Not long ago, the photos of Jackie Chan attending a public event caused endless admiration from movie fans. Jackie Chan's beard and hair were all white, smiling kindly and waving to everyone. Many movie fans lamented that Jackie Chan, whom they once loved when they were young and the Kung Fu superstar who climbed over walls and performed all kinds of dangerous fighting scenes in movies, turned out to be the age of his grandfather. Jackie Chan is by far the most well-known Chinese superstar in Hollywood. He has become a window for Hollywood to understand Chinese movies and the Chinese world. Today, Jackie Chan, who has always been called "Big Brother", celebrates his 70th birthday. The following is China News Weekly’s 2017 report on Jackie Chan.
Jackie Chan, across rivers and lakes and temples
"China News Weekly" reporter | Wen Tianyi
This article first appeared in the 787th issue of "China News Weekly" on January 2, 2017
Wearing a gray-blue casual sweatshirt, Jackie Chan Walking in, humming the song as he walked, "The country is my country, the home is my home..." - That is Jackie Chan's favorite song to sing on various occasions in recent years, and the song is called "Country" replaced the earlier "Men Should Be Strong" or "Ambition is in My Chest".
All the on-site staff call him Big Brother. This default label, which is closely linked to Jackie Chan's name, seems to fit him better than haute couture.
He has several names. From Chen Gangsheng to Yuan Lou, then to Yuan Long, Jackie Chan, and finally to Jackie Chan. More than half a century has passed by in a flash.
, whose ancestral home is Shandong, was born in Hong Kong. He received his education in a traditional theater troupe, and was ups and downs in the tide of the film industry. His life was amplified by those movies, and his imagination was unrestrained, and he was happy and resentful; but it was also shrunk by the movies. People often confuse the real him with the person on the screen, and even he himself is confused.
He seems to be the most successful Chinese man in Hollywood, but he always behaves like the most traditional Chinese man, standing in the torrent of time and accepting the baptism and test of any era.
Jackie Chan's new film "Railway Tigers" has just been released in theaters, and he still fulfills our ordinary life heroic dreams in the film. But this time, he played a small character, leading a group of smaller people to do a big thing in troubled times.
Although their ending was tragic in the end, it was still a comedy.
I want to be a simple and calm Chinese man
"Are you wearing a Chinese cheongsam? Men's cheongsam?"
Backstage at the 2016 Oscar Lifetime Achievement Award, Arnold Schwarzenegger asked Jackie Chan, with a little A joking tone.
"Sorry, this is not a cheongsam, this is a men's gown, China's highest standard traditional dress." Jackie Chan replied.
After learning that he was the winner of the new Oscar Lifetime Achievement Award, Jackie Chan put a lot of thought into his award-winning dress. He immediately decided to wear Chinese clothes because "the whole world wants to see it" and "I Represent China".
Initially, the designer put a metal chain on his gown. After Jackie hung it, he found it very unpleasant. Although the people around him praised the beauty, "They all said it was good to hang it, but I said you hang another one." Holding a cigarette holder, isn't that Shanghai Beach?" Jackie Chan said.
In the end, he only wore a black velvet gown, with the wide cuffs rolled up, revealing the snow-white lining.
He doesn’t want Hollywood to see a meticulous Chinese man wearing a Western dress, nor does he want to become a flashy Shanghainese boss in the old days.
A simple and calm Chinese man, who can be a little humorous, but not slick, and responsible. This is Jackie Chan's ideal self, and he feels that this should be the image that should be passed on to the Western world.
"I can't believe I'm still standing here. It's like a dream. A long time ago, every time I watched the Oscars with my dad, my dad would ask me: 'Son, you have won so many awards around the world. , when will I win an Oscar? ' I looked at him, laughed three times, and replied: 'Dad, I make comedy action movies.'"
In his acceptance speech, Jackie Chan said that in addition to his family, wife and children, he also thanked his birthplace - Hong Kong, and - the country.
It sounds like Jackie Chan's acceptance speech was also full of references to his movies. The style, with a hint of lightness and cunning, tells the story of a little man's journey out of humble circumstances.
