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For most of his life, Jackie Chan has been risking death for a living.

As an actor and director,

Jackie has redefined the nature of world action cinema.

What sets Jackie apart from his rivals

is his willingness to perform his own spectacular stunts.

In this film, Jackie returns to the days of the period kung fu movies,

and shows how he pioneered his own brand of very special effects.

We reveal the specialised training that

he and his stunt team undergo to prepare themselves for the screen.

Jackie returns to the locations of

one of his greatest achievements, 'Police Story'

and shows how he sets a new standard in screen action.

For the first time, we open the door to the secret Jackie Chan Stunt Lab

to explain the various tricks of this dangerous trade,

and Jackie himself conducts a master class

in film fight choreography.

We follow Jackie onto the sets of his hit films 'Who Am I? '

and 'Rush Hour' and discover how he and his team

devise some of their most daring stunt sequences.

If action, if danger, if courage have a name,

that name is Jackie Chan.

This is 'Jackie Chan: My Stunts'.

JACKY CHAN: MY STUNTS

Jackie began his career as just another stuntman working

on the Hong Kong movie treadmill.

At that time, the industry was devoted entirely

to producing period martial arts movies.

These were divided into kung fu and swordplay movies.

In kung fu films, the characters engaged in unarmed combat.

In swordplay movies, they often had supernatural powers,

and fought using a variety of bladed weapons.

FILMS OF FURY

Here, Jackie and his stuntmen demonstrate

a traditional martial arts fight sequence.

First, Jackie comes up with a concept for the fight,

then carefully stages each action and reaction.

Though the combatants have to be skilled kung fu exponents,

it's equally important that they possess the correct sense of timing,

so that they can synchronise their movements with one another.

See? Pretty, right?

From no knife. Then I get one knife,

two knives and three knives.

At the end, I kicked the guy away.

The most important aspect is the pose.

I design it more like art fighting, like dancing.

That's much better.

Even if I kick somebody, there's no violence.

I never use the knife to cut anybody.

I create this scene like this:

after the fight,

I just go away.

It means I don't want to fight any more because I've already won.

I don't have to kill you.

I've already got your knife, but I'll throw it back to you.

If you still want to fight, I will steal your knife again.

In this scene from 'The Young Master',

Jackie and opponent Yuen Biao show off the virtuoso physical skills

they learned at a Chinese Opera school.

In Chinese Opera, the performers execute

on-stage fight sequences in which

they wield their weapons more like

circus performers than martial artists.

It is this sense of the theatrical

that Jackie brought to the traditional kung fu movie genre.

See? I will use anything that's very pretty.

For example, after the fight, I will sit down.

After the kick, he turns around.

We were moving so quickly that you wouldn't know,

whether I hit his toes or not.

Once more in slow-motion. Come. Look.

In slow-motion, I just hit here.

Then he just does the reaction.

The audience knows (what has happened). Then I turn around,

and give him a kick. Then after the kick, maybe

I'll sit down in a very nice position. Let the audience go "Wow!"

The funny thing is, in modern days, of course,

You use this kind of "Yah!" attitude. You show this kind of face;

"I want to kill somebody!" But in the old days, you could tell,

When we were fighting. Camera, move back a little bit.

You could see the toes in every position.

Look! You must put toes nicely, and after fighting,

no matter how you fight.

Even like this.

Those kind of positions are very important.

It's more difficult than modern day fighting.

This kind of thing.

When Jackie made his American debut in 'Battlecreek Brawl',

he broke new ground by transposing the kind of action

seen in the period kung fu films to a movie set in 1930s Chicago.

At that time, Americans had

no experience of this kind of on-screen combat.

Jackie had to fly in two of

his stunt men to stage a scene in which

his character is challenged by rival martial arts masters.

Though limited by the fact that he could not control the camera speed,

as he does on a Hong Kong movie set,

Jackie still kept some of his trademark style.

This is a chair. Of course, when we do some actions,

we have to make a special chair.

Usually, you cannot kick the real chair,

but I want to show how powerful the guy is.

When I use these things,

nobody can see them.

Then we just put a little bit of powder.

Action!

When he kicks me, I break it.

It breaks into pieces.

Now I show you how to do the editing,

and how to do the fight scene with the broken chair. Okay.

For example. The camera is here.

We fight and kick. I push and he kicks. Cut!

When we do this, the movements are very fast.

It's also done in wide-angle and in a dark background.

You cannot see all the wires.

As soon as he kicks, cut. We move the camera behind him,

and we do it all over again. Okay. I'll show you how we do the broken chair.

Of course not this one. Let's do it with the broken chair.

See? Pretty, huh? And that's a trick.

So that's how we make a movie. Unlike in America,

I still believe they do nothing.

The guy kicks, they can add the chair using the computer,

but I know it's very expensive,

this is the cheap way to make our own movies.

Anyway it looks good, right? Cheap, but good!

Jackie also gets good value for money out of a distinctly Chinese object

that has both a practical use and an artistic aspect.

A fan. Everybody knows Chinese fans look very pretty.

Some of them worth more than a million,

because they're antiques.

So, when I get a fan, I look at it carefully,

I count the movements, like these and these.

When you fight, you just put it like this,

and this kind of thing,

and, of course, it looks very easy, but it's not easy.

The most difficult thing is this;

in one shot, I threw the fan away and got it back.

It took more than 120 takes!

When you see those kind of scenes

which last a few minutes or seconds, you say "Oh Jackie's good" but it's not good.

You can also do it if you have the patience.

Be calm. Try again and again, until you make it.

Besides the fan, kung fu movies offer Jackie the chance

to show off the skills needed

to wield other classical Chinese kung fu weapons.

You have to know the tempo and every movement.

When we're making a movie, we must be careful to do these

and this kind of thing, and also,

Ah Chi, okay, and also knives.

This is a Chinese knife, there're a lot of...

skills like slices, the basic things.

