jackie chan journey to china

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Iron Mask (2019)

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Early 1700: Cartographer Jonathan Green (Jason Flemyng) from Forbidden Empire (2014) is back to map the Russian Far East. He's forced on to China, where he confronts the Dragon Master et al. The iron masked Russian Czar escapes the Tower of London to a Russian ship.

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Where does Iron Mask rank today? The JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts are calculated by user activity within the last 24 hours. This includes clicking on a streaming offer, adding a title to a watchlist, and marking a title as 'seen'. This includes data from ~1.3 million movie & TV show fans per day.

Iron Mask is 7183 on the JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts today. The movie has moved up the charts by 3101 places since yesterday. In the United States, it is currently more popular than Yellow Lights but less popular than The Friends of Eddie Coyle.

Streaming charts last updated: 5:16:00 PM, 09/05/2024

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Movie Review – The Iron Mask (2019)

June 7, 2020 by Chris Gelderd

The Iron Mask , 2019.

Directed by Oleg Stepchenko. Starring Jason Flemyng, Charles Dance, Rutger Hauer, Jackie Chan, Helen Yao and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

A brilliant English cartographer must travel to China in search of a fabled ‘Dragon Seal’ that holds supernatural powers, unaware that many dangerous and powerful figures are also seeking the treasure for nefarious purposes.

The Iron Mask , also known as The Mystery Of The Dragon Seal (and originally released as Viy 2: Journey To China , as this is a sequel to successful Russian 2014 fantasy horror Viy starring Jason Flemyng and Charles Dance)… confused yet… is finally released for the Western market after exposure in the East, including China and Russia.

We have a generic title that eradicates any former franchise link. We also have marketing that promotes the appeal of action heroes Jackie Chan (here under special participation) and Arnold Schwarzenegger together for the first time. However, this is a ploy to get Western audiences watching a film that will just leave them cold. With themes and characters from the 2014 original and a testing Russian / Chinese production that features awful dubbing and characterisation, The Iron Mask is anything but an original action adventure we were led to expect.

It’s hard enough to accept to see the likes of the late Rutger Hauer overdubbed, but also to accept liberties like the Tower of London full of American soldiers under the command of a moustached Austrian all serving the Queen of England. This Eastern production of a Western world is nothing but fantastical and full of elements from Chinese folklore, Russian culture and stereotypical English pomp and circumstance.

Jason Flemyng is our English hero from the original, cartographer Jonathan Green, out to this time discover ancient Chinese supernatural treasures. With support from Helen Yao by his side, the two are introduced early on but forgotten for the second act when action shifts to London. Here we are treated to fleeting, random appearances by Charles Dance and the late Hauer, not to mention the introduction of Chan’s Master and Schwarzenegger’s James Hook (NOT the J. M. Barrie creation). It’s a confusing mix of characters, story arcs and often silly humour.

The action sequences we do have are highly choreographed and lacklustre, with more focus on set design and production than anything else. It doesn’t help that the film’s pace is all out, introducing certain characters and stories before leaving them for a good half an hour before returning. And as the story takes place across London, Moscow and China all at the same time, it’s easy to lost track of what is happening and why and who is involved with who.

And with the amount of chains, swords and dead fish flying in slow-motion towards the screen, the 3D element is all but lost in this 2D conversion and many of the sequences using depth for immersion just don’t work.

The saving grace is when production finally focuses on China towards the third act – that’s when the fantastical elements kick in and the folklore element proves to be entertaining enough aside from more silly character portrayals. Flemyng gets his chance to shine over the second hour in a blend of Indiana Jones / Tomb Raider / The Lord of the Rings adventures, and thankfully the pace calms a little to at least be more focused on one arc rather than three or four.

The production of The Iron Mask is tiresome to watch when it becomes very apparent this is anything but what Western markets are used to. The cheap visual effects and range of actors makes it feel like a TV movie compared to what it would feel like with authentic voices and a reduction of so many production companies and individuals. And as for the iron mask of the title? It bears little to no relevance to the core story.

To save anyone the hardship of watching this on the Chan/Schwarzenegger unification, they share approximately 9 minutes of screen time, with under 3 minutes of badly staged, body doubled ham-fisted fighting. Do NOT watch expecting anything beyond this – they don’t even leave their prime location or change costumes until a few seconds before their time is up.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★  / Movie: ★

Chris Gelderd

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Screen Rant

Viy 2: journey to china finally has arnold schwarzenegger v jackie chan.

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Viy 2: Journey To China will finally see Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jackie Chan fighting it out on the big screen. Arnold Schwarzenegger was an unlikely candidate to become a major movie star in Hollywood, with the former Mr. Olympia being told repeatedly by producers early in his career audiences couldn't understand his accent or even pronounce his name. The success of Conan The Barbarian and The Terminator would pave the way for him to become one of the biggest movie stars of all time.

Jackie Chan is one of the most renowned action stars on the planet, due to his mix of physical comedy and literal death-defying stunts. His abilities were on full display in the likes of Police Story  and Drunken Master II , but he also had a tough time breaking into American movies. In the early 1980s, he starred in two English language action movies - The Big Brawl and The Protector - to break into the American market, but both proved to be box-office disappointments. It wasn't until the success of 1998's Rush Hour that he found the right vehicle for his talents.

