Jackie Chan and Shinjuku Incident

This is the movie that I have been waiting for. Jackie has always been my favourite actor. Superstar Jackie Chan is more used to dictating than being dictated to. But in his upcoming movie Shinjuku Incident, famed Hong Kong director Derek Yee bluntly told the veteran actor to ‘just act and follow orders’. Knowing the movie star’s hands-on approach on the set, Derek Yee, 51, made it clear to Chan that he was not allowed to interfere with the stunt choreographer’s work. And that, says the action legend with a laugh, was the most challenging part of the filming. Chan admits frankly that it was an uphill task ‘keeping his mouth shut’ throughout the filming in Tokyo, Suzhou and Changchun. Shaking his head in an interview at Swissotel The Stamford’s Crest Suite, he says in Cantonese: ‘You have no idea how difficult it was for me to keep my comments to myself… things that I thought could be done in a different way… well, the Jackie Chan way. But I promised Derek that I would be good.’ The actor, who turns 55 next Tuesday, is nowhere near retirement but he is trying to make over his image. ‘I don’t want to be known for gongfu scenes, acrobatic stunts and slapstick humour for the rest of my life. Even though I am successful, I would be a failure if I am known only for my martial arts movies.’
He adds in fluent Mandarin: ‘I want to be taken as seriously an actor as the likes of American actors Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman. People watch their movies in all genres because they are good at their craft.’ Hence, he signed on to the gritty gangster tale Shinjuku Incident, which is a world away from the frenetic martial arts movies, such as Drunken Master (1978), Heart Of Dragon (1985) and The Legend Of Drunken Master (2000), that made his name.

In Shinjuku Incident, he plays a down-and-out illegal Chinese immigrant called Steelhead who arrives in 1980s Tokyo looking for his childhood sweetheart Xiuxiu, played by 34-year-old China actress Xu Jinglei. He struggles to survive doing odd jobs and eventually rises to the rank of triad chief. I just hope it is not as disappointing as Streetfighter: The Return of Chunli.