We call this a blood bag. It's cheating. We put it in the hand like this.

In the fighting scenes, we hold it and you can't see it because we move so fast.

When the guy hits me, see the hand?

Then you just put it on the stomach.

Either put it on the camera or put it on the wall.

It looks like blood, but it's a sweet thing.

Hong Kong stage blood is a combination of food colouring,

to give it the necessary redness,

and cough syrup, which gives it texture.

In this classic swordplay film,

an anonymous stunt man dies horribly

by using his hand-held blood bag.

Another technique called for a stunt man

to spray a stream of blood from his mouth.

Ready. Action!

See! See! This is the difference

between low class and high class stuntmen!

See what I did? Right here!

But that's too violent. Sorry about that.

What Jackie's film fights may lack in blood and guts,

they make up for in complexity.

He is famous for choreographing

hand-to-hand combat encounters in which

he deals with multiple foes at the same time.

See? In the old days, no matter how many people fought me...

Okay, there're four people, but only one fights with me.

Then the three people are behind.

Then after this, another comes. Then another comes.

Why don't four people come together to fight me?

I'd rather stay here to punch and kick. See?

At least, they fight at the same time, for one shot.

Then everybody has to yell. Everybody yells and that lets me know

when they're coming. He yells 'Eeh'.

If everybody yells with the same "Eeh", I won't understand.

So he will yell, in front of me...

they yell with the same "Ooh!". But when he comes with "Oh!",

I know "Oh!" is the punch. Like this. See?

That means a lot of people are fighting me, or he gives me a punch.

One, two, three! See? Then, come.

This one comes at the same time. Then I move the camera and duck.

Why do I duck? Because of the editing.

Editing is one of the key elements of film fight choreography.

Jackie's style relies on a keen sense of

camera movement, razor-sharp editing and the unique communication

that exists between him and his stuntmen.

See? It has become our own language.

"Jow" is go,

"Ley!" is come. When my men hit me with the stick, jow!

he can make it very low and in a very short time. Jow!

That's what they'll do. If some other people, two, three, jow,

I'm really scared they'll hit me.

After fighting... Jow! See? I'll react like this,

because it's done by the people I don't know.

If it's done by the people I know, jow! see?

I don't care. If they hit me, it's an accident.

Where American movies restrict their flying characters to Superman

and Peter Pan, In Hong Kong swordplay films,

anyone who knows martial arts can fly.

This is the knuckle. Watch how we do it. It's for us.

Do you know how much it costs?

Less than five U.S. dollars.

Oh, two U.S. dollars.

I spend a lot of money buying American products.

When I bring them back, do you know what they do?

They still use the old things. I don't know why,

They've been doing it for almost 40 years. It's easy to explain.

When I give you this, you still don't know how to do it.

If you don't know how to do it, it'll break right away.

Sometimes it's narrower than this. When we're doing these things

I have to make sure it's done by my own stunt guys.

It's done by them and not other people.

A little bit higher. Okay. Try. Why do we test this?

We test the weight and make sure everything's alright.

He's gone, see? How can I go up? How can I jump like this? I can't.

So I have to do like... It's not strong enough, but I'll try.

So, if somebody chases me, I come here and look around to

make sure there're two sides. Let the audience know it.

First look at this, then...

Then I just go up continually.

Up and up.

Make sure those... See?

At least this way is more believable than flying up there...

I like jumping up.

Some things are tricks. Some things are ability.

This is called ability.

When staging a high fall stunt,

Jackie and his team use cardboard boxes,

which they refer to as 'apple boxes', to provide a safe landing.

These are carefully piled up, and mattresses are placed on top of them.

Then comes the human factor.

Before you jump, you have to know three things;

Firstly, you have to be brave.

Secondly, you have to know how to land.

Otherwise, your knee is likely to hit your mouth.

It often happens. Thirdly, you have to trust your men.

They put those things down there. So, I trust them.

In America, they use an air-bag,

but we cannot afford this kind of expensive thing.

We still use cardboard boxes

and the mattresses, they've been used for more than 30 years.

We use them again and again. After one jump, we put them aside.

When we want to use them, we take them out again.

Now it's the 90s, almost the 20th century. Strange.

We still trust apple boxes.

TRAINING FOR DANGER

To prepare their bodies for the kind of punishment

their profession demands, Jackie and his stunt team

follow a tough physical training regimen.

This includes basic body conditioning

and the honing of their martial arts skills.

For their lifestyle, this kind of discipline is a necessity.

Training, for us, is very important.

For example, a lawyer has to train his speech.

A secretary has to learn how to type.

Students have to study very hard.

We are physical stuntmen, so we have to train every day,

If you're a student, you have to study every day

until the examination. You'll get an A grade or B grade.

We're also training ourselves. One day, you don't know which day.

I'll ask any of them to do something. This is our examination.

Though the various falls and flips

seen in the finished films may seem both spontaneous and painful,

they are the result of countless hours of practice.

Over the years, Jackie and his team

have put together their own alphabet of 'reaction' moves,

with which they construct each new fight scene.

Training, of course, is important,

but we can't make ourselves very muscular.

We have to be light and flexible.

We have to train different kinds of things.

We do have our own ABCDE. We even make our own kinds of falls.

Sometimes I just ask the stuntman,

"Show me some fall!

I don't like that fall!

Give me something. "

Finally we end up with "360" or "180", "violent fall".

The names were invented by us. They're Chinese, okay.

Now I show you a set of basic things, ABCDE.

Fall on your stomach.

Fall on your back.

High back fall

Twisting fall

Dangerous

POLICE STORY STORIES

Jackie brought the Hong Kong martial arts action movie

into the 20th century with 'Police Story',

the first film in which his stunt team really showed what it could do.

The film's success led to two hit sequels,

with Jackie and the team exploring different areas of stunt work.

Usually when you design an action scene,

there're two ways; easy or difficult.

