Jackie Chan is famous for performing his own stunts in action films, but did he do all of them?
During a recent radio talk show in Taiwan, movie director Kevin Chu revealed that Jackie had at least one scene in Island of Fire (1990) where he relied on a stunt double to shoot a dangerous scene.
Recalling the first day of filming with Jackie, Chu said that he explained a scene to the actor and instructed him to tumble from the railing on the second floor to the first floor.
"[Jackie] stared daggers at me and said, 'How old do you think I am?'" Confused, the director asked Jackie: "I thought you did your own stunts?"
Jackie responded: "You really believe that?"
The action star, who's now 68, was around 36 during the filming of Island of Fire.
The movie also starred other big names like Andy Lau, Sammo Hung and Tony Leung Ka-fai.
According to Chu, Tony had apparently cried while he arrived in the Philippines for filming.
"Do you think he was invited to come act in the movie, or forced to act in it?" The radio talk show host mused, alluding to the Hong Kong film industry's link to the secret society during the 80s and 90s.
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Explained the host: "During that period of time where secret societies had their hand in shooting movies, many people didn't give you (Chu) money. If they did, it would be very little, or it would be in the form of objects like watches."
And while the movie did get completed, the conclusion was rushed, Chu said.
The cast had other obligations — Andy had a show to film in Japan and couldn't stay for much longer, and neither could Jackie.
"If you watch the movie, you'll see that there's a lot of close-ups on Jackie and Andy at the end.
"That was how the movie ended. It was basically just them getting shot, running and shooting back," Chu explained.
With the clash in that stars' schedules, the lead characters were all wiped out in the end.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACL-IYbMtRo[/embed]
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khooyihang@asiaone.com