 Years ago, looking at a newly-released book in W H Smith, I asked a friend: "Who on earth would want to read that!" It was a new biography with a bold, red cover. I spoke with the kind of freedom born of ignorance. I assumed the book's subject was some new-kid-on-the-block non-entity, a crass action flick star with more hype than talent. The book? I Am Jackie Chan.
A year later, I had a road-to-Damascus experience. One Saturday afternoon, I watched a cheaply-bought copy of Jackie Chan's First Strike. The scales fell from my eyes, and a whole new world opened to me. I had never seen anything like it. It wasn't his best film - I now know - but it was enough.
Within a few days, I'd enlisted support in tracking down all the Jackie Chan videos I could find - Police Story, Project A, Armour of God, Miracles, and within a few months I had scoured the high streets and back streets, bagging as many of his classic early films as I could - Drunken Master, Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, Young Master.
Armed with Michelle Le Blanc and Colin Odell's cracking Pocket Essential intro to Jackie's films, I managed to stay away from the acknowledged ‘before-he-was-famous' stinkers - like Shaolin Wooden Men and Killer Meteor - and lap up the legendary films. Also, the shamefully underappreciated newer ones that rock with outstandingly choreographed sequences such as Who Am I? Even his enjoyable foray into romcom action, Gorgeous, grabbed me (what can I say, I'm a romantic kind of guy).
So, I was as doubtful as anyone when Jackie finally made it big in America with Rush Hour, hemmed in by health and safety bureaucrats and not allowed to choreograph his own action. Worse still, he was partnered by gab-happy stand-up comic Chris Tucker. Hard to know what hurt most - seeing Jackie reduced to this, or Tucker walk off with $20,000 dollars on the back of Jackie's hard work.
 Still, Rush Hour was enjoyable enough, and it showed off some clever Chan moves. Rush Hour 2 had Jackie as action director, featured more Chinese talent, was set in Hong Kong, and Tucker seemed less abrasive. How the heart sank, then, to see the trailer and poster for Rush Hour 3 giving top billing to Tucker. What are the Americans thinking of?
Of course, Jackie can never have the screen to himself in America. In Shanghai Noon and especially Shanghai Knights, he was given top quality support from the likeable and multi-talented Owen Wilson. But, in Chan's other American pics, he's been saddled with someone else - for better or for worse - Steve Coogan in Around the World in 80 Days, Jennifer Love Hewitt in The Tuxedo.
Chan, happily, has returned to his roots in recent years - with Chinese New Year movies such as Accidental Spy and, recently, the baby-comedy Rob-B-Hood. Not getting any younger, he's more willing than he was to use computer effects, as in The Myth or Twins Effect. And he's more willing to play with his persona, turning up drunk and disorderly in New Police Story.
But we can only hope that Chan does himself, and us, a favour by limiting his American adventures in future to the excellent, self-produced cartoon series. Or that he plays the States on his own terms, securing entrees for Chinese talent (like Daniel Wu and Nicholas Tse) or showing their action directors how it's really done. Or maybe - just maybe - stepping behind the camera to direct a movie.
The man who says "I Am Jackie Chan" is an actor, stuntman, director and comic, all of stratospheric proportions. He's a cinematic icon, not just some action flick star. Someone, I hope, who knows how to say ‘No' to Rush Hour 4.
Glenn Watson
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