star, Jackie Chan, and made her screen debut in The Owl vs. Bumbo (1984). She starred in her first leading role in 1985, as a police inspector in Corey Yuen’s Yes, Madam!, opposite Cynthina Rothrock (an American-born martial artist/actress who first achieved fame in Hong Kong before U.S. audiences took notice). Yeoh was an instant star, appearing the subsequent year in Royal Warriors (her first two films were also known, respectively (and interestingly), as In the Line of Duty 2 and In the Line of Duty, both in a series which continued without Yeoh). In 1987, Yeoh starred in Magnificent Warriors and in a non-action role in Easy Money. By the following year, Yeoh married producer Dickson Poon, co-founder of D & B Films (which had produced all of her movies), and officially retired from the film industry.

While a woman can demonstrate her strength in many other ways than simple physicality, an actress in the Hong Kong cinema has fewer options. Films in Hong Kong are made as quickly and cheaply as possible, almost like an assembly line. Consequently, the filmmakers allow most movies to be defined by a broad genre, and action has long been one of the most successful film genres in that region. For an actress to stand out among so many men, she generally has to punch and kick her way through her male co-stars.

Yeoh’s early films display her talent in both drama and action. But it is interesting to view her against the men whom she’s essentially replacing. In Yes, Madam!, both she and fellow star Rothrock have boyish haircuts and dress in attire that, for the most part, does not differ much from the male villains or officers. Royal Warriors takes a similar approach. Although early in the movie Yeoh is engaged in combat with a pink bow in her hair and wearing a skirt and tights, she dresses down as the narrative progresses. By the end, in an action scene fueled by vengeance (an intense and memorable sequence in which Yeoh fights a man wielding a chainsaw), any femininity suggested by womanly apparel is completely lacking. By Magnificent Warriors, although Yeoh’s hair is longer, and she is as charming as ever, she is, for all intents and purposes, playing a role that could easily have been written for a male. None of this is meant to insinuate that Yeoh resembles a man in these films (many supporting characters acknowledge her beauty), but it seems that, in order to contend with the males, she must disregard her own gender.

Three years after her marriage to Poon, Yeoh divorced the producer and came out of retirement to co-star with Jackie Chan in 1992’s Police Story III: Supercop (Chan’s first film of the series, Police Story, was released the same year as Yeoh’s breakout role in Yes, Madam!). In Police Story III, Chan reprises his character, Chen Chia-chu, who is sent on a mission to bring down a drug lord, Chaibat (Kenneth Tsang). With the direction and aid of Interpol director Yang (Yeoh), Chen goes undercover and teams up with Panther (Yuen Wah), hoping the criminal will lead them to Chaibat.

Director Stanley Tong, who’d previously worked as a stuntman (and prides himself on testing stunts in his films before asking his actors to perform them), had worked with Yeoh during her time with D & B Films. He offers a much different and more rewarding character for the actress in Police Story III. Yang’s introduction in the film has her in full uniform. She stands upright and walks almost in a march. Such a mechanical demeanor seems to make Yeoh’s character genderless. However, she reappears later in the film, posing as Chen’s sister, dressed like a young girl and her previously unseen hair in braided pigtails. Chen is dumbfounded (though it’s mostly due to the fact that he’s confusing the details of his undercover assignment), but much of the audience in 1992 was sure to have likewise been in awe. With Yeoh’s first film in five years, Tong reminds the audience that the actress is not only a female action star but is also incredibly gorgeous.

From the beginning, Yang is clearly shown as a strong character. While discussing the mission with Chen, Yang easily recites the history of the man’s undercover profile, and, to prove a point, runs through Chen’s own biography faster than he can. As Chen prepares for the assignment, he seems uncomfortable having pictures taken for ID cards, and though he mocks having to memorize his character’s historical data, he predictably forgets most of it and needs help simply locating the village in which he was supposed to have been raised. With Yang displaying her intelligence and leadership abilities and even proving adept with a firearm during Chen and Panther’s “escape” from prison, one would guess that the only point of expertise that Chen has over Yang would be combat. This, however, is quickly refuted when Panther is recognized by cops at a restaurant, and he and Chen are arrested. From a small crowd, Yang flies into the air and, in a single move, knocks two officers to the ground. Rather than simply equal Chen’s skills, she unintentionally outdoes him by throwing chopsticks (two of them thrown as weapons, preventing a cop from retrieving his weapon), which Chen follows up by clumsily (and hysterically) tossing a handful of chopsticks.

