21st April 2003, 9:54 AM
Jackie Chan does a lot of his own stunts. This whole "He does all of his stunts" thing is just something that a bunch of American producers came up with so that people could repeat it. The truth of the matter is that it is impossible for any actor in Hong Kong to do 100% of his own stunts. That's not the way filming works. Jackie does do pretty much all of the most dangerous stunts in his movies (he's even doubled for other characters in his own movies), but if he feels like he can't do a certain flip well enough he'll get someone else to do it. Yuen Biao is most famous for doubling just about every martial arts actor in Hong Kong from the late 70's to the mid 90's, and he's doubled Jackie plenty of times. Jackie still does almost everything, but it's not realistically possible for him to do 100% of it all. There are scheduling conflicts, injuries, and various other circumstances that come into play.
Jet Li doesn't do most of his stunts because he simply came from a different school than Jackie. Jackie grew up learning traditional Chinese Opera at the Peking Opera School in Hong Kong (along with Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung) where they learned how to perform martial arts and do difficult and graceful flips and jumps, while Jet learned more formal martial arts training, Wushu. Jet was a world champion in Wushu from the time he was a boy until he left in his early adulthood to go into movies. Wushu is great for on-screen martial arts as it is primarily a performing MA, but you don't get the acrobatics training as you do in the Peking Opera School. This is why Jet and Jackie's movies are so different from each other. They lean towards each person's particular skills. Jet for great, straight-forward MA and wire-work, and Jackie with more non-traditional MA and plenty of stunts. Jet's movies simply don't lend themselves to the kind of stunts that you see in Jackie's movies. Jet has gotten quite a number of injuries doing his movies, however.
Jet Li doesn't do most of his stunts because he simply came from a different school than Jackie. Jackie grew up learning traditional Chinese Opera at the Peking Opera School in Hong Kong (along with Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung) where they learned how to perform martial arts and do difficult and graceful flips and jumps, while Jet learned more formal martial arts training, Wushu. Jet was a world champion in Wushu from the time he was a boy until he left in his early adulthood to go into movies. Wushu is great for on-screen martial arts as it is primarily a performing MA, but you don't get the acrobatics training as you do in the Peking Opera School. This is why Jet and Jackie's movies are so different from each other. They lean towards each person's particular skills. Jet for great, straight-forward MA and wire-work, and Jackie with more non-traditional MA and plenty of stunts. Jet's movies simply don't lend themselves to the kind of stunts that you see in Jackie's movies. Jet has gotten quite a number of injuries doing his movies, however.