"In fifty-six years of filmmaking experience, I have shot more than two hundred films and broken many bones. Finally, I got it. "
Jackie Chan can no longer remember how many movies his just-released new movie "Railway Tigers" is, because it is almost an uncountable number. In the movie world, he has served as an actor, director, action director, Producers, producers and screenwriters, and sometimes friendly guest stars, from Xiaodong Ge in the Hong Kong Huangmei Diao movie "Chin Xianglian" in the 1960s to now, the directors who directed his films range from Yan Jun, who was born in 1917, to 1970 Ding Sheng was born, but Jackie Chan seems to have always been there.
Stills from "Rush Hour". Picture | gaopin
Changing world and unchanging rules
Jackie Chan has never avoided his origins.
He comes from the world. , martial arts and all the most basic values constructed at the beginning of life, all come from the theater troupe where I grew up and learned skills when I was a child. It was the "Chinese Drama Research Institute" founded by Peking actor Yu Zhanyuan in Hong Kong. The name sounds like it. It's quite formal, but in fact it's just the old Peking opera troupe model that "replaced the soup without changing the medicine" and moved to this remote area in southern China, and took root again.
"Speaking of the psychology of the four directions, let the masters act on their behalf, and within ten years, progress has been made." All the money will be collected by the master. If there is a natural or man-made disaster, if a car is frightened or a horse explodes, if someone is injured or killed, someone throws himself into a river or a well, it is up to fate. Those who play truant privately, are stubborn and refuse to obey will be beaten to death, and they will thank their teachers when they are old enough, but they must rely on their conscience. Empty words are not supported by words, but words are used as evidence. "
His parents signed a similar agreement, and then six-year-old Chen Hongsheng was left there.
At that time, the Hong Kong entertainment industry had not yet been completely occupied by the film industry. In traditional operas, the dance-sleeved singing shirts and loyalty and filial piety Jieyi still has a large number of fans, and a large number of people who came across the sea also found a place to live in the small world of Liyuan. Some of them continued to indulge here, vaguely listening to the remnants of the motherland from Xipi Erhuang. There was a sense of resentment; some people, in order to make a living, joined the theater troupe and were given the stage name "Yuan Lou". Later, after his senior brother "Yuan Long" Hong Jinbao became an apprentice, he was already the adopted son of Yu Zhanyuan. The name "Yuan Lou" was named "Yuan Long" after his senior brother. This is also the origin of the name "Jackie Chan".
A naughty boy who once caused trouble in the school was shattered again here. Get together again.
Get up at 5 o'clock in the morning, have breakfast, train until lunch at 12 noon, and then continue to train until late at night before resting.
plays with more than a dozen brothers in "Yuan Lou" for six hours of sleep every day. The floor and carpet in the room are dark gray and have not been changed for many years. The original color has become blurred because "everyone eats, sleeps, urinates, and has nightmares there."
This was Jackie Chan from the age of six to ten. The whole world he had at the age of seven was small, dark, and full of the dusty atmosphere of the old times, but he learned the rules there
How the brothers should be arranged, and when eating, the dishes should be handed over to Master Yu Zhanyuan. When the big brother moves his chopsticks, the youngest child can only sit at the far end of the long table, and often there is only a little bit of leftovers left. The same is true on the stage. What kind of business? No matter what kind of clothes you wear, every few steps you take from Hudumen to the middle of the stage are important. If you accidentally sing the wrong words or say the wrong words, it will be a nonsense and you will be beaten. Keep this in mind next time. No more distortion.
But this rule made Jackie Chan feel solid and safe.
In the future, he walked out of this small world surrounded by gray walls and plunged into the complicated reality, and went through the trials and tribulations of several eras. , setting rules and strictly enforcing them have always been his "secret weapon" to protect himself and those around him."
Today's Jackie Chan still likes to emphasize the word "rules". If we make a statistics and filter out the words he uses most frequently, "rules" must be at the top of the list.