Related: Rush Hour Season 2 Updates: Is It Happening?

Recent years have seen action icons teaming up or facing off against each other, such as  The Expendables franchise. While Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jackie Chan previously co-starred in 2004's Around The World In 80 Days , they didn't have a fight sequence. The movie gods have decided to fix that with Russian blockbuster Viy 2: Journey To China .

The original Viy - AKA Forbidden Empire  - was based on the Russian horror story of the same name, and starred Jason Fleming and Charles Dance ( Game Of Thrones ). The movie only loosely adapted the book, with Fleming's character fighting off all manner of creatures in a remote village. While the movie went straight to DVD in most countries it was a massive success in Russia. The producers decided to pull in some star power for Viy 2: Journey To China , including Jackie Chan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Rutger Hauer, in one of his final roles.

Viy 2: Journey To China finds Chan and Schwarzenegger in supporting roles as a wizard and sea captain respectively. While the 3D sequel is loaded with spectacular action, effects and production design, it also contains the first onscreen brawl between the two action giants. This sequence is heavily teased in trailers for the movie, and hopefully, it will prove to worth the decades-long wait. Fans in the U.S. might have to be patient, however, since while the film is scheduled for release in September 2019 in Russia, a North American release date has yet to be confirmed.

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Where to Watch

Watch Iron Mask with a subscription on Hulu, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

What to Know

Iron Mask unites Jackie Chan and Arnold Schwarzenegger for a bizarrely misguided adventure that aims for epic fantasy with unintentionally hilarious results.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Oleg Stepchenko

Jackie Chan

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Jason Flemyng

Jonathan Green

Xingtong Yao

Anna Churina

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Jackie Chan's JCE Movies to shoot sequel of Russian film Viy

Viy 3D. Movie shooting. Source: Press photo

From Russia to China

“Viy 2” is a sequel to “Viy 3D”, a 2014 dark fantasy film loosely based on the Nikolay Gogol story Viy, which was one of the highest-grossing films in Russia that year. The plot of the sequel has no relation to Gogol's work and develops the story told in the first movie.

The protagonist, cartographer Jonathan Greene, portrayed by British actor Jason Flemyng, accepts a mission from Russian Tsar Peter I to map Russia's Far East. The Englishman embarks on a journey, which eventually takes him to China, where most of the action takes place.

In Slavic mythology, Viy is a demon capable of killing people by looking at them. His eyes are usually covered by his long eyelids and lashes, which are lifted by his underlings using forks.

The plot is mostly based on Russian and Chinese legends. The Slavic legend of Viy intertwines here with the Chinese stories of dragons and the myths about the origins of tea. The film's producers also promised to present their own version of the Grand Embassy of Peter I and of the legendary Man in the Iron Mask.

Bringing Russian culture to the world

The film is a joint production of two Russian companies, Russian Film Group and STV, and their Chinese partners. According to Russian Film Group producer Alexey Petrukin, the movie's mission is to promote not just Russian cinema, but Russian culture as a whole in the world. The film will be released in Russia, China and the West.

“I believe our film will be interesting to everyone, since it is basically an international production: specialists from Russia, China, UK and Germany are all involved”, says director Oleg Stepchenko. “The movie will be presented at the Marché du Film in Cannes. Granted, it is not an American blockbuster, but we still expect to get good box office performance in Western countries too, not just Russia and China. Our partners are working on it too,” adds STV producer Sergey Selyanov.

In 1697 Russian Tsar Peter I went to Western Europe with a year-long diplomatic mission. After returning, the ruler immediately began reforming the country along European lines, stopped wearing Russian clothes and distanced himself from his relatives. Some early Russian conspiracy theories even stipulated the man who returned from Europe was not the Tsar but an impostor.

Selyanov, who worked in China as the producer of ‘Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan’ by Sergei Bodrov, says he was looking forward to cooperating with the country’s film fraternity again. “I really loved it, although we did have our share of difficulties since it was our first cooperation,” Selyanov says. “After we finished the film, I thought it would be great to work on another Chinese project.” 

According to the producers, the funding mostly comes from private companies, although Russia's National Film Industry Support Fund did make some contributions too.

Mastering Kung Fu  

The film's female lead will be portrayed by Chinese actress Yao Xingtong, who has previously collaborated both with Jackie Chan and fight choreographer He Jun. This time she will play three completely different parts – at the beginning of the film she will enact a young kung fu master, and in the course of the story she will transform first into a witch, and then into a Chinese princess.

Yao Xingtong. Source: Press photo

“This role is unlike anything I've played before,” Yao says. “Firstly, the genre itself is new to me. Secondly, this is a joint Russian-Chinese production, which is also a first – I've never worked with Russian colleagues previously. As for the role itself, I've never played a girl which is that good in kung fu.”

The actress believes both Russian and Chinese audiences would find the film interesting. “I think moviegoers in both countries will love it. This is the first joint production of Russia and China; plus, there are both martial arts and beautiful legends, which I think many will appreciate”, she says.

