Jackie Chan does a ‘summersault’

This is the same man who told an American reporter that “Asia is billions of people. America is a very small market.”

I’m very pleased Jackie Chan Already a Dragon (to give him his full transliterated stage name) said something about the endless slide of Asian movies copying the West, it needed someone of his calibre to do it. You wouldn’t catch the Big B saying anything like this – sometimes it makes me think Indians are less attached to their culture than the Chinese. Whilst their neighbours the Japanese have swallowed everything American hook, line and sinker, the Chinese have hung onto their unique style. Indians have too, on the whole, but as of late Bollywood in particular has been sliding headlong into mediocre Hollywood knock-offs.

It’s also one of the first comments I can think of suggesting that the two behemoths of Asia, India and China, unite their film industries towards a common objective.

Jackie Chan is the Man.

How does India and China unite in film-making without making films that are an amalgam of these two cultures? If this happens, the objective of retaining local culture is not met as Indian films do not tend to have Jackie-Chan/Jet-Li style action, while Chinese films are less song and dance. Personally, I would not look forward to a 4 hour, overly melodramatic, kung-fu action movie that was and broken up by song-and-dance sequences.

Maybe I have missed something here ?

I think culture is evolutionary. Its good to celebrate the diversity of culture, but at the same time, if the masses desire a certain form of entertainment or want to move toward another culture, is it right to put obstacles in the way? The old guard have a vested interest in the ‘good old days’, but if they really were better, then society would try the new culture and reject it.

Riz

PS – The culture virus spreads both ways. Think of all those Hollywood films that use cable-fighting effects (Matrix etc) to create frenetic fight scenes. These were used by Asian film makers to great effect many years before … remember Once Upon A Time in China?

Actually, Chan’s right. We should unite. Bollywood is the ONLY major film industry in Asia yet to produce original works and/or an actual film culture beyond going to the theater. Today’s Asian cinema is the new new wave, and its being noticed and copied by filmmakers from around the world. Thailand has Ong Bak. Korea has people like Choi Min Shik and Park Chan Wook, Hong Kong Cinema had also reached beyond John Woo and young gangster movies long before Hollywood paid Wong Kar Wai any notice (not that it has paid him notice yet), China has Zhang Yimou (even if he is blatantly communist). You could rip on Japan being the one culture being completely influenced by Hollywood if people like Kitano Takeshi and Takeshi Miike weren’t pumping out original works by the pound, and if japanese horror directors weren’t being hired by hollywood to direct remakes of their own movies.
and speaking of old guard, Bollywood is ALL about old gaurd. Ever since the mafia moved in, Bollywood has remained stagnant and it WILL remain stagnant because none of the producers give a shit about originality as long as they’re making money. Even RGV succumbed to the bling bling.
India and Asian cinema can unite like Serge Silberman (from france) and Akira Kurosawa (from Japan) united for his masterpiece film Ran which had nothing to do with france at all, rather Silberman gave financing to a master director. Financing, importing talent, renting studio space there are a lot of ways to do it.

Excuse my hindi:

“Sau chuye kha kar bili haj ko chali”