"I want to teach my family class to understand the rules. Where to go? Everyone has to abide by other people's rules. "Jackie Chan said this to "China News Weekly".
In the impressions of many of Jackie Chan's film partners, his "family class" has neat rules, which is quite impressive.
For a period of time, Jackie Chan even encouraged everyone to wear the same Jackie Chan's clothes were embroidered with the initials of "Jackie Chan" in gold thread. If everyone bought the same car and drove it, he would reward everyone with 50,000 yuan. Later, Jackie Chan felt that such uniformity was a bit too much, so he gave up. Many detailed rules have always been retained in the family class. For example, on the set, designated areas are designated for smoking and no one can cross the boundary; names are written on mineral water bottles with water-based pens, and no one can throw them away until every drop is left. Squeeze the bottles and hand them over to the cleaning lady; pack up all the leftovers from eating out, then place the tableware neatly and stack them in order before leaving.
"I hate you. I fear you. I love you too, Master. Some things change and some never change. " Jackie Chan once wrote at the end of an autobiography.
Although many years later, he himself became the "master" in his mouth, using another set of rules to manage his young apprentices; he has already left He has come a long way in the world of movies, but looking back, some things will never change.
He reflects different eras and cultures. , the characteristics of different regions, all of which together shaped Jackie Chan. Photography | "China News Weekly" reporter Zhen Hongge
"I deliberately did not learn something new"
The story of "Flying Tigers on the Railway" took place in the 1940s. The original Shandong plain.
A small village in Shandong.
This geographical background makes Jackie Chan feel familiar. He often thinks that he is from Shandong, because his father's family originated from there, and he likes to say a few words in Shandong dialect during interviews.
The image of "big brother" Jackie Chan really seems to fit the image of a traditional Shandong man in the public mind, kind, loyal, and a little bit chauvinistic.
When he was young, he hated injustice the most.
At the age of 18, he had just made his debut. Jackie Chan once followed Director Luo Wei to a high-end shopping mall to buy things. At that time, he was a boy who had just stepped out of the opera world and entered the colorful world. He had no experience at all, and he looked stubborn and a little bit stubborn. Rustic.
When Luo Wei went to pick something, Jackie Chan got impatient and asked the sales lady, "Can I see this?" Face answered me, that one is very expensive. "
He always kept this little thing in mind, and then vowed to gain dignity in this world full of snobbery and indifference.
Because of enough hard work and maybe some luck, in less than a few years, Jackie Chan became famous for "" "New Fist of Fury" became famous overnight.
"I used to be paid 3,000 yuan a month, but suddenly the salary became 4.8 million. Wow, think about it, what did 4.8 million mean at that time? You can buy a house on Chang'an Street. Just one or two buildings. " Jackie Chan jokingly recalled to "China News Weekly".
He took a group of little brothers to the mall.
That girl was still working as a waiter there.
"I tried on shirts, pants and leather shoes one by one. I asked her to unbutton each shirt one by one and lay it out for me to try on. Finally, I said, I want this one, but I don’t want that one... She didn’t understand what I said at first, and then the manager chased me out, sir, Sorry, she didn't understand. I said I explained it clearly enough. Why didn't she understand? I went back and told her clearly that she would wrap everything up like new ones and send them to the hotel where I was staying. "
Jackie Chan regretted it later, "After I finished it, I felt that I was disgusting, and she didn't even know who I was and had already forgotten about me."
The first half of this story really looks like a typical Jackie Chan movie, with simple, simple and clear values. A little man from a grassroots background fights for a world with his bare hands, and finally relies on strength to win the real world. respect.
"I am a very traditional person. Sometimes I deliberately don't learn something new because I can't. "Now Jackie Chan said this.
He uses a mobile phone, but does not have WeChat installed. When he was on the set, he saw young people swiping at each other. He felt like a complete outsider. He could only stand aside and watch, which was pretty cool. Fun.