One of the film's key features is the kung fu scenes, with Russian stuntmen mastering the ancient Chinese art right on the set. This is where the Chinese stuntmen from JCE come in. “They are professionals, and some of the best in fact,” says Alexey Petrukhin. “They have contributed massively in the movie. We don't even try to do anything special ourselves, because in this particular case, we have nothing that would impress them much.”

The Man in the Iron Mask was the name attributed to a mysterious prisoner held in the Bastille. His real name is unknown, and his very existence is unconfirmed. According to one legend, the prisoner was a noble who bore a strong resemblance to a member of the court of Louis XIV of France, and thus was forced to wear an iron mask to hide his features.

The lead Russian stuntman Alexander Solovyev says his team uses the occasion to expand their horizons. “Fights like that are something you don't usually see in our movies, so we can learn a lot of new tricks”, he explains.

Yao Xingtong also appreciates the professionalism of Jackie Chan's stuntmen: “It is my second time working with He Jun and his team, and they really are experts in their field. In fact, I think that they are some of the best kung fu fight choreographers in all of China”.

Director Oleg Stepchenko admits the Chinese are the undisputed masters in the kung fu department, but insists the Russians could in turn teach them a thing or two about acting. “In China, there are no acting schools that could rival our VGIK (Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography) or Boris Shchukin Institute,” Stepchenko says. “Their ways of acting are completely different, so I think they will find the occasion useful in that respect.”

Fight choreographer He Jun is inclined to agree with Stepchenko. “Everyone we work with here knows their job perfectly, and everyone has their own special style. We have also learned much during the filming”, he says.

Not getting lost in translation

As for understanding each other on the sets, both Russian and Chinese actors and directors are sure that the language barrier would not be an obstacle for cinema. In the course of the production all the members of both crews managed to find a common language and are now mostly able to communicate without interpreters.

“We always use at least three languages when filming. Most of the time we don't even need interpreters at all. Cinema is all about emotion, and this is what unites us”, says Alexey Petrukhin.

“We do have some language difficulties from time to time, and it is sometimes hard to communicate, but we don't always have to speak – we use the language of cinema,” confirms He Jun.

Judging by the atmosphere that reigns on the set, everyone is enthusiastic about the production, and the crewmembers have become good friends.

“The guys from Russian crew are professionals, and they love their job. They have a very different mindset, but they are very kind and friendly. They also work very thoroughly, and working with them feels great”, says Yao Xingtong.

“It is the first time we visit Russia, and there are a lot of things we just don't know. These guys are really helpful”, He Jun adds.

After having wrapped up filming in Moscow, the united crew went to Tunisia to continue the production. The shooting will go on in China this summer. The release is expected in the autumn of 2016. The producers hope that the film will be released simultaneously in Russia and China.

All rights reserved by Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

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The Forbidden Kingdom

A discovery made by a kung fu obsessed American teen sends him on an adventure to ancient China, where he joins up with a band of martial arts warriors in order to free the imprisoned Monkey... Read all A discovery made by a kung fu obsessed American teen sends him on an adventure to ancient China, where he joins up with a band of martial arts warriors in order to free the imprisoned Monkey King. A discovery made by a kung fu obsessed American teen sends him on an adventure to ancient China, where he joins up with a band of martial arts warriors in order to free the imprisoned Monkey King.

• Rob Minkoff
• Jackie Chan
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• 324 User reviews
• 203 Critic reviews
• 57 Metascore
• 5 nominations

Top cast 47

• The Monkey King …

• Jason Tripitikas
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• Trivia According to Jackie Chan , when he and Jet Li shot their fight together, they found it relaxing and easy: "I have not worked with someone who I'm comfortable with, in terms of movements, rhythm, and natural reactions, in the last ten years. I have done many fight scenes with others, but there were usually more than ten takes, which is a waste of time, as the person may forget his moves and unnecessary injuries. When I fought with Jet, our actions were quick. We also didn't have to do the same stunt over twenty times."
• Goofs The silent Monk tells Jason they should attack "In two nights, when the moon will be darker." But later that night in the balcony scene with Jason and Golden Sparrow the moon is clearly waxing, and will be almost half full in two nights - brighter not darker.

Jason Tripitikas : He needs wine. It's his elixir.

Medicine Monk : We will send a walking monk.

Lu Yan : Don't you have a running monk?