While Yeoh’s first films presented the audience with a beautiful woman skilled at fighting, Tong initially shows her in Police Story III as a competent female, and only then does he reveal her physical allure. The pigtails eventually become long, jet black hair, a radiant contradiction -- in one highly explosive action scene -- to Yeoh behind a bulletproof vest. Later in the film, Yeoh wears a jumpsuit with her long legs bare (which plays well when Chen’s girlfriend, May (Maggie Cheung), not realizing that her boyfriend’s undercover, assumes that Chen and Yang are lovers). In the film’s final sequence, Yeoh is dressed as a Muslim woman, complete with a head covering (hijab) and ankle-length baggy pants. But when the action starts, the hijab falls off and unveils her long hair, and hidden slits in the pants expose her bare legs once again. (In Hong Kong cinema, long hair is typically a confirmation of a woman’s sexuality. In some films, a woman can merely hide her hair and be mistaken for a male, like Yeoh herself in 1994’s Wing Chun.) Though the constant cues of Yeoh’s comeliness may seem exploitative, they contrarily are reminders of the simple fact that she is a woman. She need not deny her femininity to compete with the men. She can be a beautiful woman and still kick her male co-stars in the face.

Yeoh not only showcases her strength through her character, Yang, but also manages to steal the spotlight from Hong Kong’s most bankable star. Her acting chops are undeniable, but Yeoh additionally matches two of Chan’s most discernible traits: comedy and stunts. This is not a statement meant to be derogatory to Chan, who is terrific in Police Story III. But Chan’s trademark comedy is complimented by Yeoh’s wry retorts. For instance, Chen playfully squeezing Yang’s cheeks when she’s introduced to Panther and his crew as his sister (an act which he wouldn’t dare do with Yang in uniform) is countered by Yang punching him in the chest. And while Chan performs impressive stunt work in the film, Yeoh also does her own stunts, including hanging onto a speeding van, falling off said van and landing on a trailing sports car, and, her pièce de résistance, riding a motorcycle onto a moving train (she first had to learn to ride a motorcycle).

Yeoh had no formal martial arts training. She did, however, study ballet at the Royal Academy of Dance in England before an injury forced her to shift her studies to drama. In addition to being trained in fight choreography, Yeoh also had to learn her lines phonetically. The actress, who was born in Ipok in Perak, Malaysia, spoke Malay and English, but not Cantonese, the Chinese dialect most often spoken in Hong Kong before 1997 (although it’s still frequently spoken even after the country’s reunification with China). Yeoh repeated the process during the filming of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), which was filmed in the mainland China dialect of Mandarin.

Yeoh continued playing strong female characters in her films, like the Police Story III spin-off, 1993’s Project S (aka Once a Cop; Supercop 2), The Tai Chi Master (1993) with Jet Li, and Wing Chun. In Silver Hawk (2004), Yeoh is the whole package: a wealthy, resourceful and self-reliant woman who vanquishes bad guys as a comic book heroine, and all while stylishly adorned in various costumes.

Yeoh was virutally unknown in the U.S. but quickly rose to stardom upon re-release of Police Story III in American theaters in 1996 (titled simply Supercop), following the success of Chan’s Rumble in the Bronx (also directed by Tong) earlier in the year. In 1997, Yeoh made her U.S. debut as a Bond Girl opposite Pierce Brosnan in Tomorrow Never Dies (her Police Story III co-star, Tsang, had a small role in a later Bond film with Brosnan, 2002’s Die Another Day). Yeoh was nominated for several awards, including a BAFTA, for her performance in Ang Lee’s popular Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, also starring Chow Yun-Fat. More recently, Yeoh has received acclaim for her part in Reign of Assassins (2010), co-directed by John Woo.

Drunken Master: Jackie Chan Fights to Become a Film Star

In Drunken Master (1978), Jackie Chan is Wong Fei Hung, a young hellion who is constantly in trouble. Fed up with his son's behavior, Fei Hung's father sends him away to be trained by Beggar So (Yuen Siu Tien). Fei Hung considers this a punishment because, not only does the martial arts training require strenuous work, but Beggar So is well known for maiming his students! The young man manages to evade his master's grip, only to be disgraced in a fight with a proficient assassin (Hwang Jang Lee). Fei Hung returns to Beggar So to learn a style of martial arts known as the "Eight Drunken Immortals" so that he can redeem himself and regain his family's honor.

When Jackie Chan and his fellow students (his "brothers") completed Peking Opera school, it was not surprising that they had trouble finding work suited to their skills. After all, the focus of their studies was physical training and performance, which took precedence over academics. Eventually, Jackie and a few of his Peking Opera brothers (most famously, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao and Yuen Wah) found moderate success as stuntmen. All four of them came to work on movies showcasing the rising star, Bruce Lee.

Following Lee's untimely death and the release of his first starring American role, Enter the Dragon, in 1973, Bruce Lee became an international household name. Hong Kong and American audiences wanted to see more, but with Lee gone, studios had to look elsewhere. Unfortunately, the majority of these studio execs wanted to replace Lee, sometimes quite literally, by naming actors Bruce Li or Bruce Le. Other actors would simply attempt to replicate Lee's mannerisms (e.g., that wonderful face he would make when he was truly angered), or studios would cash in on old footage of the star, such as his short-lived TV series, The Green Hornet, being reedited into two feature length films (focusing on Lee, of course), The Green Hornet (1974) and Fury of the Dragon (1976).