He is a little afraid of all kinds of software on smartphones because "it's addictive." He only uses his phone to make calls and occasionally read text messages. "It's already busy enough and I don't want to add some additional information." Come harass me. "
I don't know since when, he has changed from a person who is keen on stories such as "Diaosi Counterattack" that makes people feel proud enough, to an old-school, even a bit nagging parent. Speaking of his son Jaycee Chan, "You see, when he comes home, he always kicks off his shoes once or twice, and then walks around in white socks. He doesn't know how difficult it is to wash them. But what should I do? If you slap him, he can sue you.
He also often told the family class, "When doing things, you must first reflect on yourself, blame yourself first with the intention of blaming others, and forgive others first with the intention of forgiving yourself. Then you will lose your temper." Especially today, I am so qualified to lose my temper and curse others. However, the more this happens, the less I lose my temper and the less I curse others. Instead, I choose to understand and teach others. ” ramblingly, with a bit of an “old man” tone that says everything has been done.
On April 23, 2015, award guests Jackie Chan (right) and Luc Besson were at the 5th Beijing International Film Festival Awards Ceremony. Hug. Picture | cfp
Advance and Retreat
"Railway Tiger" is the third film directed by Ding Sheng.
Their initial cooperation originated from eight years ago.
At that time, Jackie Chan was always in his mind. In the story, there is a young general with unfulfilled ambitions and a soldier who just wants to escape and live his own peaceful life. They meet by chance, and then something happens between the general and the soldier.
Jackie Chan had been thinking about it for many years, but he still didn't know what would happen next. He told this story to many people, but most of them just smiled out of curiosity until he met
. Ding Sheng.
At that time, Ding Sheng was still making a living in commercials, and he met Jackie Chan because of a motorcycle brand he endorsed. He then spent three months filling in the characters and details. and flesh and blood, and finally he put the script with detailed shots in front of Jackie Chan.
Later, the movie "Little Soldier" appeared on the screen in 2010.
It is still a Jackie Chan-style action comedy. Incorporated into something that seems a bit special.
In Jackie Chan's previous movies, we often see an invincible hero who can laugh, curse, and make fun of life, but he will never live a wretched life fearing death. But in "Little Soldiers", Ding Sheng quietly changed Jackie Chan. In the end, we saw a little man drowned in the war. He would also bow down in front of the years and times, bowing his head and discovering that those who fought hard and strong in the past were all It is imagination, and only surviving is the real feat.
Then in "Police Story 2013", Jackie Chan seemed to subvert the inherent IP image in the "Police Story" of his previous Hong Kong film years. He became. A mainland police officer no longer used those gorgeous and romantic moves to keep the audience hooked while eating popcorn and drinking Coke. Instead, he was willing to face the bleak truth of life. He began to be afraid, worried, and helpless. It seemed, He really doesn’t look like a hero anymore, but he seems to have a lot more humanity quietly.
“To some extent, it was his willingness to make these changes. "Ding Sheng told China News Weekly.
"I knew very early on that I had to transform. I was particularly afraid that the audience would get tired of it and feel that Jackie Chan's style of play would be the same every time, so I would find different directors to film me and bring different acting styles to the audience. Jackie Chan is different. For example, when I asked Ding Sheng to film "Little Soldier," I played a little character who was greedy for life and afraid of death. I also wanted to play a more profound emotional drama. Weekly explains it this way.
In his spare time, Jackie Chan likes to watch old movies, black and white, not the Cantonese feature films that Hong Kong people are used to, but "red classic" movies from the mainland.
He had watched "Railway Guerrilla". The vast era, the highly generalized characters like opera masks, and the simple and light wisdom of the people all made him interesting and fascinated, and the "The sun in the west is about to set." The old song "It's Quiet on the Weishan Lake" further evoked something similar to nostalgia in Jackie Chan, which lingered vaguely and couldn't go away.
Jackie Chan and Ding Sheng discussed making a new film inspired by "Railway Guerrilla".
A group of little people living in Zaozhuang, Shandong Province, tried to fight back when the nation was in danger of survival. They were irregular and uneducated, but they only wanted to "do a big thing." And in the end, they actually did it.
Jackie Chan still plays the "big brother" among these little characters in movies.