• Crazy credits Jackie Chan and Jet Li are credited together before the title. Jackie Chan's name is spelled out horizontally, but Jet Li's is spelled out vertically, and the same "J" is used for both.
• Connections Featured in Siskel & Ebert: 88 Minutes/The Life Before Her Eyes/Forgetting Sarah Marshall/The Forbidden Kingdom/Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?/The Visitor (2008)
• Soundtracks Deng Zhe Ni Hui Lai ("Waiting 4 U") Written by Yan Kuan Performed by Bai Kwong ©EMI Music Publishing Hong Kong avec l'autorisation d'EMI Music Publishing France

User reviews 324

• Apr 19, 2008
• How long is The Forbidden Kingdom? Powered by Alexa
• Did Jet Li and Jackie Chan had some real beef back in the 80's to mid 90's because one was working for China and the other for Great Britain?
• Is this movie based on a book?
• Why did Ni Chang have white hair?
• April 18, 2008 (United States)
• United States
• Sina Entertainment (China)
• El reino prohibido
• Anji bamboo forest, Jiangsu, China (Exterior)
• Casey Silver Productions
• China Film Co-Production Corporation
• Huayi Brothers Media
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $55,000,000 (estimated)
• $52,075,270
• $21,401,121
• Apr 20, 2008
• $128,792,411

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 44 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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• Journey To China: Mystery Of The Dragon Seal

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Refrain from posting comments that are obscene, defamatory or inflammatory, and do not indulge in personal attacks, name calling or inciting hatred against any community. Help us delete comments that do not follow these guidelines by marking them offensive . Let's work together to keep the conversation civil.

• What is the release date of 'Journey To China: Mystery Of The Dragon Seal'? Release date of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jackie Chan starrer 'Journey To China: Mystery Of The Dragon Seal' is 2021-12-31.
• Who are the actors in 'Journey To China: Mystery Of The Dragon Seal'? 'Journey To China: Mystery Of The Dragon Seal' star cast includes Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jackie Chan, Jason Flemyng and Charles Dance.
• Who is the director of 'Journey To China: Mystery Of The Dragon Seal'? 'Journey To China: Mystery Of The Dragon Seal' is directed by Oleg Stepchenko.
• What is Genre of 'Journey To China: Mystery Of The Dragon Seal'? 'Journey To China: Mystery Of The Dragon Seal' belongs to 'Adventure, Fantasy,Thriller' genre.
• In Which Languages is 'Journey To China: Mystery Of The Dragon Seal' releasing? 'Journey To China: Mystery Of The Dragon Seal' is releasing in English, Tamil, Hindi and Telugu.

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The 32 greatest Jackie Chan movie moments

He's fought with ladders, Lego, fans, and sans clothes and shoes

As Tony Zhou, the creator of the YouTube series Every Frame a Painting, put it in a 2014 video essay: Some movie stars do comedy, some do action, but the only master at doing both has been Jackie Chan. With an exhausting list of death-defying movies under his belt, many of them contain some of the greatest movie moments of all time.

A graduate of the China Drama Academy where he trained in martial arts, acrobatics, and acting, Jackie Chan is known worldwide as an action movie daredevil who also knows how to tell a joke. He may be a martial artist, but his sensibilities as an artiste share more in common with silent film clowns like Buster Keaton. (Chan admitted in a 2020 interview with South China Morning Post that he did not watch Buster Keaton until later in his life, but upon finally doing so, he saw the resemblance between Keaton’s work and his own.)

Though Chan exudes masculine toughness, he is also a comedian who isn’t above getting people laughing at his expense. In fact, that’s one of his staple features. In many of Chan’s greatest moments, he is usually the underdog operating at a disadvantage. The thrill of his work is watching Chan’s characters overcome novel obstacles. Not only do these challenges make us root for Chan even more (and maybe laugh along the way), but it makes his work so much more memorable than other action heroes beating up nameless henchmen in empty hallways.

In celebration of Jackie Chan’s iconic career, below we collect 32 of the greatest moments of his career.

32. Fighting the Dragon (Enter the Dragon)

Before he was an international superstar, Jackie Chan was just a no-name evil henchman who crossed paths with the one and only Bruce Lee. Early in his career, Chan worked in Lee’s sole Hollywood production Enter the Dragon, working as both a stuntman and one of many goons that Lee had to wipe out; he’s the one Bruce Lee holds by the hair in the underground brawl. In a handful of retrospective interviews, Chan humorously recalls being legitimately hurt by Lee during filming. Upon the director yelling “cut,” Chan admits he milked the pain just to get attention from a genuinely apologetic Bruce Lee.

31. Massage Parlor Melee (Rush Hour 2)

By 2001, Jackie Chan’s profile in the United States was on the rise just as he entered middle age. Though Chan could not move as quickly and ferociously as he did during his prime years in Hong Kong, he still impressed middle America in one of the most memorable movie fights in the blockbuster Rush Hour franchise: Fighting alongside co-star Chris Tucker in a lavish massage parlor. Not only does the scene carry the same rhythmic intensity evocative of his previous work, but it ends in a hilarious gag that reminds us Jackie Chan is a comic star at his core.

30. Say Cheese! (Armour of God 3: Chinese Zodiac)

In 2012, Jackie Chan resurrected his Indiana Jones-inspired film franchise Armour of God with a new third installment, titled Armour of God 3: Chinese Zodiac. While the movie was unloved by critics who found it to be a pale imitation of his own glory days, it still has its moments. Among its highlights is a third act final fight inside an intricate underground lair full of priceless treasures - and a photo studio. (Hey, someone’s gotta take photos of the treasures!) Proving that age can’t dull his creative edge, Chan beats up bad guys in the studio, using DSLR cameras and hanging frames to craft a unique fight scene that feels fresh.

