Cult Cinema Saves The World
Jackie Chan is a legend. Having started acting in 1954 at the tender age of just 8 years old, Jackie Chan has gone on to have a career spanning six decades and, as you can imagine, has made more films than you can shake a pair of nunchucks at. Now, we initially thought of doing a Top 5 Jackie Chan Movies list—and probably will at some point—as well as having contemplated doing a Top 5 Worst Jackie Chan list, but realized that three of those would be Rush Hour, so what would be the point. It dawned on us that what the world needs is a list that looks at the Top 5 Jackie Chan Fight Scenes.
After all, Jackie Chan pretty much reinvented the martial arts genre when he decided that having a group of people dancing around in the background of a fight scene, just waiting to get punched in the face, was about as realistic as Donnie Yen’s claims of never having plastic surgery. So instead, he came up with a way to have his movies seem as chaotic as real scraps are by building a stunt team that were highly trained, that he trusted, and that communicated their moves through a series of grunts and noises.
And no, we’re not making that last bit up.
So, in honor of the man himself, and the squad he has spent the best part of 40 years honing into a machine that won’t accidentally kick his head off his shoulders, join us today as we bring you our Top 5 Jackie Chan Fight Scenes.
Number 5: Restaurant Fight Scene (Project A)
And as we’ve just been talking about the Jackie Chan stunt team, what better way to start our Top 5 Jackie Chan Fight Scenes than with proof of why they have been so important in helping to reinvent the genre?
The restaurant fight scene from Project A is the perfect example of this. Even though Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao are the focal points of the action, it’s everything that is happening in the background and during the fast cuts that draws the eye, as the stunt team put on a hell of a show. They beat the tar out of each other, throw themselves across furniture, and into bars, chuck each other into the air, and come crashing down onto a very unforgiving floor. It truly is a sight to behold.
When it comes down to our two heroes being the only good guys left standing, facing off against a horde of bad guys, the action gets cranked up to eleven as bodies are sent flying at an incredible pace, with every punch thrown, every kick aimed, and every weapon wielded timed to a split second.
It is a work of art and proves that behind every great action star is a team of dedicated stunt people willing to risk life and limb to make the scene the best they can.
Number 4: Ron Smoorenburg Rooftop Fight (Who Am I?)
We’ve always felt that Who Am I? doesn’t get the love that it deserves. Is it one of Jackie Chan’s greatest movies? No, not really if truth be told, but it’s a hell of a lot better than most give it credit for. After all, the scene where Jackie Chan slides down that huge building without any form of safety wire is still arse-clenching after all these years, and the rooftop fight with Ron Smoorenburg is on another level.
It’s the clash of styles that makes this such a joy to behold as Ron Smoorenburg is, quite literally, all legs and towers over Jackie Chan, giving him a unique problem in figuring out how to bring the giant down. Now, we’ll admit that this is a trick he has used a few times, such as the end fight of Legend of the Drunken Master for example, but there is something about this version of a Jackie Chan trope that works perfectly.
What follows is the perfect dance, a beautiful ballet of violence if the lead dancer was trying to kick your teeth down your throat during the performance, and it is something that we recommend that any fan of action movies have as part of their weekly diet.
Number 3: Playground Fight Scene (Police Story 2)
Jackie Chan vs. a group of machete-wielding thugs in a playground, as he uses swings, climbing frames, and slides to beat the crap out of them while they try and chop him up into tiny Jackie Chan pieces.
Do we need to say more?
Number 2: Drunken Kung Fu (The Legend of the Drunken Master)
This scene is, as the kids would say, boss. The kids still say boss, right? It’s also the greatest comedy fight ever committed to celluloid, at least as far as we’re concerned.
Surrounded by a group of thugs—because these feckers still haven’t learned to not mess with Jackie Chan—everything descends into violence quicker like a Friday night in Newcastle. In the middle of this madness, we find our hero getting more and more plastered as his mother—stepmother? We’ve never been quite sure—throws him bottles of hooch.
But this isn’t some twisted idea to help him deal with any beating he might find himself on the end of, oh no, this is because he is trained in the art of drunken kung-fu so he needs to be, y’know, drunk to be able to pull it off.
As he gets more and more blotto, his martial arts get more and more impressive and he soon lays waste to the villains using anything available to hand. Plus, being drunk means he doesn’t mind messing around with them a little, such as using them as rest stops in the middle of the fight or slapping them about with any spare furniture he can find.
The Legend of the Drunken Master is seen by most as one of the top-tier Jackie Chan movies, and this fight scene is one of the major reasons why.
Number 1: Benny “The Jet” Urquidez Fight (Wheels on Meals)
This isn’t just the best Jackie Chan fight scene of all time, but there is an argument to be made that it is the best fight scene of all time, period, and the reason for that is quite simply that it is f*cking brutal. Wheels on Meals was the first ever Jackie Chan film we saw and it’s the one that started our lifelong obsession with kung-fu movies, and this war between Jackie Chan and Benny “The Jet” Urquidez had a lot to do with that.
No holds are barred and no quarter is given as these two go at it hammer and tong. It looks vicious, it looks nasty, and it looks like two highly trained martial artists are beating the holy hell out of each other for real. There is a certain grit that you will never find in any other movie and not just any other Jackie Chan movie.
There is respect between the two characters on screen for each other’s fighting skills and there was a real respect from Jackie Chan towards Benny “The Jet” Urquidez after they had finished filming it as he had impressed him to no end.
And there should be respect from every single fan of this genre for what this fight scene is all about. Not only is it the best choreographed, best shot, and best-delivered action sequence ever, but it set the bar so damn high that every other martial artist has been trying to clear it ever since.
But what do you think? Do any of these fight scenes make your Jackie Chan Top 5? Did we miss any out? Sound off in the comments section and let us know.