In 'Police Story Part Two', a guard was in front of the door.

How could I cross the street?

I think I should do some difficult things.

The guard was standing in front of the door,

So I could go from the second floor,

jump to a bus and then, a truck and jump over.

I could do it in an easy way by walking across the road,

but I didn't want to do that.

I like to make it different from other movies.

For example, when I was on the bus, I saw something,

I saw the signboards,

then I put the signboards a bit lower.

The difficult thing is you have to jump from the truck to the bus.

If it goes wrong, you just flip over.

There's nothing to protect you.

You just do it!

But, of course, when I went through the window.

Not the window, the glass,

I cut my hand. The skin peeled away and I could see my bone.

But it didn't matter. I made it.

I believe everybody remembers in 'Police Story, Part One',

I was hanging on the bus

and several cars were coming,

I raised my legs, and did this kind of thing,

doing all kinds of stunts.

I think I'd better come up first.

See? This is not a normal umbrella. It's made of metal.

See?

This is a wooden umbrella.

This is a metal umbrella.

So, of course, you must have the strength

to hold on yourself.

There's another stunt I'm going to do, you know,

before I chased the bus and made it stop.

I had to run down a slope.

How could I go faster than the bus?

The bus was going down and

turning around and around.

I had to run down the slope. It was quite far away.

And at that time, I really didn't know

what the danger was and what the scare was.

I just wanted to complete the movie

and to finish the whole day. We're at the location,

but I'm not going to show you again myself,

I'll show you with a ball.

It has really changed a lot here.

I remember when I was filming here at that time, really,

there were no houses or buildings. There was nothing.

Even the trees were about this high,

but now they're much higher.

It was dangerous. When I ran down the slope,

I thought it was about that steep,

but when I went down the second one,

I found it was steeper.

All my men were down there, with all the mats.

They didn't know where I'd go. They just guessed.

I knew if I fell down,

I'd roll, non-stop, just like a ball.

That's why I want to show this to you, look, this is what will happen.

See? Non-stop. But, if it happens to me,

I won't die but I will definitely be hurt badly!

The action continued. As I pointed the gun, the bus wouldn't stop

because bad guys were up there, so I made one shot.

Then the bus hit the brake.

I wanted one stunt guy to go through the window,

hit the car, and fall down.

Then the other two stunt guys who were up there

would go through the other two windows.

One stuntman hit here.

another stuntman hit here, the hood.

Then the action would be complete.

But it went wrong. Do you know what happened?

As the bus was unlike the normal vehicle in the old days,

which stopped at once.

It had an air brake.

When the stunt guy...

when it hit the brake, the first guy tried to go,

but the bus went back.

All the stunt guys lost their balance.

I knew there was something wrong but I had to finish the whole shot.

I just looked around,

you know, when I said "cut",

I turned around and the three people were not...

They landed on nothing.

Just about two inches behind me.

I didn't hear any sounds of

the hood or the top. I heard nothing.

I just heard something like "goom", and "Uurrgh!"

The finale of 'Police Story' was shot here,

in a Hong Kong shopping mall.

It saw Jackie and his stuntmen

compete among themselves to perform the most dangerous stunts possible.

Okay. I wanted a stunt guy to do some stunts here,

I punched him. Then he went rolling down.

The bad guy went away, so I had to use a short cut again.

I jumped from there to the escalator.

On the shooting day,

I stopped the escalator to try,

I jumped once. Then I tried once when it was moving,

with all my men to catch me.

Listen. Everybody knows it's pretty strong.

It's made of metal. It hurts you when you fall down.

We used a different pad. It was a metal pad.

The metal is like a ruler, we put it one after another.

Then I gave him a kick.

Why didn't we use this one, but this one,

because this one is going down. It's safer,

and this one is more dangerous,

so we decided to use this one,

After going down, he bounced.

It hurt a little bit, but I think it's a great stunt.

The final stunt caused even Jackie himself to think twice.

I was pretty scared. I was standing there,

I looked down. Nobody was there, just myself. I thought.

Then I thought "Jackie, you can do it"

Suddenly I heard "Rolling". I said, "What? Rolling?"

Then I heard 12 high-speed cameras start rolling

Then I said "Oh, I'm gonna die", then suddenly on the screen,

you could see I yell "Aaaaargh!"

But, right now, I'm standing here. I look back,

I don't know how I did it. Really.

WHO AM I?

The finale of Jackie's film 'Who Am I? ' is set here,

in the Dutch city of Rotterdam.

A major fight sequence is to be shot

on the bare roof of a 27-storey office building.

Jackie and his team have to apply all their creativity

to stage a lengthy combat scene in such an empty environment.

While scouting the location, Jackie examines various ideas,

only some of which will be included in the finished fight scene.

The most obvious aspect of the location is its height.

On most Hollywood films,

planning for such a scene would be taken place

in a production company office,

with elaborate story-boards being drawn up.

In Jackie's films, the planning is done on the actual location,

with the story-boards being drawn inside

the minds of Jackie and his team.

Their location scouting is almost as dangerous as the actual filming.

Together, Jackie and his stuntmen devise a sequence in which

the combatants will do battle at the very edge of the roof.

As they do not have access to either green screen facilities

or a ground level mock-up of the roof,

this will add a very real element of suspense to the action.

The team also try and make use of

some of the permanent features of the rooftop.

For example, the wind from a powerful ventilator system

inspires Jackie to choreograph

an exchange of blows right on top of it.

This section of the fight

will combine his trademarks of action and comedy.

Jackie plans to have his opponent's tie be

blown up and around by the wind.

Jackie then seizes the man's tie to keep him in range

for a rapid fire series of punches.

Seeing this, a second opponent takes off his own tie.

The powerful wind also gives Jackie a chance to strike an heroic pose.

This kind of shot gives the audience a chance to catch their breath

before the next round of action.

The wind also powers this weathercock.