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29. Legoland Smackdown (New Police Story)

The bright colors of Lego bricks betray the dark heart beating in Jackie Chan’s deadly-serious 2004 film New Police Story. A standalone sequel/reboot of his popular Police Story series, Chan stars as a middle aged detective who harbors guilt over losing all of his men to a group of radical punk terrorists. A year later and with a new partner, Chan has a shot at redemption by taking the punks down. This eventually leads up to an especially memorable one-on-one fight inside a Lego store, with Chan throwing down against American-born action star Andy On. 

28. “Clothes” Call (The Accidental Spy)

Arguably Jackie Chan’s best trait as a movie star is that he’s willing to get incredibly silly. In The Accidental Spy, Chan plays an exercise equipment salesman named Yuen who gets caught up in a convoluted plot that lands him in Istanbul. While still naked from a bathhouse visit, Yuen is chased through the busy streets with barely even a towel on. While Yuen tries his best to keep his modesty, bad guys who want his head make it really hard for him to keep his hands in place. The Accidental Spy isn’t one of Chan’s best movies, but it’s undeniably one of his most fun.

27. The Fan Fight (The Young Master)

With his career on the rise in early 1980, Jackie Chan took his place both in front of and behind the camera as the director of the wuxia comedy The Young Master. Midway through the movie, Chan - as the main character Dragon Lung - is challenged to a duel, with Chan using only an oversized hand fan as a weapon. While the choreography hews closer to an old school style of Chinese filmmaking, Chan’s overall playful vibe and unbelievable coordination foreshadows what the man would deliver later on in his career. In the 1998 documentary Jackie Chan: My Story, Chan revealed that filming the scene took more than 120 takes.

26. Kick Crazy (Legend of the Drunken Master)

Almost 15 years after his star-making 1978 film Drunken Master, Jackie Chan reprised his role of real-life master Wong Fei-hung. Late into Legend of the Drunken Master, Wong Fei-hung crosses paths with “John,” a taekwondo expert whose powerful kicks intimidate Wong Fei-hung. (The role was played by Ken Lo, a champion taekwondo practitioner who became a member of the Jackie Chan Stunt Team and even worked as Chan’s personal bodyguard.) Ken Lo impressively holds his own in the movie, delivering stunning kicks that even someone like Jackie Chan can’t seem to shake off. It’s simply one of Chan’s best fight scenes, on levels both technical and artistic.

25. Jackie Chan vs. New York City (Rumble in the Bronx)

In the early 1990s, Jackie Chan was known only to audiences across Asia and hardcore movie buffs with Laserdisc copies of Drunken Master. But with his 1995 film Rumble in the Bronx, Jackie Chan truly made his journey to the west in a riotous action flick that properly introduced Chan to the rest of the world. It’s fitting, then, that Rumble in the Bronx is all about Chan playing a Hong Kong cop who visits New York for his uncle’s wedding, only to run into the gang scum of the city. In one of his most memorable fight scenes, Chan makes mincemeat out of hoodlums by using their own dingy hideout against them. Ever see a guy use a refrigerator as a weapon? Thanks to Jackie Chan, now we can.

24. Versus Jet Li (The Forbidden Kingdom)

In the early 2000s, both Jackie Chan and Jet Li enjoyed international fame as the world’s preeminent martial arts movie stars. In 2008, the year that China played host for the summer Olympics, the two stars teamed up in the Hollywood blockbuster The Forbidden Kingdom. While its story bizarrely focuses on a time-displaced American teenager from the 21st century, the movie simply invites Chan and Li to do what they do best, even if their highly anticipated collaboration doesn’t live up to either of their reputations. 

23. Fighting the Purse Snatchers (Legend of the Drunken Master)

Instead of elaborating on what the particulars of this scene means - it’s basically just Jackie Chan fighting more bad guys, using his Drunken Boxing technique - allow me to instead detail a personal story. Some years back, I was talking to an office coworker who wasn’t very acquainted with foreign action movies, and definitely unfamiliar with Jackie Chan in his prime era. When I told them to go on YouTube and watch this fight scene, they were speechless. It’s simply that good, and the perfect introduction to what makes Chan so special to anyone who hasn’t seen him at his best before.

22. No Shoes, No Service (Who Am I?)

Who Am I? is a mostly rudimentary Jackie Chan picture in which the star plays an amnesiac special forces agent trying to piece together his real identity. While not the best or worst that Jackie Chan has to offer, one of its most impressive setpieces is a foot chase/fight scene on the streets of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. At one point, Jackie Chan loses his combat boots, making his toesie woesies vulnerable to stomps and forcing him to try on whatever spills out of a shoemaker’s store. A recurring motif in Jackie Chan’s work is that his characters must always overcome some disadvantage, creating novel opportunities for heroism and humor all at once.

21. White and Black (Gorgeous)

The late Brad Allan, an Australian martial artist and choreographer, was the first person of non-Asian descent to join the illustrious Jackie Chan Stunt Team. He would later go on to work on major Hollywood movies, including The Chronicles of Riddick, Avatar, and Marvel’s Shang-Chi. He plays an onscreen role in Chan’s 1999 action rom-com Gorgeous, as the villain’s chief muscle. Late in the movie, Brad Allan goes mano e mano with Jackie Chan in a technically dazzling, no-nonsense matchup that proves the basics doesn’t mean an absence of style.

