HONG KONG - Jackie Chan had a few free hours on Monday, the fifth day of Chinese New Year, and flew to Taiwan for a quick reunion with his son Jaycee, said Oriental Daily News.

Father and son had an all-night chat, their first after actor Jaycee, 32, spent six months in jail in China for sheltering drug users, said the newspaper.

"I hadn't seen him for too long. I feel he's matured this time," Jackie, 60, told Oriental on Tuesday. "We didn't talk about unhappy things. It was all family chat. We talked into the night and didn't sleep."

He also gave his son a new haircut before leaving for Chengdu on Tuesday morning to return to the publicity tour for Dragon Blade. The movie is dominating the Chinese New Year box office in the mainland, with ticket sales approaching the 500 million yuan (S$108 million) mark in its first week, said Ming Pao Daily News.

"I proposed a new haircut for the meaning of a new start, and he said okay," Jackie told Oriental.

Jaycee shared photos of the hairstyling session on Weibo with a brief caption, cong xin kai shi, a pun that sounds like "new start" and means "start from the heart". In one of the two pictures, his mother, retired actress Lin Feng-jiao, is supervising the session, said the newspaper. She also has a new, shorter hairdo herself.

For weeks, Jackie had said the reunion would have to wait till after his tour. But he seemed to have had a change of heart on Monday night, when he hopped on a plane in Chongqing.

"My schedule is always changing, and I didn't know when I would be able to see him, so I took advantage of a few free hours and flew to Taiwan first," he told Oriental.

Looking ahead, he said: "After I finish the publicity tour, he'll produce a new CD for me."