|
"Jet was given two fighting roles to prove himself, and with that one extra chip that Jakie didn't get, he didn't deliver sufficiently. his sun Wukong just wasn't spritely enough."
PICASSO TAN (above), former national wushu champion. -- ST PHOTOS: BERNARD KOH
|
|
|
Two tigers cannot live on the same mountain.
So says Jackie Chan to Jet Li in The Forbidden Kingdom, the highly anticipated gongfu blockbuster that marks the first time the two legends trade blows on the big screen.
So which tiger had the bigger teeth?
If a straw poll of 40 Singapore movie- goers and the experts are to be believed, it was a photo finish.
Seventeen film-goers LifeStyle spoke to could not decide who they thought reigned supreme. But 16 were more impressed by Chan's performance as perpetually inebriated monk Lu Yan.
National wushu team coach Zhang Yuening and former national wushu champion Picasso Tan were similarly divided over Chan and Li's different styles.
Zhang, who was in the Jiangsu wushu team and competed against Li, who was in the Beijing team, between 1972 and 1980, equivocated in his opinion.
He said Li came off more suave and unrestrained (xiao sa), and his strokes clear and precise (yi zhao yi shi), whereas Chan's drunken fist movement demonstrated his dexterity and ingenuity (ling qiao).
But Tan thought Chan put up the better fight in the movie, which opened at No. 1 spot in the United States last week, grossing US$20.9 million (S$28.5 million).
He said: 'Jet was given two fighting roles to prove himself. With that one extra chip that Jackie didn't get, Jet didn't deliver sufficiently. His Sun Wukong just wasn't spritely enough.
However, he added: 'In the temple scene, Jet's agility in his Praying Mantis was more fun to watch than Jackie's Tiger comeback, which was only so-so. Jackie was fierce, but not wild enough.'
That lengthy scene was the highlight of the movie which had the actors sparring for possession of a magic staff. It lasts about eight minutes and there is no clear victor.
Perhaps it is a case of too little, too late.
Try three decades too late, according to some long-time fans LifeStyle spoke to.
One disgruntled fan, video editor Shern Chan, 37, said the sequence 'feels like a watered-down greatest hits collection of their previous movies'.
Accountant Sam Wu, 48, agreed: 'I loved their hit movies such as Jackie's Drunken Master (1978) and Jet's Once Upon A Time In China (1991), and I've been waiting for this dream fight for years.
'But it looked like age had caught up with them.'
Ideally, history teacher Lim Cheng Tju said, 'they should have fought in the early 1990s, before they went to the United States'.
The 36-year-old fan added: 'Hong Kong director Tsui Hark should have cast Jackie as a sparring partner for Jet in the Once Upon A Time In China series.'
The match-up was so highly anticipated that it could not possibly have satisfied everyone.
As Bey Logan, Hong Kong-based vice-president of acquisitions and co-production for The Weinstein Company, one of the backers of The Forbidden Kingdom, told LifeStyle in a phone interview: 'Everybody comes with their own expectations and it's tough to meet everyone's expectations.'
Logan, who also wrote the reference book Hong Kong Action Cinema (1995), ranked the Chan-Li face-off as one of the more memorable screen scuffles in recent years.
'Jackie and Jet brought 20 years of film-making experience from the East and the West to shoot that fight.'
Asked why there was only one fight scene, Logan said: 'It was such a great fight that it would be anti-climatic to fight again in the movie.'
Zhang and Tan also dished out several caveats when judging the faceoff.
Zhang said: 'I can only discuss it subjectively, as what is seen is influenced by the various camera angles, unlike in wushu tournaments.'
Tan said: 'Yuen Wo Ping's choreography also comes into play, and he exploited both masters' expertise. For Jet, it was fighting with sleeves and robes, and for Jackie, the drunken fist.'
The two also felt that the comparison may be moot because Chan and Li came from different martial arts backgrounds.
Chan's early education was steeped in the performing art of Peking opera, where he mastered his acrobatic abilities, while Li was a product of long-term wushu training.
But fans can be a forgiving lot. Mr Danial Lee, 34, director of a creative agency, said: 'The sequence is a testament to their longevity, and you can't say the same for their Hollywood counterparts such as Jean Claude Van Damme and Chuck Norris.'
After The Forbidden Kingdom, there is already talk of another Chan-Li showdown.
Asked who the duo should take on next, the fans' response was unanimous: Thailand's Tony Jaa, the star of Ong-bak (2003).
Hopefully, they won't have to wait another 20 years for that slug fest.
bernkoh@sph.com.sg
douglast@sph.com.sg
The Forbidden Kingdom is showing at cinemas.
'Jet was given two fighting roles to prove himself, and with that one extra chip that Jackie didn't get, he didn't deliver sufficiently. His Sun Wukong just wasn't spritely enough.'
PICASSO TAN, former national wushu champion
'I can only discuss it subjectively, as what is seen is influenced by the various camera angles, unlike in wushu tournaments.'
ZHANG YUENING, national wushu team coach
|