20. Restaurant Rumble (Police Story 2)

Jackie Chan’s filmography is full of movies where the man takes on bad guys in restaurants. It’s kind of a recurring thing, actually. But in Police Story 2, Chan is in prime form when he takes on triad gangsters in an eatery, making use of the restaurant’s furniture and dishes as weapons. Again, for Jackie Chan, this is a Tuesday. But there is such an abundance of playfulness and creativity throughout the whole thing, it’s hard not to pull up a chair and grab a plate. 

19. Getting Suspicious (Crime Story)

While there are quite a few suspenseful fight scenes in Crime Story, its dark and serious tone is a strong contrast to that of his more comical Police Story films. In Crime Story, Jackie Chan plays a repentant detective desperate for his next case - the kidnapping of a wealthy businessman - to make up for past mistakes. After a tense fight above a theater, Chan’s character starts suspecting that his own assigned partner (played by Kent Cheng) knows more than he’s willing to let on. Chan is celebrated as a physical performer, but it really doesn’t take much to tell an interesting story. In this case, Chan’s suddenly cynical body language, including his hands in his pockets, says more than flying fists could.

18. Factory Fight (Miracles)

By 1989, Jackie Chan had matured enough as a filmmaker to make Miracles. In this loving homage to Golden Era Hollywood and inspired by the films Lady for a Day (1933) and Pocketful of Miracles (1961), Chan plays a country boy who arrives in Hong Kong and unwittingly 

becomes a gang lord. With Miracles, Chan exerts all his muscles as actor, director, and choreographer, flexing his talents in the movie’s inventive climax inside a rope factory. Brutal as it is buoyant, Miracles shows off all the ways that make Chan so special.

17. Escape From the Deep (Crime Story)

Crime Story is loaded with explosive violence - and we mean that quite literally - but what makes it so irremovable from Jackie Chan’s oeuvre is that it isn’t just another movie where Chan beats up bad guys. Late into Crime Story, Chan is betrayed by his partner who leaves him for dead at the bottom of a big ship. With no easy way back up, Chan uses both his brains and his grit, and not just his fists, to rise back to the surface. Crime Story is truly one of Jackie Chan’s finest films, showing off its leading man as more than just a comedic butt-kicker.

16. Skateboard Lunch Rush (Wheels on Meals)

Jackie Chan doesn’t always have to be throwing down against goons to entertain. In Sammo Hung’s Wheels on Meals - which kung fu movie aficionados will say is one of Jackie Chan’s all-time best films (and they’re correct) - Chan plays a food truck server in Barcelona who takes orders while riding a skateboard! Who wouldn’t want a hamburger and Coke delivered by Jackie Chan on a skateboard? The vibes in Wheels on Meals are immaculate, and it’s not just because the kung fu is top notch. It’s because it lets Jackie Chan simply be the coolest guy you’ve ever seen.

15. Movie Theater Throwdown (City Hunter)

On a luxury cruise ship that has its own movie theater, private investigator Ryo Saeba (Jackie Chan) squares off against bigger men twice his size. But that’s fine. With Bruce Lee’s The Game of Death playing on the big screen behind him, Ryo channels the spirit of “The Dragon” to overcome his enemies. While the choreography and comedy are dependably solid, it’s the mere fact that Chan pays direct homage to Bruce Lee that really makes the scene so wonderful, and wonderfully hilarious.

14. Losing His Men (New Police Story)

2004’s New Police Story contains a darker tone than its predecessors, and its grisliness is made clear early on. With Jackie Chan in the lead role of a middle aged police detective, the film’s semi-meta narrative sees Chan struggle to physically keep up with terrorist punks, all of whom are played by a crop of young, up-and-coming stars. (Among Chan’s co-stars in the movie are Daniel Wu, Nicholas Tse, Charline Choi, and Andy On, who all enjoyed thriving careers in Hong Kong throughout the new millennium.) The terrorists hold Chan’s men hostage, and they mercilessly kill them all one by one as Chan fails their “challenges.” Lest anyone think Jackie Chan is only capable of making you laugh, New Police Story might make you cry, and root for him as he comes roaring back with a vengeance.

13. The Clocktower Fall (Project A)

Jackie Chan is no stranger to falling from dangerous heights. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t impressive, and downright frightening, every time he does it. In his period action-comedy Project A, Jackie Chan’s character Dragon Lung falls from a clocktower 60-feet high straight to the ground, with just two awning canopies slowing down his fall. To watch it in motion is nothing short of awe-inspiring. Behind the scenes, Chan spent weeks building up his courage to shoot the stunt. He performed it three times, and almost broke his neck while doing so. 