Jackie, still looking for ways

to use the existing environment for the fight,

considers ways in which he can use this

as a weapon against his attackers.

However, this is one idea that

doesn't make it into the finished film.

Besides making use of the existing aspects of their locale,

Jackie and his team introduce props

that might logically be found in this environment.

For instance, the fight makes use of

some bags supposedly filled with cement powder.

In fact, the 'cement' is edible corn flour.

It makes a strong visual impact

as it flies off the performers' clothes and hair.

The flour has to be painstakingly brushed off after each take,

and just as carefully reapplied,

which makes for a time-consuming process.

Having solved the problem of how to best use such an empty location,

Jackie and his team turn their attention

to choreographing the fight sequence itself.

It will see Jackie take on two foes at the same time.

This brings into focus one of the problems the team faces.

Most martial arts experts are not trained

in the kind of complicated film fighting choreography

that is the speciality of Jackie and his team.

Dutch performer Ron Smoonenberg

has impressive kicking skills,

but no experience in shooting this kind of action scene.

This means that Jackie has to

choreograph the most spectacular fight possible,

while trying to ensure that he doesn't get kicked for real.

Teaching Smoonenberg the necessary sense of timing and distance

to ensure a safe yet dynamic duel taxes

even Jackie's patience.

No. You must not stop.

Now, you just remember your movements.

You have to watch me.

If you come too close, see? I'm going this way.

You have to find out. Ready, action. Stay where you are!

Stay where you are! Don't chase me. See?

Everybody, watch. Then come here, one step.

Come here. Listen and watch slowly and carefully. Action. See?

See? The distance.

I'm not scared, and the rhythm will come very nicely.

Okay...

Though Smoonenberg's ability to execute

the required movements improves,

he still proves unable to execute certain sequences

with the correct rhythm.

For one section of the fight,

he is replaced by an Australian Jackie Chan Stunt Team member

who performs with the kind of speed and timing that Jackie demands.

The team apply some unconventional methods

to execute some of the more complicated aspects of the scene.

In one sequence, both Smoonenberg

and a stuntman play the same role in one shot.

Smoonenberg delivers an initial kick,

then backs off to let a Jackie Chan stunt team member

execute a close quarters combat sequence.

Sometimes the team come up with choreography

that is humanly impossible,

so they come up with a non-human solution.

Here, a stuntman delivers a series of kicks with the aid of a fake leg.

This kind of trick has risks of its own,

as Jackie finds out.

On one particularly energetic take,

the shoe from the fake leg is sent flying off

the rooftop into the river below.

Nice, home run!

Action!

During the course of shooting this fight scene,

Jackie's been kicked in his stomach, injured his leg and damaged his knee.

He's smashed his shin against a metal rail,

and even sustained a painful injury

after falling back onto something as simple as a plastic belt buckle.

None of these injuries are apparent from the finished fight,

which is evidence that Jackie

and his team can still come up with something new and different.

Okay, stand by everyone! Roll sound! Roll camera

and action! Action car, action car.

So many extravagant vehicle stunts

have been performed in Hollywood movies,

it takes real imagination to come up with something

that hasn't been seen before. For 'Who Am I? ',

Jackie and his team come up with a new approach.

In this film, cars will flip and spin just like they do.

The vehicles needed to accomplish this were supplied

thanks to Jackie's special relationship

with the Japanese car giant Mitsubishi.

Four identical brand-new Mitsubishi Evolution IV sports cars

were shipped to South Africa and Holland for Jackie to crash at will.

The value of the cars involved didn't prevent the crew

from subjecting them to some extreme wear and tear.

Next time, why not tie our seat-belts! Sorry!

For one scene, the Dutch car specialists

spent three hours building a sophisticated ramp

to flip a car onto its side.

However, the impatient Jackie Chan Stunt Team

decided to get the shot the old-fashioned way.

A stunt driver has to generate enough speed to tip the car on cue,

while maintaining enough momentum to take it down the length of the alley.

On the first take, the car doesn't reach a speed

sufficient to tip it over.

On the second, the car goes too fast, and crashes,

almost hitting one of the cameras.

The third time, the car tips on cue,

but then gets stuck half-way down the alley.

Perhaps surprisingly, no-one has been injured.

Finally, the car races out on its side,

and the crew get the shot.

What happens next is extra.

To continue the action, the car is dragged out on a trolley

to allow for a close-up shot showing one of the wheels spinning.

Meanwhile, the bad guys decide to abandon their own vehicle,

and approach on foot.

To escape capture, the driver of the car has to

get it into the right position for it to right itself.

This shot is accomplished with the aid of twenty crew members.

As the villains arrive, the car spins round and round

to keep them at bay.

For this shot, the cameraman is suspended above the car on a wire.

Then a hood-mounted camera captures a close-up of Jackie

and his companions inside the spinning vehicle.

Finally, the crew man handle the car into position

to allow our heroes to make their getaway.

The scene in which a BMW spins down to the ground

like a Jackie Chan stuntman is accomplished in three stages:

First, the car is hoisted on a crane

and swung into position at the edge of the roof.

A dummy is placed in the driving seat.

Sandbags and silver balls are put into position

on the specially constructed metal

and glass framework below the car to enhance the impact of its descent.

Five cameras are set up to capture the stunt.

Once the car is balanced on the edge of the seven-storey parking lot,

Jackie brings himself and the other actors into the action.

It is this human factor that makes the car stunts

in his films different from

some of the spectacular vehicle stunts seen in

many of the other action films

from and Hong Kong and Hollywood.

Rather than just showing a series of car collisions,

Jackie places himself and his fellow performers

right at the centre of the action.

Once the dialogue has been shot,

the crew make their final preparations to stage the fall itself.

This particular car stunt depends on manpower more than horsepower.

On the street below, the crew are watched by

a curious crowd of on-lookers,

and a state-of-the-art camera is given primitive protection.

