INFOCUS | INTERVIEW| JACKIE CHAN
The tough Jackie ZLWK DQ HOÀQ FKDUP Introductions are for greenhorn actors, not for veterans and certainly not for living legend Jackie Chan, who has relentlessly enthralled his audience with awesome action for over four decades. The fact that he has a fan following that cuts across age, gender, boundary and class, is no small feat. Even actors of action genre such as Arnold and Sylvester, despite their Greek-god akin chiseled cuts, have not been able to extract the admiration of such a wide demography as Jackie Chan does. ICEC Team
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e it ‘Rush Hour’ or its sequels, grandmas to five-year olds, and everyone in between, enjoy his humor laced spell binding action with equal enthusiasm. While Jackie’s earlier hits of ‘80s , ‘The Fearless Hyena,’ ‘ Half a Loaf of Kung Fu,’ ‘The Young Master’, established him as an action hero, his more recent Hollywood blockbusters such as ‘Shanghai Noon’ and ‘Shanghai Knights’, catapulted him to the posi-
tion of a hero who packs action with the message of love and peace. After ‘Drunken Master’, Chan decided that movies have a larger effect on society and hence started featuring in movies that were devoid of debauchery and violence. The gutsy actor thus focused on action movies but started using props, as regular as table napkins and spoons for novelty in action sequences, thus breaking the monotony of typical kung-fu format. Chan Kongsang aka Jackie has used charms of his
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stunt, dangerous somersaults and lifethreatening multi-storey jumpings, to enthrall fans even when it meant putting life in danger. In a recent interview with ICEC he said, “I have broken every bone in my body doing stunts.” With equal candor, he admits, “I don’t like to do them.” Nevertheless he did, for decades because that is what he knew the best. He did daring action because if he didn’t do them, the risk of getting fired loomed. A choice he could ill-afford in the rising days of his career. Back than
in China, most production houses worked on limited budgets. “A lot of things we could not rehearse, such as jumping off a building, we just did it. It was not like America where you had a calculator to judge wind and speed.” Original stunts (no body doubles) were synonymous to Jackie. This choice gave him his identity and made Chan a Hollywood Jackie. Now, the 59-year old is swearing off the high-action and is focusing on becoming an “actor”, a la (Robert) De Niro, of Asia. Moving beyond action, he now wants to “act” and concentrate on good scripts and is even interested in doing song and dance sequences in Bollywood. One can see a renewed sense of appetite in this producer-director of action–comedies such as ‘Project A’, ‘Police Story’, and the hit period film ‘Mr. Canton and Lady Rose.’ Rising from humble beginnings and scripting a success story does not rest on luck. Jackie remembers moving with 2 USD in his pocket struggling for work. “It was Chinese New Year and there was no work,” he reminisces. With the money, he could only afford bread, that too with anxiousness on how long the feed is going to last. A stoic personality, not for once, does the star cling on to godly sentiments or religious notions to hook his success
there. For him, m, it is sheer hard work all the way. It took him six years to write the movie ‘CZ12 ‘or Chinese Zodiac that he co-produced, wrote, directed and d also starred in. The movie is close to his heart due to the theme which revolves lves around Chinese relics, nationall treasures – the missing pieces of 122 Head Statues of Chinese Zodiac. Talking king about the movie, says Jackie, “Why hy should a country’s historical pieces es be in the museums of other countries? tries? They should be returned back ack to their original countries.” The movie has been made for a purpose, he emphasises. ses. Controversies trail public blic figures and Jackie has been een no exception to this trend. At the 2009 Boao Forum when he made a statement: ement: “We’re too free. Chinesee people should start gaining control”, ntrol”, he drew wrath ath of his fans and nd followers. Sitting ting at New Delhi,, clearing the air, he says that the media dia picked up the worst to attract an audience. Putting his comments in context, ntext, the actor argued what he meant. “If If my son goes wild, takes drugs….I have ve to control him… If I give freedom, youu should know how to use that freedom.. m.. you should use freedom the right way.” y.” India has as a special place in his heart. A good ood relationship between India and China is what he hopes for. It is not a matter of wishful thinking but ut conscious effort that made the hero attended the Chinese Film Festival al (organized by ICEC in June at New w Delhi) by cancelling his Toronto itinerary. nerary. He did not mind taking a commercial ommercial flight in lieu of his chartered rtered bird. The pretty co-stars of ‘CZ12’, CZ12’,’ Yaoxing Tong and Zhang Lan Xin also made the event special. The five-day ve-day Chinese film festival was as inaugurated with Chinese Zodiac. In this photo ia-China Chronicle e takes feature India-China Chronicle ers through Jackie’s our readers India visit. September ber 2 2013 India-China Chronicle |19|
BUILDING BRIDGES OFF SCREEN: ICEC COUNCIL’S CULTURAL FIESTA WITH JACKIE CHAN
INFOCUS
JACKIE CHAN
Jackie Chan arrives at Sirifort Auditorium, New Delhi to inaugurate the Chinese film festival.
