There are a lot of movies today that combine fight scenes with funny scenes, a great example being Guardians of the Galaxy. But even if those movies are good, the action sequences and comedy sequences always seem like two different directors and two different styles. For a while now Jackie Chan has been a master at creating "action-comedy" movies in the purest sense of the word, showing that action and comedy are not all that dissimilar.
In Jackie Chan films the action is the comedy. Jackie, no matter what film, always starts from a position of relative weakness, whether he has no shoes, is handcuffed, or whatever else, he always has to fight his way back from a disadvantage. This causes him to be creative in his method of fighting. Jackie will use anything and everything around him, creating opportunity for jokes that wouldn't be possible otherwise, and is probably one of the most defining features of his style. Also, in every fight scene, all actions have a logical reaction, creating most of the jokes from the films I have seen him in.
Another noticeable difference from other action-comedies is the way Jackie's action scenes are performed and edited. There is a rhythm to all of his fight scenes that isn't really noticeable until it is gone. Everything follows along to a rhythm creating a kind of melodic action sequence in our subconscious. Jackie is also very uncompromising, filming a scene hundreds of time to get what would seem like a minor stunt perfect. This isn't as apparent in American films today, as budget and time restrictions are a major limiting factor. Also, Jackie's editing in his fight scenes are a shining example of how action should be done. When a hit is about to occur, and Jackie want a close up of it, he cuts to a few frames from before the actual cut, like he is going back in time. Those few frames give our brains time to process the cut and then gives the hit more impact. In American movies, there will be a cut just before the hit, and then a close up of the person's arm or leg or whatever retracting after the hit, so we never actually see impact, and it takes away from the power of the fighting.
And the biggest thing with today's action scenes is the shaky-cam. Who in Hollywood said that all audiences want all fights to take place during an earthquake, in a darkroom, with everything color corrected blue? Jackie is all about clarity. If his opponent is wearing black he is wearing white. We see all the action from wider, set angles instead of shaky close ups. And this is strange because you would think that they do this because the actors don't know how to fight, but really we have some of the best talent in stunts there is. I think it's just inability from the directors and editors to create a good fight scene.
I now realize that I rambled a lot and such so I think I need to stop. Don't get me started on film or this happens.
i love JC
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