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Sunday, July 28, 1996

Jackie Chan flicks filled with realistic stunts, rapid actionBy Brandon Wilson

Summer Bruin Contributor

In the early 1980s, he came, he saw, he went back home.

In 1996, he came back, he saw, he conquered.

And without leaving the audience a chance to catch their breath after "Rumble in the Bronx," Jackie Chan is back.

In a summer where Tom Cruise is doing digital stunt work in a wind tunnel and even the mighty Arnold is reduced to flaccid, unbelievable blue screen antics, Chan is made-to-order for an effects-drunk moviegoing public.

Chan jumps onto a rope ladder dangling from a 10-story building and proceeds to soar over Kuala Lumpur with only the power of his hands keeping him from taking a deadly spill. Hollywood's action heroes, however, are only capable of technologically-assisted daredeviltry.

Even though he enjoys an almost unsurpassed celebrity in Asia, Chan is still openly perplexed by his newfound success. After years of cult status here in the United States amongst devotees of Hong Kong's kinetic brand of fist and firearm cinema, "Rumble in the Bronx" introduced Chan to a broader U.S. market. Directed by "Rumble in the Bronx" skipper Stanley Tong, "SuperCop" features Chan as Hong Kong PD Detective Kevin Chan. The film takes our hero out of Hong Kong to Mainland China, the heart of the Golden Triangle, and Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur.

As director, Tong wanted "SuperCop" to stand out from the endless succession of Hong Kong action films. "When you see a Hong Kong movie, the reason why it's all martial arts is because it's cheap. Just get a good choreographer and stuntmen. I wanted to make this like a big budget Hollywood movie," the director says.

To spice up the brew, Tong made sure "SuperCop" contained the holy trinity of action filmmaking: The Fistfights, The Shootouts, and Great Big Chase Scenes.

But what's most exciting about "SuperCop" is the fact that it will probably be the film that introduces Hong Kong's next big import to Western audiences: the incomparable Michelle Khan.

In real life, as in cinema, Khan bounds into a room and immediately fills it with her boundless energy and sincere charisma.

"Yes, that was me!" she responds with beaming pride when asked if in fact it was her hanging from a bus in one particularly harrowing shot.

Already Asia's biggest female star, Khan is in a similar position to the one Chan was in just a few years ago: enjoying massive stardom on one side of the planet while being largely unknown on the other.

But Khan is featured in "SuperCop" as the icily efficient cop from Red China that easygoing Chan is forced to work with. Khan holds her own with Chan and pulls off the Herculean task of providing some of the best fight scenes in Chan's film.

"SuperCop" marks a rare instance of Chan sharing the hero chores in his film with anyone, let alone a woman. Typically, a woman in a Chan film can content herself with being either his girlfriend or one of the villain's accomplices.

"This is the first film Jackie shared with not a man, but a woman. He previously had this saying that 'women don't fight.' Then, when my movies started to come out, he changed it to 'women don't fight, except for Michelle.' And now I'm in his movie!"

Khan's appearance in Chan's film is surprising for other reasons.

"Twelve years ago, if someone had told me that one day I'd be an actress, and one day I'd have a movie opening in America, I would've fallen off the chair and died laughing. I always wanted to dance; I wanted to start my own school and be a choreographer. I never planned this; but once the chance was given and I was in there I just held on like a bull terrier and didn't let go," she recalls.

Khan had no martial arts training, but years of ballet training at London's Royal Academy of Dance gave her a grace and power that provided a strong foundation.

"I spent a lot of time training for this, making that transition; having a dance background and being so agile was a tremendous asset to me. Stanley Tong was the stunt coordinator and he spent many hours working out with me," she says.

Khan's enthusiasm is unabashed when talk turns to Hollywood.

"I was so overwhelmed and thrilled to hear the movie was going to come to America. I didn't calm down for a few days," she confesses. She longs for the chance to come West like Chan, and director John Woo. Hers is a desire shared by many in the Hong Kong film industry, which is waning now that much of the talent is fleeing West before the Communists arrive.

The Hong Kong filmmaker in 1996 is in a curious position, not unlike a gunfighter at the turn-of-the-century, inextricably tied to a milieu that is vanishing a little more each second.

Chan is a perfect example of this syndrome. He has mixed emotions about making the jump across the Pacific, even though the imperative to make such a jump grows by the second. He cites expatriate Hong Kong director John Woo: "When I look at his latest movie, 'Broken Arrow,' it's not John Woo, it's a Hollywood movie, with big blue screen special effects; it's not John Woo anymore. My movie now is [all] Jackie Chan. It scares me sometimes when I come to America; I worry that my films won't be Jackie Chan movies anymore. So right now is a real dilemma for me: I want to come to America, but others say, 'do it your own way, we like your old way.'"

But Chan's temerity about jumping in the pool of Hollywood moviemaking is tempered by his belief that the world that nurtured and bore him is evaporating around him.

"Hong Kong cinema is dying," Chan says. "Everyone wants quick money. We're cheap and we're losing our audience. Once Hong Kong movies in Asia always made more than American, even 'E.T.' or 'Jurassic Park.' In the last couple of years, American movies make more than Hong Kong films. That means we're losing our own audience. They don't see Hong Kong films anymore ... except Jackie Chan films. They know good quality from bad."

Like Chan's undeniable charisma, such occasional displays of benign egomania are common.

"In American movies everyone can be a superman; but no one can be a Jackie Chan."

Besides his charm, what keeps statements like these from being obnoxious is that he's right. Chan's antics give him the right to do a bit of self-celebration; he's also responsible for starting Hong Kong's Director's Guild, Society of Cinematographers and Performing Artists Guild.

As for Khan, she has her work cut out for her. Even American actresses have thus far failed to catapult themselves to Action Movie Queen status.

Whether or not she takes Hollywood by storm or not, Khan is poised to follow Chan to the top of the action movie heap. And for a woman who rides dirt bikes onto the tops of moving trains, how much challenge could Hollywood offer?

FILM: "SuperCop," starring Jackie Chan and Michelle Khan, and directed by Stanley Tong, opened citywide Friday. Grade: A