12. Street Fighter Fever Dream (City Hunter)

While there have been several movies based on the Street Fighter video games, none of them match up to the hilarious accuracy of Jackie Chan’s City Hunter. Late into the movie, in a luxury cruise ship under siege by terrorists, Chan’s character Ryo Saeba is cornered by the terrorists in the ship’s arcade parlor. After being thrown into the machines, the electrical shock induces a bizarre fever dream sequence that turns Chan’s imagination into a “real-life” game of Street Fighter. Amidst all the hadokens and shoryukens, the icing on the cake is when Jackie Chan rises up in impeccable Chun-Li cosplay. Truly, Jackie Chan has never looked better.

11. Catching the Bus (Police Story)

Let Jackie Chan inspire us all to maintain good cardio. In the action classic Police Story, Jackie Chan rises to the occasion as an up-and-coming police officer whose relentlessness makes him a star in the precinct. One of Chan’s most impressive stunts in the movie involves a moving, full-sized passenger bus. Not only does Chan catch up to it on foot, he manages to make his way into it from the outside with just an umbrella. Scored to the rocking guitars of the movie’s theme song (which Chan sings too), it’s an inspiring moment that let us know for sure just what kind of action star Jackie Chan was going to be.

10. Horse-drawn Carriage Carnage (Mr. Nice Guy)

In Jackie Chan’s first movie scripted and shot in English, the action star plays a celebrity TV chef in Australia who is unwittingly dragged into a drug lord’s business. Halfway through the movie, after the drug lord’s goons interrupt a live cooking show at a shopping mall, Jackie and his visiting girlfriend Miki (Miki Lee) escape on a horse-drawn carriage through the streets of Melbourne. When the bad guys catch up, a dazzling brawl ensues with Jackie scrapping on an unstable carriage and Miki desperately holding on and trying not to get trampled by the horses. The scene is quintessential Jackie Chan - setting-specific choreography, cleverness, and gags - but Mr. Nice Guy has a way of secretly feeling like one of Chan’s most death-defying movies.

9. Shanty Town Showdown (Police Story)

You know it’s a big movie moment when Michael Bay rips it off. In Police Story, a dilapidated shanty town occupying space on a steep hill goes up in smoke when Jackie Chan (riding shotgun) chases bad guys through its streets… and buildings, and homes, and general infrastructure keeping the whole thing in place. While Michael Bay cranked up the volume on his version seen in Bad Boys II, Chan proves that you don’t have to blow up the whole screen for audiences to feel blown away.

8. “I Said I Don’t Want Trouble!” (Rush Hour)

Jackie Chan is good with his fists, but sometimes he’s better with his wit. In Rush Hour, still one of Jackie Chan’s most financially successful and popular Hollywood movies, Chan, playing a Hong Kong officer assigned to a kidnapping case in Los Angeles, ends up in a scuzzy pool hall no thanks to his assigned partner, Carter (Chris Tucker). With Carter getting information, Chan is left on his own. After an unfortunate use of some very poorly chosen words, Chan starts brawling with the other patrons. Chan insists repeatedly he doesn’t want trouble, and when they’re laid out, he reiterates, “I said I don’t want trouble!” Offensive? Sure. But Rush Hour is all about how hilarious cultural differences can be.

7. Monks, Amazons, Oh My! (Armour of God)

With Armour of God in 1986, Jackie Chan strove to cement himself as a true crossover action star beyond simply playing kung fu masters. Taking a page from the Indiana Jones series, Chan fashions himself into a treasure hunter who dives deep into the world’s forgotten corners for riches. Late into Armour of God, Jackie Chan does battle with not just monastic cultists, but deadly warrior women who look as if they leapt from a comic book. While the action is predictably delightful, it’s the boldness of Chan’s creativity - to fight foes who weren’t just more kung fu masters and faceless gang members - that really makes an action star feel larger than life.

6. Platform Predicament (Armour of God II: Operation Condor)

Jackie Chan’s expertise for balancing comedy with danger takes center stage in one of the most thrilling scenes in Armour of God II: Operation Condor, released in 1991. In an underground Nazi base, Jackie Chan battles atop see-sawing platforms that come dangerously close to crushing his head. While the action choreography is expectedly on-point - Jackie Chan in his prime could never not deliver the goods - the best moment of the whole thing isn’t the fighting, but a temporary truce Chan makes with his enemies to safely get off the thing. 

5. Bulldozing the Mansion (Mr. Nice Guy)

Jackie Chan can do so many things, but even Sammo Hung knows that sometimes all audiences want is to see stuff explode. At the end of Mr. Nice Guy, Jackie Chan’s character (also named Jackie, amusingly) hijacks a giant mining truck belonging to the movie’s scummy villain, a drug lord. After Jackie crushes his exotic car collection, he drives the thing straight into his piece of crap postmodern mansion, demolishing every useless brick and tasteless decor to bits until the entire place just goes KA-BOOM. Not all of Jackie Chan’s movies end in fisticuffs, but they almost all end in a blaze of glory.

4. The Ladder Maneuver (Police Story 4: First Strike)

It’s simply one of the most iconic pieces of action choreography in movie history. While Jackie Chan has often used construction tools as improvised weapons (see also: Mr. Nice Guy), it’s in the fourth Police Story sequel - released as First Strike in the U.S. - that Chan fends off enemies using the folding tables, scaffolding, and of course, tall steel ladders around him. While the whole scene is great, the money shot is when Chan uses a ladder as a neck shield , spinning the thing over his shoulders so lightning fast. Surely Chan must have hurt himself while filming it. (He did. Watch the blooper reel.) 