He grew a beard, put on a ragged cotton-padded jacket, hid all his wits in his heart, and looked like he was bearing the burden of humiliation.
He was no longer responsible for being cool in the movie. The person who was acting cool was Wang Kai. When he appeared slowly on a horse, the warmest cheers erupted in the cinema.
He no longer talks about cunning and heroic love affairs in the drama. The character who has a mutual affection for Jackie Chan in the drama is played by Xu Fan. The character is a village woman who is good at making pancakes. She has a simple appearance and a dusty face.
This time, Jackie Chan seems to be deliberately stepping back. According to director Ding Sheng's explanation to "China News Weekly", this is the consensus reached between him and Jackie Chan, ""Railway Tigers" is a team play, rather than letting it Being the eldest brother who stands out makes him feel like this is a one-man show, with a bunch of younger brothers playing together. I hope the audience will finally feel the power of the team."
But in the really important action scenes, Jackie Chan still fights in person. Completed, he stood on the roof of the train at the shooting scene of minus 18 degrees, and was blown by the cold wind and the blower. He did not dare to wear too thick clothes to keep out the cold, so he could only cover his body with warm clothes, and the wind and sand blew into his eyes, thinking I took out the eye drops and rinsed them out, but found that the eye drops were filled with ice and solidified to the point that they could no longer be used.
"When it's really cold, it hurts when you bump into it. You lie down on the roof of the train and shoot. After lying down, your heart feels frozen, as if the urine in your bladder is frozen, and your hands are frozen when you grab the barrel of the gun. I was numb and had no consciousness at all." Jackie Chan recalled the scene during the shooting with a smile.
But in the impression of everyone on the crew, he is still the patriarch responsible for reassuring and cheering everyone up. "He (Jackie Chan) is a very keen person. If he finds that everyone on the scene is in a low mood, he will immediately find a way to start." It’s a joke, for example, let’s take a behind-the-scenes video, or make some mistakes on purpose to make everyone happy,” Ding Sheng told China News Weekly.
In Ding Sheng's previous film "Rescuing Mr. Wu", there was a rivalry scene between the kidnapped Mr. Wu (played by Andy Lau) and the kidnapper Hua Zi (played by Wang Qianyuan). In the depressing and cramped space, Hua Zi, who was as sinister as a jackal, pointed to a calendar on the wall and said to the shivering Mr. Wu, "I don't have a big brother to support me." The camera panned up to see a picture of Jackie Chan. stills.
At the end of "Flying Tigers on the Railway", Andy Lau appeared in the form of an "Easter Egg". He told the little boy who found the "Flying Tigers" mark in the museum that the story was history, or it might be a dream.
Jackie Chan and Andy Lau, two people who have gone through countless turbulent years in Hong Kong movies, just like this, in the two movies directed by Ding Sheng, they teased each other one after another. They seemed to have gone around in a circle, and then Feng Qing The cloud reminds us that the times have passed and we should not linger on the stories of the past, but new stories are still happening and rolling forward.
walked off the Oscar podium, and a past event flashed through Jackie Chan's mind.
At that time, he was already famous in the Chinese-speaking world, but he had not really acted in a movie in English. In the eyes of most foreigners, he was still a Chinese who knew martial arts after Bruce Lee.
's agent accepted an interview with a foreign media for him. It was a rare opportunity at that time. Jackie Chan took a flight and traveled for six hours to the studio. He was asked to go on stage and have a live punch.
Jackie Chan didn’t fully understand the English sentence, but he roughly understood the meaning. Then he asked his manager to tell the other party to please move the stage from the stage so that he could box, but the other party stared at him for a while and then left. , as if they don’t understand the meaning of this request.
The interview then went nowhere.
Hearing that he no longer needed to visit, Jackie Chan’s first reaction was that he was very happy, because he was really afraid of speaking English, but then he felt humiliated, “I flew for twelve hours, and they sent me away just because I didn’t speak a word of English. I rushed back and was very angry.”