The tension mounts. Everyone knows that,

given that they only have one BMW to wreck,

this is a one-take deal.

STUNT LAB

Welcome to the Jackie Chan Stunt Lab. This is one of my laboratories,

and also the training course. Sometimes when we've a new stunt guy,

I will call my men.

Some actors or actresses want to fight,

but they don't know how to fight, they want to fight.

This is a good place to train them.

Also, sometimes while I'm taking a shower or driving,

I suddenly have some ideas. Then I write them down.

Then the next day I call all my men to come for training,

and we write down all the ideas, so in the movie,

there are a lot of different technicians,

they all come from here,

and also we have a lot of small things and equipment.

Later on, I want to show you some other kinds of tricks,

part of my Jackie Chan style.

Boys, let's get ready!

Now Jackie and his team stage their first demonstration,

showing how the same wires that once allowed kung fu fighters to fly

are now used to enhance the power of a kick or punch.

A thin cord of industrial strength steel wire

is attached to a mesh harness worn by the actor

or stuntman preparing to receive the blow.

The on-screen effect may be spectacular,

but the mechanics behind it remain basic.

Pulling is not fast enough.

We don't have machines like those in America.

We just use man power. Like in this stunt,

you have to make two stunt guys stand on the ladder.

When the "action!" comes, they have to jump and also let go,

let the guy fly and drop down.

If they push it too hard, the stunt guy will become a Superman!

They have to push with the right timing.

Do you see those two guys pushing the tatami?

They have to let me land safely. Of course, when the shooting comes,

there's no mat, so the whole set-up will be like this.

One, two, three.

That's what you call a kick. Very simple thing.

The actor or actress

doesn't have to do anything, but just like this. Gone.

Usually when the film-maker makes a movie, he uses the wire.

They pull a thick wire and fly around. The audience can tell

"That's a wire", but when I use the wire,

I adopt a small technique.

If I don't tell you, you won't even know it.

That's how I like to do it. I use the small things.

I show you how.

See? Though he made a very good fall,

sometimes it's still not good enough.

Especially when I travel to other countries to film,

I use different people, but not everybody is a stuntman.

Then what can I do? I use small tricks,

I put the small wire in the shoes,

At the bottom of the heels. The whole thing will be like this.

These shoes are exactly the same, so we throw this one away.

We use the one with the wire under the shoe.

When you wear it and stand there,

the wire is on the floor, so nobody can tell.

We may need two or three people,

depending on how fast I want it.

So the wire is on the floor like this, and also the pads.

You have to know where you put the pads.

You have to put the pads at certain points.

One point, two point, three point,

This is a wire. The pads are inside. Then it depends on your luck.

If you're unlucky, you have to take off your shirt,

and wear only underwear. Then you don't have pads.

If you wear short pants,

you don't have a pad, so that's bad luck.

Somebody got hurt once. We will show you again.

A little trick.

When we fall on the floor, we only need a little bit of effects.

See, this is what I mean, faster and more powerful.

And of course you have to know when and how to use it.

It's not like I use it like this.

When you use it in a wrong place at a wrong time. It's terrible.

You have to know how to use it.

And also, we use a lot of

different things.

We use this kind of thing

and also the double legs.

We use a fall, and side falls,

and also with the shoes.

One of the trademarks of Jackie's style

of screen fighting is that

he and his stuntmen really hit each other.

I really want to have real contact.

We can put the pads

on the stomach and the back.

What about the face?

This shoe looks exactly the same as the others.

When we fight, you really cannot tell.

See? It touches him but it doesn't hurt.

Although Jackie specially designed these foam shoes,

he often makes use of

common household objects in an imaginative way.

A towel can be used for self-defence.

A hat can become a chance for him to show off his dexterity.

We even use things like hats. Ordinary people can do it.

Sometimes the hat is too light. I replace it with another one, why?

There're a lot of coins inside.

It depends. If there're too many, you get rid of one.

Then we make another one.

It's here in the Stunt Lab that Jackie and his team devise new ways

they can stage physical action sequences featuring

such commonplace objects.

Good examples of the finished work are the use of a coat rack

in 'Police Story' and a bicycle in 'Project A'.

Jackie's films feature some very animated inanimate objects

flying across the screen. Sometimes, they are the real thing,

and sometimes not exactly what they appear to be.

That is a good take.

Come on! Hurry up!

See? That is a good shot.

Sometimes we do over 2000 takes.

When you cross the camera and cut,

you just make the stuntmen stand here.

One, two, three.

See? That's the easiest way.

See? Those kind of things.

The real one is like this, see?

It doesn't even hit the face.

My foot would hurt.

We make one like these and you can't tell.

Of course, it's not used in a tight shoot.

When you move, you need cover.

When we hit faces, we just put in sound effects.

Then they make it real.

And also, in my movie, the action never stops.

Jackie's films make frequent use of glass stunts.

His determination to give his action scenes a foundation

in reality can lead to him and his stuntmen

bleeding for their art.

Glass isn't broken. How can I break it? I'll show you.

As this is a sheet of genuine plate glass,

it has to be specially prepared for it to shatter on cue.

A metal screw on top of a coin is placed at each corner of the glass,

so that it rests slightly above the surface of the table.

Okay. Now I show you the broken one.

In 'Police Story, Part One',

you can see I use a lot of different glass.

What haven't I used yet? I think it's bottles.

Comedy things. He kicks me and wants to take the bottle. I kick it away.

But in the alley scene, I wanted that in the alley,

someone would throw me a bottle. We'd been looking for the location.

In America, there're a lot of alleys, which are very big alleys.

When the people threw them at me, I could just duck away,

so I built my own alley.

We found people to create all the graffiti

and this kind of thing.

Then we had a small alley, where they threw the bottles at me.

But the funny thing is, real bottles don't hurt me.

Fake bottles are more dangerous than the real ones.

