The surprising quartet who inspired Jackie Chan’s martial arts acting style
While the likes of martial arts legends Bruce Lee, Jet Li and Iko Uwais have often detailed an air of seriousness in their movies, when it comes to Jackie Chan, he has been capable of dousing his performances in a quality of comedy, which has not only made him stand out from his contemporaries but also made his films a true joy to experience.
Chan studied at the China Drama Academy and Peking Opera School as one of the Seven Little Fortunes students, during which time he learned martial arts and acting. Making his way into the film industry, Chan first worked as a stuntman in several Hong Kong movies, including one for Bruce Lee.
Eventually, though, it was time for Chan to make his own way in the cinema world, and he made his breakthrough in Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow, before delivering further efforts in the likes of Drunken Master, The Young Master and Project A, all of which saw the actor combined his intense martial arts movements with a slapstick style of humour, which would later be replicated in Hollywood with the Rush Hour and Shanghai movies.
Such roles make perfect sense when we consider the inspirations behind Chan’s style, and in an interview with Spliced Wire, Chan revealed all of them, though the results are rather surprising. “First I learn action from American stuntman. Punch, kicking,” he began, which makes the most amount of sense.
From there, though, Chan noted his comedy hero, Buster Keaton, who was known for his physical comedy in a number of notable silent movies of the 1920s, including The Playhouse, The General and The Cameraman, and stood next to the other great silent comedy icons like Charlie Chaplin.
We might think that Chan had learned his fighting style from Bruce Lee or the ilk, but the truth is that it actually seemed to come from an unlikely source: the dancer, actor and choreographer Gene Kelly, known for his performances in An American in Paris, Singin’ in the Rain and Anchors Away.
Explaining his surprising source of fighting inspiration, Chan said: “Before we fighting in Chinese style. After the editing we look at it. Very boring. When I look at Gene Kelley it give me new idea. Why? Because before they’re dancing…you just hear that sound. If 10 minutes like this, very boring. But suddenly the music come up, suddenly the music stop Then I said, ‘Yes! That’s the rhythm.'”
Sure, Chan had already learned how to fight and do acrobatics at the Peking Opera House, but he still found figures in the American cinema world to draw inspiration from, only they just so happened to be Gene Kelly and Buster Keaton. However unlikely those figures are, they go some way to showing the kind of humour that Chan always wanted to douse his style in.
Remarkably, Chan wasn’t quite finished there, as he also stated his admiration for Donald Duck and Dustin Hoffman, the latter of whom gave Chan his love for the underdog character archetype, with the actor noting, “He’s not very tough, but people like him.” So, there you have it, tough guy, funny guy, Jackie Chan moves across the screen with a unique sense of slapstick grace, and as he does, he draws on the work of Keaton, Kelly, Hoffman and even Donald Duck…