Now, when Jackie Chan was standing on the Oscar stage, his English was still not up to par with all kinds of minor tense errors during his thank you speech, but no one seemed to care.
Most of the time, Jackie Chan would attribute such changes to the strength of himself and the country.
In the 1950s, his parents came to Hong Kong from the mainland, and the first job they found was as a cook and maid at the French Consulate’s house. “This was considered very lucky for the refugees of that era. Despite the financial conditions of my parents, Embarrassed, but I was born in a mansion in a wealthy area on the top of Victoria Peak. It’s just that other people’s homes are in the front, grand and spacious, while my home is hidden in the back, narrow and simple.” “Living in the same place, the consul’s family is facing each other. We were also good, but we were in two worlds from the beginning," Jackie Chan later recalled.
seems to have been witnessing the desolation of the "two worlds" since he was ignorant.
His parents have experienced the ups and downs of two eras, and as a child who was born a stranger in a foreign land, Jackie Chan may be better able to understand the meaning of "home and country" than some native citizens. In his opinion, that may mean that beyond the island, there is a wider land that has experienced wars and suffering, but it has always existed.
His highest level of education was in the first grade of elementary school. All his cultural knowledge came from stories in ancient operas, those legends about keeping festivals, making promises, and returning home after conquering the world in glory, which now seem paranoid and outdated. Perhaps to this day, he still believes in all that.
Whether inside or outside the movie, Jackie Chan's values are always single and simple: every drop of blood and sweat will not be in vain, he relies on them to gain dignity; every national treasure should experience twists and turns and bizarre adventures Finally returned to his own country; after the war, the rules were re-established, and everything moved towards the future with vitality.
This is the world that Jackie Chan built in the movie. He said that it was his ideal utopia.
In addition to being a filmmaker, Jackie Chan also has an identity as a singer.
At first, most of his songs had a unified style and name, such as "Drunken Master", "Men Should Be Strong", "Give Me a Sky", "Ambition in My Chest"... Just like his movie images, they were chanted and praised. It shows the heroism and pride of the hero, and also reveals a little tenderness.
But after 2009, Jackie Chan's representative repertoire was replaced by a main theme song called "Country". He would sing this song on almost any important occasion, such as the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
"It's very nice, the melody and the lyrics are very good. "One jade mouth fills China, one tile roof builds a family. They say the country is very big, but in fact it is just one family.’ ‘One heart fills the country, and one hand supports the family. The family is the smallest country, and the country is the home of tens of millions. ’ Look, this country, family, family, and country are so powerful together. "In many occasions when facing the media, Jackie Chan has interpreted it this way.
According to the context of traditional Chinese "60th birthday", he is no longer young.
Jackie Chan has been thinking about retirement a long time ago, but a movie Filming one film after another, the issue of retirement is constantly being put aside.
When facing media interviews, Jackie Chan likes to vividly tell the stories he has experienced over the years, but compared to telling stories, he is more envious of people like him. Like Bruce Lee, he was able to say very profound and philosophical words, such as "Because water is invisible, you can't catch it, you can hit it with your fist, and you can't hurt it."
was the first to become famous in the world. The Chinese kung fu star, Bruce Lee, will forever freeze his life at the age of 33.
Jackie Chan still fights with real swords in the movie.
After an interview event, Jackie Chan left, and he reached for the door, but the door opened. It seemed very heavy, and in the end he pulled the door handle abruptly, only to realize that he should have pushed it. But the skill he showed inadvertently was still surprising.
"My life seems to be always lively, on the screen. , show up, appear, fight, risk your life; in life, family class, Jianghu, brothers, come, come, have a drink, we are friends all over the world. "
" I almost forgot what a person looks like, or what I look like. "
In an autobiography he published in the past two years, Jackie Chan described his life like this.
The name of the book was named "Being Old Before You Grow Up".
But then he added , while narrating to the recorder, he stopped and thought slowly, "Oh, so this is me. "
is the same when facing interviews. He tells stories from far and near, recalling people from different eras, and then realizes that he has come so far.
Reporter: Wen Tianyi
Editor: Yang Shiyang