This is not fake. See? Hurt!

When we hit fake glass, it's still dangerous.

Perfect!

STUNT CHALLENGE

If you think you're tough enough,

join the Jackie Chan Stunt Team. Watch this!

The Jackie Chan Stunt Team. The elite of their profession.

Out of a thousand contenders, only eight are chosen.

Today, there can only be one,

as they compete against each other

to win the most coveted prize

in the stunt community: The Golden Elbow Pad.

We are the Jackie Chan Stunt Team!

WHEELS, BULLETS AND BANGS

Besides his physical stunts,

Jackie's films also contain action sequences featuring

such hardware as cars, guns and explosive devices.

Jackie first became interested in gunplay

after he made the transition

from martial arts movies to modern day action films.

The first project in which

he really got to fire some heavy metals was 'The Protector'.

American cowboys will make a lot of wow,

but in the modern day

we cannot do those kind of things and then put them in the pocket,

because even the pockets are already different.

But when I handle the gun now,

I think about some tricks.

Let others hold the gun like this.

Also, if you really like these kind of guns,

when you know the guns,

you can play a lot of tricks with the guns.

Like in 'Who Am I? ', the bad guy wanted to take the gun,

I just did something,

I just got the whole piece off.

When the actors or actresses fight, it's like this,

and the worst thing is the slow-motion, you know.

Then, even I'll look at myself,

On the screen, I myself, and everybody does.

That's normal, but in a movie, it isn't right.

You have to be like this. So how can I do that?

When I film, before rolling, I shoot it,

so the eyes are always open.

Because I really want to be a professional, but you know what

the dangerous thing is? After I know more about guns,

I know how terrible and powerful they are.

Don't think that if you hold a gun you'll be a hero.

Even if you get rid of a gun, you'll still be a hero.

Gunplay was not the only new element found in Jackie's films

after he began making contemporary cops-and-robbers actioners.

Since the very early days of Hollywood,

movie-makers have delighted in offering more bang for your buck,

in the form of extravagant explosion sequences.

Jackie's films often feature scenes in which

it looks like their leading man is about to get flash-fried.

Though the pyrotechnic displays in his films are impressive,

Jackie himself admits that,

in terms of sheer scale,

he can't compete with Hollywood blockbusters.

To compensate for this,

he has developed his own personal theory of the 'Big Bang':

An explosion itself is boring, but

when I'm in the explosion, that's interesting.

Don't believe everything you see.

This is actually a sophisticated

special effects shot, with Jackie reacting

to pre-recorded footage added to a green screen background.

The new technology being developed in Hollywood

allows actors to perform their stunts in a safe yet spectacular fashion.

By comparison, Jackie's own methods have usually been much simpler.

He stages the biggest explosion possible,

then runs away from it, very fast, when the cameras roll.

For the finale of 'Police Story II',

Jackie devised the biggest pyrotechnic stunt

ever staged for an Asian film,

demolishing a specially constructed

Hong Kong factory using tons of explosives.

Given the risks involved, he has often been asked

why, given the advances in special effects technology,

he still feels the need to risk life and limb...

In America, the actors don't have to do this.

You just run in the blue background. Then comes the explosion,

but what I like is being on the set, you really get the atmosphere,

you know, the energy is really good.

Now we just test the things.

In the movie, it'll appear bigger, stronger and longer.

I think what I want, maybe later on,

I want the real set with the real explosion

and the blue background behind

with the special effects and the computer.

Everything and my real action together.

I think maybe I'm going to do it in the future,

but right now I still like to do the real thing.

IDEA WALL

As he plans each new film,

Jackie is under constant pressure to come up with fresh ideas.

For inspiration, he speed reads books and magazines from around the world,

searching for intriguing visual concepts for future use.

Every day, I read a lot of newspapers,

books, and all kinds of things,

I'll put everything I like on my wall.

That's my Jackie Chan secret wall. You know, see these.

I used this in 'Who Am I? ' and I used this in 'A Nice Guy'.

We've already used this car in 'City Hunter'.

There're many things I haven't used yet.

Like submarines, this kind of thing,

all are my ideas. Everything is my idea.

Like the things I always carry in my wallet.

They're with me more than... I don't know how many years. See?

Already broken. I've already used it in 'Project A',

I haven't used this yet.

Every time when I do a new movie,

I open all the things to see what can be put in.

I've shown all my secrets to you. They're no longer secrets.

PROPS AWAY

Right now, I want to introduce things in modern fights.

Usually, when I design the fighting scene,

I let the art director come to the set.

He can put whatever he wants. Then I come to the set.

I look around and think what I can use.

I get rid of the things I can't use.

The things I can use remain on the set,

because everything can be a weapon.

A car or even this kind of ball.

You can make it more funny and lively. I still kick and punch.

Somebody chases me... As soon as this one, I turn.

I may give him a turning kick because it looks more interesting.

I'll show you how.

Okay. We'll start to do this one.

If we're on the set we have this kind of big wheel,

I design all the fighting. Okay, for example, this guy,

I push him, he goes back, and this guy comes in.

We fight, fight, and fight.

Then he pushes. I duck. At this moment,

he gives me a kick. At the same time, I crash and give him another kick

on the face. He reacts.

Then I push the wheel back. It means he goes down.

Then I turn and punch this guy,

This guy comes back.

Sometimes you go backwards

or sometimes when the guy comes, you can react.

you can do a lot of things with only one big wheel.

Like this supermarket trolley.

first I look at it and think how I can use it.

I can turn it around, push it, these kinds of things.

It's good for the reaction and for me to go in.

A lot of people say "Why don't you use the big one?"

If you go inside the big one, there's still plenty of room.

When you design the action, you have to make it reasonable:

Why do I go into it? Because it's tiny. Okay. after fighting,

this guy pushes it, I react, and go down.

I push it to this guy. See? Reaction.

After the reaction, this guy hits me.

