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JC: No, it's totally different. How is it too different? It's too beautiful. Did you see Leslie Cheung's movie with Gong Li, Farewell, My Concubine? That's closer.
HKFC: You had a little part in one of the Li Han-hsiang films and you worked with Lo Wei. What you're doing is very different. Is this conscious?
JC: At that time I really don't know what I'm doing. I'm very young, I just follow the director. Film for me is just a living at that time. After five or ten years, then I begin to love movies. Then I always see some people filming, some directors directing. It's not good, it's the wrong way. Then I tell myself if someday I have a chance, I do my own way.
HKFC: Li Han-hsiang?
JC: I was impressed with Li Han-hsiang. He's full of Chinese culture. I'm more comedy.
HKFC: In the Lo Wei films, they bring you on as an imitation Bruce Lee, but gradually you introduce comedy.
JC: Yes. This is what I'm talking about... Nobody can imitate Bruce Lee. So I tell Lo Wei that I want to change, but he won't listen to me. At that time I think I was around twenty. He wants me to act 40. In the movie he wants every girl to love me. I'm not a handsome boy, I'm not James Dean.
HKFC: Was Snake in the Eagle's Shadow the first time the audience really connected with your character?
JC: Then the audience is surprised -- "Where the hell this boy come from?" For the audience, this is wow! So this one makes me confident. After I have a success, everybody listens to me.
HKFC: On you own first films as director (Dragon Lord, Young Master), the story almost completely disappears.
JC: Yes, because Asian audience, even now, they're not interested in my story. They come to the theater and the most important thing is that they see Jackie Chan. But the audience doesn't change--I change myself. I put more reasonable comedy, and story, now I put in everything.
HKFC: I noticed when you made Island of Fire, it looked totally different from the ones you supervised yourself.
JC: Oh, that's a rubbish film! On that film, I help somebody [Jimmy Wang Yu]. He kind of watched me growing up. So he needs my help and I said, OK. When I go to the set, I really want to do something for him. But when I look around beside me, all his friends are just fooling around.
HKFC: Your first films were costume films. Now your films are nearly all contemporary. Is that a deliberate choice?
JC: Yes, because when you're doing a lot of old-time films you must do a lot of kung-fu. Nobody likes kung fu films anymore. Now, even the West, they're tired of the kung fu film. So this is why I must change my style.
HKFC: Hollywood has been frustrating for you?
JC: Of course. I hoped that American audiences will go into the theater to see Burt Reynolds and Farrah Fawcett [in Cannonball Run I and II] and they will go, "Ahh, who is that Chinese guy?"
HKFC: Except they made your character Japanese.
JC: I find out it doesn't work. I never speak dirty language, no sex, filth, nothing. So this is why when my movie comes out in Japan, Korea, Malaysia, India, everywhere, everybody sees me on film. But when my film is released in United States, they think action film--violent! Children cannot see it.
HKFC: Rumble in the Bronx is quite a violent film.
JC: Yes, but in Asia children can see it.
HKFC: How do the directors affect your films?
JC: Even Drunken Master 2, even City Hunter, whenever you see my scenes, I direct my own.
HKFC:You did one film with [Tsui Hark] which has a lot of special effects elements -- Twin Dragons?
JC: In that one I want to try to understand what is the special effect. Right now I think in Asia, Tsui Hark is best known for special effects. So this is why I want to learn from him... But I was very surprised and disappointed. This is why I'm not doing special effects anymore, except with people from Hollywood.
HKFC: So all the effects in Police Story IV are physically staged?
JC: I'd rather do my own job. If you are doing a whole sequence, you must piece, cut, piece, cut. So you can see Seagal, he totally learn from us.
HKFC: Yes, I see pieces of your films and Sammo Hung's films, and eighteen months later, there they are in Steven Seagal's films.
JC: See, you can see who's the first. On Stallone's film, Tango and Cash, he learns from my Police Story. The bus scene. Stallone told me. We are very good friends. He's the one I really admire. Why? Because he comes from being the underdog. Also he builds his own muscle and punches very quick. He does a lot of things almost like me. But now, I'm becoming known also in the West. They're interested in me also, because they're maybe tired of the special effects. What I learn, I learn from Buster Keaton. He do everything, makes me very surprised. I look at this kind of film from Hollywood, but now nobody followed Buster Keaton. OK, I'm following.