At exclusive press conference before the screening, signing in.
Actress Zhang Lan Xin from Chan’s movie Chinese Zodiac signing. Co-actress Yaoxing Tong looks on.
Chan flanked by Zhang Lan & Yaoxing Tong with message of peace
Replying to a media query
(From left) Yaoxing Tong, Zhang Hongsen, Director-General of Film Bureau, SAPPRFT, Jackie Chan, Han Sanping, Chinese film producer and distributor, Zhang Lan |20| India-China Chronicle September 2013
Media posing a question to Chan
Print and Electronic media turned out in big numbers
Questions from media are plentry
Chinese media at press conference at Sirifort Auditorium
From exclusive press conference to Hall No.1 of Sirifort Auditorium among over 3000 fans. September 2013 India-China Chronicle |21|
INFOCUS | INTERVIEW| JACKIE CHAN
“People confuse action with violenceâ€? Jackie Chan wears many hats including those of action hero, director, producer, FKRUHRJUDSKHU VFUHHQZULWHU VLQJHU DQG HQWUHSUHQHXU +H LV OLNH D Ă€RZLQJ ULYHU ZKLFK PHQGV LWV FRXUVH DW HYHU\ URXJK EHQG ,W LV MXVW QRW KLV ÂżHU\ DSSHWLWH EXW D ODUJHU YLVLRQ RI FKDQJLQJ WKH VRFLHW\ WKDW GULYHV KLP WR ZRUN IRU PXOWLSOH UROHV %\ WKDW WRNHQ KH LV D VRFLDO DFWLYLVW WRR 7KURXJK KLV PRYLHV WKH DFWLRQ FRPHG\ KHUR spreads messages of harmony, respect and peace and wants countries to respect HDFK RWKHUÂśV FXOWXUH +H KDV VWRSSHG DFWLQJ LQ PRYLHV WKDW NLGV FDQÂśW ZDWFK $W KLV PHGLD LQWHUDFWLRQ LQ 1HZ 'HOKL KH SURSRVHG VLQJLQJ VRQJV DW WKH 6LQR ,QGLD ERUGHU ZLWK D PHVVDJH RI KDUPRQ\ DQG SHDFH ,Q D FDQGLG FKDW ZLWK Urmila Rao KH VKDUHV KLV YLHZV RQ UHOLJLRQ OXFN DQG PRUHÂŤ What inspired you to make the movie ‘Chinese Zodiac’? In the year 2000 I saw an auction of Chinese antique pieces in Hong Kong. They were bronze heads of Chinese zodiac pieces and the bid was going higher and higher. The buyers were Chinese businessmen who were buying the pieces to bring them back to China. I decided to sit down with them. They asked me if I could make a story about it. I agreed, thought about it and kept writing the script for six years between doing ‘Karate Kid’ and five other movies. I’m an actor and so I took time to write the script. The movie is about the history of China. It is not only a problem (of national relics under possession of other countries) of China but that of the whole world. When I went to Cambodia, I saw that one half of the face of Buddha was gone. Where is the face? It is in some other country’s museum. When I was in Egypt, I learnt that a part of the Pharaoh’s relics are in a museum in another country. Why don’t they give it back? Why are they interested in keeping historical pieces that belong to some other nation? This is a problem that the entire world is
facing. Through my movie, I want to give a message to the world, to respect one’s own culture, as well as mine. 'R \RX WKLQN ÀOPV KDYH D UROH WR SOD\ LQ WKH VRFLHW\" :KDW ZRXOG EH \RXU PHVVDJH WR WKRVH ÀOPPDNHUV ZKR XVH D ORW RI YLROHQFH LQ WKHLU PRYLHV" I can’t criticize someone else’s
, KDYH WR ÀQG a way to make P\VHOI ORRN JRRG In America, script writers, write VFULSWV IRU 5REHUW 'H1LUR $O 3DFLQR DQG WKH OLNH , don’t have such UHVRXUFHV
|22| India-China Chronicle ƒ September 2013
work. There are so many directors and there are so many ways of making movies. Some directors like violence and some want to make movies which involve sex. I am not that kind of a director. When I direct I always tell myself, I will make amovie which I can show to my children. If I can show it to my children, I can show that movie to others’ children also. I know my way of making a movie as I believe that producers/ directors have responsibility for the society, for the world, and for the children. 9LROHQW PRYLHV FDQ VWLU D ORW RI GLVWXUEDQFH Yes, especially now through Internet people can download a lot of stuff, and there is lots of violence even on TV. But I can’t understand why so many young kids love violence. I see many children learning a lot of terrible things from movies and that is bad. I like action but I hate violence. Sometimes people confuse action with violence. :KDW GRHV UHOLJLRQ PHDQ WR \RX" $UH \RX UHOLJLRXV" No, I used to be very religious when I was young. However, while
