Comedy And Karate Movies: The Perfect Blend

By Shane Waticky

Comedy is not the first thing you think of when someone mentions karate movies, but the two have actually worked hand-in-hand for many years. Most people thinking of the intense fight scenes, fancy moves, characters flying through the air and high kicks, though for the past thirty years comedy has been as much a feature as anything.

Comedy and action have really worked well together ever since those first silent movies. Many of the stars at that time were very physical and that physical comedy lent itself well to action sequences. These influences can be seen in many movies, no more so than those that star Jackie Chan, a self-confessed fan of many stars of the silent era.

Jackie Chan was born in Hong Kong in 1954 and started training at the China Opera School when he was just 6. He began to break into movies in the 1970´s playing small parts, and even had moments with Bruce Lee in Fist of Fury and Enter The Dragon. After Lee died, many people tried to fill his shoes, but rather than copy him, Jackie Chan began to develop his own style. By 1978 he had appeared in a number of movies but it was that year´s Drunken Master that started his rise to stardom.

An avid fan of Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton and other silent movie comedians, Jackie began to blend this physical comedy with martial arts, and when he directed his first movie in 1980, The Young Master, it was hailed as a breakthrough picture, effortlessly combining comedy and action.

Despite being a major star in the East, Jackie took some time to get noticed in Hollywood. Early in his career a few American producers tried to bring him to Hollywood, but their first attempt, The Big Brawl, did not pay off, and neither did his cameo in Cannonball Run as a Japanese driver, where he hardly got to show his martial arts skills.

Throughout his career Jackie was fortunate to have his friend Sammo Hung alongside him. They had gone to the China Opera School together, and moved into movies at the same time. Sammo also brought a comedic touch to the films and directed or choreographed many of Jackie´s movies. He also starred in most of them and also had a brief run in American television, when he played the lead role in the TV show, Martial Law.

Rumble in the Bronx in 1995 finally fared well with American audiences and soon Jackie Chan was starring in a number of big Hollywood comedy action movies like the Rush Hour series, Shanghai Noon and its sequel Shanghai Knights, The Tuxedo and Around the World in 80 Days.

Jackie and Sammo inspired others too, no one more so than acclaimed actor and director, Stephen Chow. Chow had acted in TV shows and karate movies in Hong Kong for a number of years, but it was his self-directed movies that caught the public´s attention. Shaolin Soccer was the movie that made the rest of the world take notice and that led to major producers backing his next film, Kung Fu Hustle. Kung Fu Hustle became the most successful Hong Kong-made movie ever, and also was shown in more cinemas in the USA than any other foreign language film. Sammo Hung, one of Chow´s heroes, also directed a few scenes in the movie.

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