I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action by Jackie Chan with Jeff Yang 345-41503-5 | $24.95 A Ballantine Hardcover | August 1998 Books@Random feature promotion ABOUT THE BOOK: "I am standing in the sky on the roof of a glass and steel office tower in Rotterdam, Holland. There are twenty-one floors of air between me and the concrete pavement below. I am about to do what I do best. I am about to jump." If you're a fan of action-adventure movies--with the accent on action--then you no doubt love watching Jackie Chan risk his life to create sensational cinema. As one of the biggest stars to burst into U.S. theaters, Jackie has put America's hottest heroes to shame, wowing audiences with the breathless, death-defying stunts that are the highlight of such movies as Rumble in the Bronx, Supercop, Operation: Condor, and his newest blockbuster Rush Hour. But who really is this boyishly handsome, lightning-fast Charlie Chaplin of martial arts movie-making? And what possessed him to make a career out of putting his life on the line to keep us on the edge of our seats? "I remember a frightened seven-year-old walking into the dim and musty halls of the China Drama Academy, clutching his father's hand. Inside, he sees paradise--young boys and girls leaping and tumbling and flashing the steel of ancient weapons. 'How long do you want to stay here, Jackie?' 'Forever!' answered the boy, his eyes bright and wide. And he let go of his father's hand to clutch at the Master's hem...." In I Am Jackie Chan, Chan tells the fascinating, harrowing, ultimately triumphant story of his life: How the rebellious son of refugees in tumultuous 1950s Hong Kong became the disciplined disciple of a Chinese Opera Master. How the "paradise" that young Jackie so eagerly embraced proved to be, in reality, a ruthlessly competitive place whose fierce master wielded the legal authority to train his students even to death. How the dying art of Chinese opera led Jackie to the movie business--and how he made the leap from stuntman to superstar. How he broke into the Hollywood big time by breaking almost every bone in his body. Finally, after years of plunging off skyscrapers and living to tell the tale, Jackie Chan proves--with this witty, poignant, and often astonishing memoir--that it's always been a tale well worth telling. Jackie has written this book with Jeff Yang, the founder and publisher of A. Magazine and the coauthor of Eastern Standard Time: A Guide To Asian Influence in American Culture. JACKIE'S TOP THREE STUNTS: "Shantytown Stakeout," Police Story As far as action is concerned, Police Story is my favorite movie I've ever made, a real whirlwind of slam-bang stunts and wild fights from beginning to end. To start things off right--that is to say, in an insanely exciting and dangerous way--Edward Tang King-sang and I scripted this opening sequence. My character and my fellow cops have been assigned to an undercover stakeout in an attempt to nab a notorious mobster. We set our trap along a winding mountain highway, taking up hidden positions throughout a rickety village of old tin and wood shacks. When our trap is sprung too soon, the dragnet turns into a disaster, as the gangsters try to escape by driving through the mountain village. Not "through" as in "zigzagging around the buildings," but through as in smashing into, over, and through the buildings. I quickly commandeer a car and begin a crazed chase down the slope after them. The car is smashed (as is the village), so I chase the crooks on foot. When they hijack a double-decker bus, I grab an umbrella, take a running leap, and hook its handle onto the rim of an open window! Hanging desperately onto the umbrella, I try to pull myself into the bus, but am eventually thrown clear. Scrambling down to a lower part of the highway, I draw my pistol, order the speeding bus to stop...and it does, just inches away from my body. "The Great Glass Slide," Police Story This is where I finally put the drop on the gangsters once and for all. Of course, I had to put the drop on myself in order to do it--literally. After a glass-shattering fight inside a shopping mall, I spot my target several floors below, on the ground level of an open atrium. The only way to get down from my perch in time to do my policeman's duty is to take a flying leap into the air, grab ahold of a pole wrapped in twinkling Christmas