I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action
by Jackie Chan

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Book Reviews of I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action

Book Review: An exotic, benevolent and touching success-story
Summary: 4 Stars

*I Am Jackie Chan* is the story of the making of these movies and of the man who made them possible: a first-hand, first-person account of Jackie Chan's eventful life, from his training at a Peking Opera school, where we discover the overweight bully who was to become "big brother" Samo Hung, to his second and hugely successful attempt to conquer the American public.

The book unravels the rather bumpy ride to stardom of this atypical martial artist who always preferred being beaten up by the bad guys to the other way around, who repeatedly risked his life to perform the most incredible stunts ever filmed (Jackie stop! We don't want to lose you!) and whose happy-go-lucky persona finally eclipsed that of Bruce Lee himself.

I really loved this success-story, set in a world whose death warrant was signed in 1997 when the Communists took control of Hong Kong. Jackie has seen it all, from the Shaw Brothers to Golden Harvest; from the greatest of all Hong Kong directors, King Hu, to that smug, overbearing, cigar-smoking individual with a penchant for "bathroom humor and clumsy slapstick"- Lo Wei; from the evil Triads to the elitist clique of the movie stuntmen, who lived in the present because their future didn't even have a wire to hang on to.

If for you the names of Cheng Pei Pei, Michelle Yeoh (pre-Tomorrow Never Dies) and Yuen Woo Ping (pre-Matrix) have more magic to them than the equivalent Hollywood names, then you will enjoy this unique, exotic auto-biography, which really begs for a screen version in the vein of *Dragon: The Story of Bruce Lee*.

A good companion to this volume is the 75-minute video documentary entitled *Jackie Chan: My Own Story*, which shows rare footage from his films, bloopers and interviews with Jackie Chan, his closest associates and the American stars who count themselves his fans. At the end of this documentary, Chan says that he has fulfilled his three dreams of personal success, but that he now has a fourth one: world peace. I think we definitely ought to give him that. He deserves it.

Summary of I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action

His autobiography, I Am Jackie Chan, answers those questions in an engaging, almost novelistic style. When his father moves to Australia to take up a new job, the young Jackie is placed in Hong Kong's China Drama Academy under the tutelage of Master Yu Jim-yuen. For the next 10 years he is trained in martial arts, dance, acrobatics, singing, and comedy, while suffering extraordinary hardships, including regular beatings and near-starvation. Yet he can look back on this period of his life with considerable affection, not least because it taught him the skills, and provided him with the network of friends, that would sustain his film career for decades. Chan has always earned the respect of his fans by committing himself wholeheartedly to creating the most death-defying stunts possible. His achievements seem even more remarkable when set against the struggles described in this book. In the Drama School, as a young stuntman, in his first troubled attempts to make movies in America--Chan's personality shines through, and I Am Jackie Chan can only enhance his reputation as one of the most likable and admirable movie stars in the world. The book also includes Jackie's comments on all of his movies, lists of his favorite stunts and fights, and an astonishing catalog of all his major injuries. Can you imagine what it must feel like to dislocate your cheekbone? --Simon Leake

Actors & Actresses Books

• Subjects > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Actors & Actresses
• Entertainers
• Ethnic & National > Chinese
• Leaders & Notable People > Rich & Famous
• Humor & Entertainment > Movies