I was growing up, I started having faith on myself. I had to work hard which I do even now. When I have time I help people, do charity and work out. +RZ GR \RX NHHS \RXUVHOI ÀW" I train whenever I get time. It is for an hour a day when I travel and otherwise, it is at least two-three hours a day. 8VXDOO\ SHRSOH DUH QRW UHOLJLRXV ZKHQ WKH\ DUH \RXQJ LQ \RXU FDVH LW ZDV WKH RSSRVLWH When I was young, I used to believe in Buddha. I used to look at the moon and my teacher used to
say that if I did something bad, the moon would open and God would punish me. Every night I used to pray to the moon, not to punish me. When mankind went to the moon, I realized that there was no God on the moon and my teacher was lying to me. Since then I stopped believing in God. <RX KDYH EHFRPH D VWDU WKURXJK VKHHU KDUG ZRUN %XW GR \RX WKLQN OXFN WRR KDG D UROH WR SOD\" Luck is not enough. I think that luck can somehow make a person into an actor but beyond luck, you have to work hard, ten times harder, in fact... when everyone else is holidaying,
I am busy writing my script, when everybody else is sleeping, I am busy editing. I have to find a way to make myself look good. In America, script writers, write scripts for Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino and the like. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have such resources. When I was young, I just knew action. Nobody wrote scripts for me and so I had to write my own scripts, and direct myself to show the audience my technique and skills. Gradually people started accepting my style. Right now, I have decided to change my style as I want the audience to accept my acting talent and not just action. You have to change your personality yourself. You have to do it yourself ! Â&#x2030;
September 2013 Â&#x192; India-China Chronicle |23|
BUILDING BRIDGES OFF SCREEN: ICEC COUNCIL’S CULTURAL FIESTA WITH JACKIE CHAN
INFOCUS
JACKIE CHAN
Lamp lighting at Sirifort Auditorium before the screening. Chan showing his action as special guests look on in amusement.
PS Deodhar, President, ICEC along with esteemed guests
Mr. Cai Fuchao, Chinese Minister of State Administration for Press Publication, Radio, Film and Television.
Mr. Manish Tiwari presenting a vignette from a period film of Bollywood.
Chan enthralls audiences with his song. Several mobile cameras flashed to capture the moment.
Chinese audiences turned up in huge numbers at the film festival. The movie ‘Chinese Zodiac’ was screened on the inaugural day. |24| India-China Chronicle September 2013
Chetan Bhagat, Huawei’s brand ambassador reading out the name of lucky winner for Huawei’s Ascendmate phone.
A young fan seeking autograph
Emcee in conversation with ICEC’s secretary general Md. Saqib at ‘An Evening with Legend Jackie Chan’: Dinner in honour of Chan at Leela Palace, New Delhi. September 2013 India-China Chronicle |25|
BUILDING BRIDGES OFF SCREEN: ICEC COUNCIL’S CULTURAL FIESTA WITH JACKIE CHAN
INFOCUS
JACKIE CHAN
At the dinner, Chan flanked by Mr. Fuchao and Ms. Chatterjee.
Sharing light moments with kids at Smile Foundation
A little girl reciting a poem
Chan sharing his thoughts with the dinner guests at Leela Palace.
Kids at Smile Foundation welcoming Chan
The enthusiasm and questions for Chan were at an all time high
Chan meeting with Ms. Zohra Chatterjee, Secretary, Ministry of Textile.
ICEC conferring the first ‘India-China Friendship Award’ to the ambassador of peace and harmony Chan
Chetan Bhagat and Chan just before the dinner
With a fan |26| India-China Chronicle September 2013
Chan at Smile Foundation
Lets shake some hands and legs on Bollywood song September 2013 India-China Chronicle |27|