lights, and slide a hundred feet to the ground--through a glass-and-wood partition, onto the hard marble tile. We had to do this in one take, so I crossed my fingers and prayed that I'd hit the stunt the first time (and that I'd hit the ground softly). I made my jump, grabbed the pole, and watched the twinkling lights crack and pop all the way down, in an explosion of shattering glass and electrical sparks. Then I hit the glass. And then I hit the floor. Somehow I managed to survive with a collection of ugly bruises...and second-degree burns on the skin of my fingers and palms. "Clock Tower Tumble," Project A After a wild bicycle chase through Hong Kong's back alleys, I find myself high in the air, dangling from the hands of a giant clock face. With no other way to get down than fall, I let go--and crash through a series of cloth canopies before smashing into the ground. I had to do this one three times before I was satisfied with the way it looked. Trust me, I wouldn't want to do it a fourth time. JACKIE'S FIRST SIX MOVIES: Big and Little Wong Tin-Bar(1962) My very first movie--I was just eight years old when I was cast for this role. At that time, it was common for film companies to come to opera schools to pick out kids to play child roles, and even though I'd only been there for a year, something about me must have impressed the director. (Samo also had a small part in the film.) A very famous Taiwanese star, Li Li-hua, played my mother. I guessed I impressed her too, because after Big and Little, Li Li chose me to play her son in a few other films. No action scenes yet, though! Even back then, I loved being on the set. It wasn't because I dreamed of being a movie star; that came later. I liked doing movies because it meant I didn't have to wake up at 5 a.m. I didn't have to practice. Sometimes, people even treated me to snacks. Of course, at the end of the day, Master would take any money I earned. But after being treated like a little prince all day, it was worth it. The Love Eternal (1963, Love Eterne) Another child role with Li Li-hua. The Story of Qui Xiang Lin (1964) Yet another child role. Come Drink with Me (1966, also: The Girl with the Thunderbolt Kick) A very famous film, directed by one of the great directors of Hong Kong cinema, King Hu. I was just playing a kid role again, but it was still great working with Cheng Pei-pei, the leading martial arts actress at the time. (Later, Cheng would appear in Painted Faces, a docudrama telling the story of our lives in the opera school. Cheng played a character based on the real-life opera teacher Fan Fok Fa; Samo played Master! Frankly, though, the movie didn't come anywhere close to showing how bad it was at the school. Cast: Cheng Pei-pei A Touch of Zen (1968) Another famous King Hu film, which gave Samo his first major role, playing a Japanese swordsman. He was only sixteen at the time. My own part is just a tiny cameo. Fist of Fury (1971, also: The Chinese Connection [USA]) In this film-probably the best-loved of Bruce Lee's movies, at least in Hong Kong-Lee plays a kung fu student who returns from a trip abroad to discover that his teacher was murdered by a rival martial arts school run by the Japanese. Lee then goes on a mission of vengeance, using disguises, detective work, and his amazing fighting skills. The film is based on a real-life folk hero from the 1930s named Chen Zhen, whose own legendary teacher was killed by a Japanese master. I was just a stuntman on the film, but I doubled for the head villain himself, Mr. Suzuki. During the final fight scene, Bruce kicks me through a wall, my body flying fifteen feet before hitting the ground-at the time, that was the longest distance a Hong Kong stuntman had ever been thrown without some kind of safety device. I can also be seen, very briefly, in the opening scene, as one of the sparring students. Another of my opera school brothers, Yuen Wah, was fortunate enough to be picked as Bruce's stunt double, performing most of his acrobatic scenes. (Yuen can also be seen as the Japanese man who mocks Lee at the park entrance, referring Lee to the infamous No Chinese or dogs allowed sign.) Cast: Bruce Lee, Nora Miao, Tien Feng, James Tien, Lo Wei Director: Lo Wei Producer: Raymond Chow Writer: Lo Wei Martial Arts Director: Bruce Lee Visit Books@Random's I AM JACKIE CHAN feature promotion starting August 12, 1998 for more!