3. Bar Room Brawl (Project A)

Who doesn’t love a good bar fight? In Project A, director and star Jackie Chan turns up the volume by pitting two entirely different police forces against each other, with Chan caught up in the middle of it all with a rival (played by Yuen Biao). While the scene is memorably chaotic, with bar stools flying, mugs and glasses breaking, and blood and beer spilling everywhere, Chan still steals the show in a comic performance where his face hilariously expresses unbelievable pain. Where most action stars try to look tough and invincible, Jackie Chan isn’t afraid to show how much stuff like this hurts.

2. Fighting “The Jet” (Wheels on Meals)

Not only is Benny “The Jet” Urquidez one of the most decorated professional fighters of all time, he’s also pitted against Jackie Chan in one of the actor’s most legendary onscreen fights of all time. In the climax of Wheels on Meals, Jackie Chan stands up to Urquidez (in the role of a nameless bad guy) and the two engage in one-on-one combat. While Chan has faced off with many legendary martial artists, Urquidez is on a whole other level. (See his roundhouse kick that blows out the candles? That was real.) In the end, Chan’s character realizes what it will take to best his opponent. Ironically, it’s not to treat it as a do-or-die scenario, but just another “training session” as a way to relax his mind. No one can feel relaxed when squaring off with “The Jet,” but Jackie Chan makes it look so simple.

1. Mall Fall (Police Story)

The allure of movie stars is that, for one glorious moment somewhere in their lifetimes, they’ve assured their immortality. For Jackie Chan, his permanence came in Police Story. At the end of the movie, for his character to catch a bad guy on the ground floor of a busy shopping mall, Chan leaps off and slides down a gold metal pole adorned with electrical lights. (Not before letting out a yell, which is the result of Chan legitimately feeling all the adrenaline in his body.) As Chan slides down glass shatters and lights snap and blow out, creating a sensation of violent magnificence that is so dazzling, and downright horrifying, to watch happen. The stunt alone is proof of Chan’s iron determination to put on the greatest show you’ve ever seen. While many other movie stars have tried to outdo Chan, and some have, there is still only one Jackie Chan.

Eric Francisco is a freelance entertainment journalist and graduate of Rutgers University. If a movie or TV show has superheroes, spaceships, kung fu, or John Cena, he's your guy to make sense of it. A former senior writer at Inverse, his byline has also appeared at Vulture, The Daily Beast, Observer, and The Mary Sue. You can find him screaming at Devils hockey games or dodging enemy fire in Call of Duty: Warzone.

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Jackie Chan Declares: ‘I Want to Be a Chinese Communist Party Member’

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Jackie Chan has long been one of Hong Kong ’s celebrities who most frequently and prominently engages in propaganda efforts for the mainland’s ruling Communist Party, but he recently took his public devotion to the Chinese regime to a new level.

Chan declared his admiration for the Party at a symposium organized by the China Film Association last week to “study and implement the spirit” of a keynote speech delivered by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“Abroad they often say, ‘proud to be Chinese.’ I’m very lucky to be a Chinese person, but I also am very jealous that you all are Party members. I just think the Chinese Communist Party is really so magnificent,” he said, according to video footage from official broadcaster CCTV. “What the Party says, what it promises, it doesn’t need 100 years to accomplish — it will definitely accomplish it in just a few decades. I want to be a Party member!”

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His declaration was followed by a strong round of applause.

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Xi’s hourlong address, delivered on July 1, marked the 100th anniversary of the Party’s founding with hardline talk about China’s rise, including the message that the country will no longer be “bullied” by other countries, and that anyone attempting to do so would “ bash their heads bloody against a Great Wall of stee l.”  

Earlier this month, Chan participated center stage in an enormous propaganda spectacle event put on by the Party at Beijing’s 91,000-capacity Bird’s Nest national stadium, best known abroad as the location of the 2008 Olympics opening ceremony.

In the star-studded show released on the July 1 anniversary via state broadcaster CCTV, Chan sang a part of the “Yellow River Cantata,” a classic patriotic work composed during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

The Hong Kong actor joined forces with Taiwanese signer Angela Chang and Liu Naiqi, a tenor from Macau, to sing: “Defend your hometown, defend the Yellow River… defend all of China!” They were accompanied by thousands of performers dressed as soldiers from the Eighth Route Army, a military group under Communist Party command during that conflict in the late ’30s and ’40s.

The performance took place the same day that scores of people in his native Hong Kong were arrested to prevent demonstrations against the Party’s increasing control over the territory.

Speaking a week after the performance’s release at the July 8 China Film Association meeting, Chan said he admired the Eighth Route Army’s verve.

“Those soldiers faced down machine guns while wearing straw sandals and using single-shot pistols, and confronted their advanced weaponry with swords and spears. I think the Eight Route Army of our Communist Party is truly amazing!”

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