I have nowhere to go,

so I have to go inside as soon as possible.

Then this guy pushes the chair. You stop and turn to give him a kick.

Then I turn around and give him a reaction.

Then kick and push this guy. Then whack him.

This guy comes in. Then we do a little bit of comedy.

Like this, hurt his hand. Then big reaction.

For the end shot, I come back, see?

Sit down. You turn the chair and stop.

If somebody comes, you run.

Boom, I push it back and grab this.

Usually, the real fighting is like this,

but it doesn't look nice.

I always want my fights to be like pretty dances.

Then this guy punches me. I step on the trash can

and give him a kick. It's a comedy.

More guys are coming? Turn around. Throw all! See how pretty?

I want pretty scenes, not fighting.

I want to fight like dancing.

So with the sound effects.

Then the guy comes.

I try to escape. Then I see the light.

Then I use the light to hurt his hand. See?

When he gets hurt, you turn around and attack him on his nose.

Then I come back. I myself get hurt.

Then come back and give this guy a kick.

I turn the chair again. In comes a punch,

I block the punch and kick his stomach.

As soon as he goes, I pick up the ice-cream and eat it.

Maybe like this, there're some eggs.

The eggs drop. I take them too!

I put them on his face.

I grab him again and put him in the washing machine.

I start the machine.

The guy comes. You open the door to hit him.

Another comes, like this. Another guy comes.

Then you jump in again, turn around and sit down.

If somebody hits you, you lie down.

Maybe you can give him a kick and, come back here.

The guys come. Then you have to jump over.

Kick and hurt his leg.

Maybe another guy comes, so...

Bamboo. This is a bamboo ladder. This is an aluminium one.

Whatever. You understand. What ladder?

Metal. A Metal ladder.

When you use the bamboo one, make sure you've polished it,

It hurts if it goes into the hands. Why do I do this?

Because it can cut your hands. I learnt it from experience.

Before you do anything, you have to make sure

you won't cut yourself.

You can use it to go over and back.

If a lot of people come, I can turn it.

You turn it like this and come back. People chase you again.

You come back and try to come down quickly.

You can either go to him or just turn around and go this way.

When somebody comes... How many times can you do it?

I cut my hands in just one shot. Remember, don't do it at home.

MASTER CLASS

Just for you, I choreographed some action scenes

with my stuntmen.

Let's take a look.

Now let's take a look at every shot in slow-motion.

The first kick has no power, and so visually,

it doesn't make sense for the other man to be flying back.

This one is no good because of the shirt obscuring the hit.

This time the kick missed altogether, and this take has the same problem.

The kick didn't connect.

This stuntman has to fly back through the bamboo,

but this take can't be used because he's just sliding down to the ground.

The idea is for him to go through the bamboo,

then fall down to the floor below.

This is a good example of

one of Jackie's basic approaches to action film-making.

In this shot, the bamboo serves two purposes.

It helps break the stuntman's fall,

and make's the fall itself seems more spectacular,

with all the bamboo crashing down around him.

Jackie positions a second camera at a low angle

to enhance the impact of the stunt.

This illustrates the importance of timing.

The stuntman on the left does a beautiful flying kick,

then his opponent flips upwards, and bangs his head.

This kind of incidental injury

is all in a day's work for the Jackie Chan Stunt Team.

Now we see how the camera angle helps 'sell' technique.

This kick is too far away, and obviously didn't connect.

Again, the gap between the foot and the face is too obvious.

On the last take, the angle is convincing,

and it looks like the kick really hits.

Here the stuntman flips down,

and he's supposed to land on the front of the hood.

On the first take, he lands too far to the centre,

which means he has to roll right across the hood,

then drop to the ground.

This doesn't have the same kind of speed and impact.

On the second take, he does the flip

and lands in the right position on the hood,

but when he rolls down to the ground, he lands too close to the camera,

so he's obscuring the final shot.

This is the good take. As before, he does a perfect flip,

and this time he hits the hood in exactly the right place.

If you watch his expression,

you can see that he's acting the whole time.

It's very important that a stuntman is also able to act

to convince the audience that what they are seeing is 'real'.

For this next stunt, the stuntman is obviously moving very fast.

When he hits a ninety degree angle above the stairs,

he looks down to check his position.

If he closes his eyes, he won't be able to control his fall.

The stuntman must turn in the air so as to land on his back.

Notice the powder coming up from the stairs.

This is to increase the visual impact of his fall.

Finally, he makes a safe landing.

In this sequence, one stuntman fights several opponents.

Though the techniques may be simple,

they require a high degree of timing and coordination.

Here, one of the stuntmen moves in on cue,

but misses the block,

which puts him in the wrong position.

Then, after this one technique is missed,

the whole sequence breaks down.

The next take starts well,

with the fighters interacting with the right timing.

Then one of the fighters comes in

from the right and he's positioned wrong,

and blocks the camera's view of the action.

This stuntman swings at his opponent, they're too close.

This means that our hero can't execute his kick properly.

He's unable to kick the bottle, and has to kick a second time.

This time, the sequence begins well,

with the stuntmen's movements coordinated and in sync.

Here's the same scene from a different angle.

This time, the stuntman swings in too fast,

and everyone loses their rhythm.

With this kind of sequence,

even when everything goes well right

until the very end, you can make one mistake

and get kicked in the face.

It's an occupational hazard for a stuntman.

Using glass in a fight scene adds an extra element

to challenge the stuntmen.

Even with sugar glass, you still have to be careful

not to get flying splinters of it in your eyes.

Here's the same scene from a different angle.

This time, the attacker brings the bottle in too high.

It should be nearer the middle of the frame.

Camera awareness is a very important attribute for a stuntman to develop.

Even the best techniques are useless if the camera doesn't catch them.

Here, one wrong move means that everything is positioned

slightly out of frame.

In this take, the bottle is still too high,

but in the next one it's perfect.