When Jackie Chan finally moved from extra/stuntman/supporting player to starring role, he worked with director Lo Wei, who'd helmed Lee's hugely successful Hong Kong movies, The Big Boss (1971) and Fist of Fury (1972). According to Chan, Lo took credit for at least some of Lee's success and resulting popularity. Not surprisingly, Lo wanted Chan to be another Bruce Lee (one of their early films together was the 1976 New Fist of Fury). Chan's resistance to emulating another actor led to many disagreements between star and director, and Lo blamed their string of disappointing box office results on Chan's stubbornness.

Chan, however, soon proved that he was not the reason for the failures. The very first time Chan was "loaned" to another studio, he and a young director named Yuen Woo-ping made Snake in the Eagle's Shadow (1978), in which Chan was finally able to display his knack for comedy and stunningly choreographed fight sequences. Director Yuen, who also attended Peking Opera school, would achieve great success later as a filmmaker and action choreographer (and is, sadly, only known in the U.S. as the choreographer of the overrated The Matrix (1999) and Ang Lee's 2000 film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). Snake in the Eagle's Shadow was a success, but it was Yuen and Chan's second picture together (filmed just a few months later), Drunken Master, that made Jackie Chan a star. Both films starred Yuen Woo-ping's father, Yuen Siu Tien. With these films began Chan's comic, kung fu style, as well as the injuries he would sustain in the years to come. In Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, the actor had his arm slashed open by a sword and one of his teeth knocked out, and he nearly lost an eye while filming Drunken Master.

The deal with Seasonal Films (the studio to which Chan was loaned) was only for two pictures, so the star went back to working with Lo Wei. When Chan tried to join the Golden Harvest studio, Lo reportedly attempted to involve triads (the Chinese criminal organization, similar to the Mafia), which unfortunately controlled much of the Hong Kong film industry. The dispute was eventually settled, with the help of actor/director Jimmy Wang Yu. Chan's first film with Golden Harvest (and away from Lo Wei) was one that he co-wrote and directed, The Young Master, in 1980. It eclipsed the box office records held by Bruce Lee's movies. By the time Chan made Police Story in 1985, he was internationally famous.

Wong Fei Hung was an actual person, a legendary Chinese folk hero. He was a martial artist, a physician, and a teacher who dedicated his life to helping the poor and the weak (Chan referred to him as a "Chinese Robin Hood"). Before Chan first portrayed Wong in Drunken Master, Kwan Tak Hing had played the character in approximately 90 films. When he was around 75 years young, Kwan played Wong Fei Hung again in The Magnificent Butcher (1979) and Dreadnaught (1981), the former film which starred Chan's Peking Opera brother, Sammo Hung, and both films which were directed by Yuen Woo-ping and starred another of Chan's brothers, Yuen Biao. The "drunken boxing" which Chan displays in Drunken Master is Zui Quan, which, literally translated, means "drunken fist." It consists of the fighter utilizing movements giving the appearance of drunkenness. This form allows for fluid motions for attack and various distractions to confuse the opponent. Being drunk is not necessarily a prerequisite, but, as the film suggests, it helps considerably.

In 1991, Jet Li starred in his own series of Wong Fei Hung movies, Once Upon a Time in China, directed by Tsui Hark. The star and director made two more films together, and Vincent Zhao took over the role in parts IV and V, the latter film which was also helmed by Tsui. Sammo Hung directed Li in the sixth installment, Once Upon a Time in China and America (1997). Chan performed the song for the closing credits of Once Upon a Time in China II (1992).

Sixteen years after Drunken Master, in 1994, Chan reprised Wong Fei Hung in Drunken Master II. The sequel not only surpassed the original, it's also one of Jackie Chan's greatest films, with splendid comic antics, thrilling fight sequences, and a scene-stealing Anita Mui. The movie was released theatrically in the States in 2000 (after a string of Chan's Hong Kong films were playing to great success on American screens) as The Legend of Drunken Master, cut, dubbed, and re-scored, which, sadly, was a fate that befell the majority of Hong Kong films in the U.S. However, even most Hong Kong DVD copies are either of poor quality, cut, or a combination thereof. Uncut versions really only have one additional sequence, which concludes the film and is, admittedly, a scene of rather paltry taste. Good quality copies of Drunken Master II with the final scene intact are rare and highly sought after commodities. I own such a copy, and yes, I'm bragging.

Random trivia: In this month's Bond Is Forever, I'd mentioned Yuen Qiu, who had a small part in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), starring in Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle (2004) as the landlady. Her husband is played by Yuen Wah, who had attended Peking Opera school with Jackie Chan.