The bottle comes in right to the centre of the frame,

and the kick comes in at the right angle to hit it.

After breaking the bottle, the stuntman goes straight

into the drop kick.

The action continues, with this stuntman kicking

as he falls to the floor.

However, his attacker runs in too close,

and blocks the hero's head, obscuring his facial expressions.

This time, he lands, flips up.

The other stuntman runs into shot and delivers the kick right away.

In this take, the stuntman throws his kick, but he misses,

and now the attacker running in from out of shot

doesn't grab him fast enough.

This time, the stuntman jumps up

and executes a powerful kick to his opponent's stomach,

but, again, the third man is coming in too late.

This is a good take. The stuntman throws his kick,

his opponent runs into frame

and everything happens consecutively, with a kind of natural rhythm.

The worst thing a stuntman can do is wait to get hit.

It has to look natural. Here, this stuntman is waiting to get hit.

Also, this wooden wheel is pushed into the shot too early.

For the second time, the stuntman is waiting to get hit,

and gets kicked right in the groin.

Even though the early part of the take isn't useable, notice that

the wooden wheel comes in from left of frame with perfect timing.

As the wheel comes at him, the stuntman turns,

and he reacts quite convincingly.

Despite this, the scene has to be shot again.

This is the good take.

He kicks, drops, and then the wheel comes in.

On the table, he splits his legs

apart for added effect, with no delays.

In this outtake, the stuntman jumps back on cue,

but he forgets to split his legs apart.

Even though the breaking of the chair just right, it's still a bad take.

This sequence shows how important it is

to have coordination between two stuntmen

when they perform this kind of chasing scene.

They have to match their movements second by second,

constantly reacting to one another, or else the moves will look clumsy.

Here, one stuntman grabs for the other,

but he's already out of reach.

If the two stuntmen failed to react to each other properly,

anything can happen, including,

occasionally, an unplanned flying shoe!

In this take, they're completely out of sync.

The stuntman doing the chasing is just grabbing at air,

and there doesn't seem to be any real reason

for the other man to run away from him. By the end,

the whole sequence has run out energy.

Given the complexity of the scene, the unpredictable must be expected.

Here, the stuntman vaults over well, when he lands, he waits too long.

The other stuntman runs into views, but then he really gets kicked.

This is the good take, you can really feel the timing between them.

The two stuntmen have the rhythm right,

and they execute each technique to the full.

The last kick looks like it really connects.

The basic requirement for this shot is that

the stuntman crash down through the table,

through the glass and onto the floor.

In this outtake, we can tell that it'll still hurt when he lands,

but the table breaks too easily.

This means that the audience won't feel

the impact of the stuntman dropping through it,

so the stunt doesn't really 'sell'.

This is the good take.

He gets some good height on his jump back,

he drops down in just the right place, the table shatters

and everyone feels the pain, both the stuntman and the audience.

This defines the Jackie Chan style

Now you see how I use the set.

You don't need any special things and effects.

Just use your imagination. Use everything around you.

Whatever you see

can be used as comedy and fighting implements.

What you see today is Jackie Chan's style,

I hope I can see your style one day!

RUSH HOUR

In 'Rush Hour', Jackie plays a tough cop.

This introductory scene sees him take down a gang of smugglers.

It's the kind of sequence that would usually need a week to shoot,

but Jackie, under pressure to finish the movie on time,

only has enough budget for one night's filming.

Everything has to move fast.

Very fast! Camera mark.

Cut! Got it. Jackie, come here and look.

What do you want? I don't like to look.

The exit...

Yeah. You want to try one more?

When you see I lock the handcuffs,

turn around, pick up the gun and

hit him, cut. You use this shot, and later on when I handcuff him,

turn around, down, cut.

Then you use this shot. Good. You want to do one more? Cleaner?

When I kick, cut. I turn around to run and jump, cut!

The next shot will be here.

And this guy...

tight shot, this guy rolls over, I look at the gun.

Action!

The next night the production rushes across

to the studio mock-up of an American museum.

Jackie's character tries to protect

some Chinese artifacts from armed raiders,

despite the fact that he doesn't have a gun.

He has to find ways to make the confrontation convincing.

Don't shoot!

Jackie's hand-to-hand combat is interrupted

by his efforts to keep the treasure safe.

This approach is called 'character through action'.

The audience learns something about the personality of Jackie's character.

He is a man with a serious respect for tradition.

This enhances the audience's emotional involvement in the scene,

as they begin to care about both him,

and the antiques he's trying to protect.

Jackie takes further punishment

as he fights to keep a

Tang dynasty vase safe for the next generation.

He alternates moments of comedy

and drama to manipulate the audience's feelings,

so that the eventual outcome of the scene remains unpredictable.

From the sets of a thousand classic Hong Kong martial arts movies

to the locations of a multi-million dollar Hollywood production,

Jackie Chan has practiced his extraordinary craft.

In this film, we have examined many of the aspects

of one of the worlds most respected action film-makers.

We've shown how Jackie developed his unique style

and offered some behind-the-scenes insights into

how he turns his visions into reality.

For the man himself, though, past glories are less important than

the next challenge, and the next generation...

ONE FROM THE HEART

Now you've seen a lot of different ways in which I make a film.

These are neither the best nor the only way,

They're only my way, Jackie Chan's way.

I just show you...

with a low budget, without money,

no blue backgrounds, computer effects

or special effects, how we make a film.

If you really want to be a film-maker,

really want to be a good director, and actor,

you should learn something from America.

There're many great directors around the world,

and there're a lot of different ways to make a film around the world.

Don't totally copy me, but copy me a little bit.

Then create your own style and make it your way.

The best is not the most important. You have to be yourself

and more creative. Thank you very much again.

Hope you've enjoyed the film. Hope to see you next time. Bye-bye.

Digital effects may be funny. One day I may use them.

But now you have to see the real thing.

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