INFLUENCE
After the cinematic creation of John Rambo, a thousand films went on to use the 'ex-special forces' tag as a major indicator that the character you were dealing with could easily bring about havoc. Major plot points and even gentle twists have been written into many stories, to routinely reveal, that the mysterious but adept character taking out all the bad guys was in fact a special forces soldier. Under Siege, Lethal Weapon and On Deadly Ground are just some of the bigger films that used this approach.

​All in all, cinema would not be the same without the one man army trope and we are here to salute it.

THE BIRTH OF THE KUNG-FU FILM
The advent of the Kung-fu genre manifested in reaction to Wuxia films; China's main form of dramatic fictional action. "Wuxia" loosely translates as martial hero and first arrived in the form of literature, circa 300-200 BCE. From its written origins came folk songs, then plays and then intricate theatrical representations. Eventually, the invention and rise of the motion picture led to the production of films and that would bring the most stark tales of honourable warriors fighting evil and corruption to audiences. Leaning heavily into the supernatural, the Wuxia narrative and style of action was often depicted within a fantasy setting, where heroes and villains would display physical feats beyond the average normal human being. For the translation of these powers of prowess to the screen, Wuxia films came to heavily rely on trampolines and complicated wire-harness rigs - in order to create the high jumps, simulate flying and cultivate increasingly inventive fight scenes. Films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), House Of Flying Daggers (2004) and Hero (2002) are all perfect examples of the modern Wuxia film, with all of its classic motifs and tropes. Films such as Duel To Death (1982) and Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) are perfect examples of Wuxia and Kung-fu spliced together.

AND THE THE FIRST KUNG-FU FILM WAS...
By the late 1960s, films such as One-Armed Swordsman (1967) which was leading to what would become the pure Kung-fu film, were already making international waves. But it wasn't until 1970, with the very same actor who starred in One-Armed Swordsman (Jimmy Wang Yu), that the world was introduced to open-handed Kung-fu, in the groundbreaking film The Chinese Boxer. The Chinese Boxer aka The Hammer Of God, was the first film to layout all the elements that still go into making the modern-day martial arts film and it is interesting to note; that not only are there rougher depictions of fighting represented in the genre (in comparison to Wuxia's more balletic approach) but there was an immediate enlistment of many other martial arts styles (beyond Chinese forms) that would also become a major selling point for many-a-Kung-fu flick, martial arts film to come. In addition, even though some Wuxia motifs were still used, they were only applied to slightly heighten the skill levels of some of the fighters and not send them into mystical power territory, well not at this stage anyway. The harder, faster, more frenetic fight choreography brought in a newer, raw and rougher side to cinema and some of the weapons and fight scenes were deliberately made inelegant to be closer to a real fight. One year after the release of The Chinese Boxer, another film would arrive with full grandeur and would also give us the man, who would go on to be a living legend. The Big Boss (1971), went on to be an even bigger movie than The Chinese Boxer thanks to Bruce Lee's skill, charisma and uniquely honest expression. His effort would send Wuxia movies back to the age it sprung from cementing the new fashion in action cinema. The Wuxia style of film now seemed overly-romantic, soft and out of touch. Though we cannot deny Bruce's impact on martial arts cinema, let the initial credit remain with Jimmy Wang Yu and the Shaw Brothers studio, the originators who gave us our first post-wuxia Kung-fu film and the modern-day blueprint in how to make them.

POPPIN & BREAKIN
Poppin was created by dancer Boogaloo Sam who was inspired in the 1960s, to create a new dance when he saw performers Locking (another street dance) on TV. Poppin is characterised by rigidly held movements that are then flexed via a muscle contraction to and on the beat. This is followed by a relaxing of the muscle to allow the body to once again move and glide, setting up the next position to pop. The movements of Poppin give the exponent a surreal, other worldly kineticism, probably the closest dance there is to an illusion. Breakin' or what would become incorrectly labeled as "Breakdancing" is a street dance that started in the 1970s and though it is currently known to be one of the hardest dances in the world to do, in its infancy, the repertoire of moves under the originators was minimal and all performed on the feet. Backspins, headspins, windmills and some of the most well-known signature moves of the dance would appear generations later.

 WHAT A FEELING
Both styles of dance were first seen in cinemas - worldwide when the movie Flashdance, starring Jennifer Beals was released in 1983. Remember, this is a film that played around the globe and made $200,500,000 at the box office from its $7,000,000 budget - so though the scene in the movie was short, it was widely seen in a picture that attained commercial and cult status around the world. After Flashdance, other films such as Breakin (1984), Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo (1984), Beat Street (1984), Krush Groove (1985) and Wildstyle would be released, with part of their premise usually featuring these dances or the scene they came from. This helped grow and sustain the fascination with the art form and a range of mainstream media soon jumped on the zeitgeist, appropriated the dance and tried to cash in on it. Breakin' became so popular and seemed to be featured in everything, that it eventually made its way to another world stage - the Olympics. In 1984, Breakin' was featured in the closing ceremony with a crew that included actor Cuba Gooding Jr, dancing behind Lionel Richie and even beyond the '80's, a post-30-year old Cuba is still using his Breakin abilities, in movies such as Jerry Maguire (1996) and The Fighting Temptations (2003).

PARKOUR
District 13 (Banlieue 13) is a 2004 film, set in a mild dystopia where the poorer members of society have been 'walled up' and made to live in self-contained urban communities. Each community is known as a 'district' and in the 13th enclave amongst the existing criminality that already takes place, an explosive device with a nuclear yield has been set to go off in 24 hours. The film features two heroes; an undercover agent and a local resident who is skilled in Parkour and for many viewers, this was the first time that they had ever seen the art form. Put against a fighting milieu, Parkour looked even more amazing than it would have in just the street. The original inventor of Parkour was Raymond Belle, a soldier and firefighter who came up with the idea of the movement in the late 1980s.  His personal experiences influenced him into combining military training, martial arts and other movements in order to traverse assault courses in a more efficient way. His son David Belle is the Parkour hero in District 13 and in first learning Parkour from his dad, he by himself went on to evolve the art and also became a founding member of the "Yamakasi Group" a Parkour crew dedicated to maintaining and evolving the form. Other members of the association include Sébastien Foucan (Casino Royale 2006), Daniel Ilabaca, Ryan Doyle, Tim Shieff and Damien Walters (Captain America: The First Avenger 2011).

BRAZILIAN JIU-JITSU
In Lethal Weapon (1987), Mel Gibson's character Martin Riggs has to fight arch-villain Mr. Joshua played by Gary Busey. In a fight that takes place at night time, on a garden lawn, with a damaged water hydrant spraying water onto the scene, cops watch as the two go toe-to-toe using boxing, kick-boxing and brawling to try and take each other out. The fight culminates on the ground and the two trade techniques in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, where Riggs emerges as the winner. That part of the fight scene was choreographed by UFC founder and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu legend Rorion Gracie, the eldest son of Hélio Gracie whom with his brother (Carlos) formed Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. Not only is Rorion the first generation to learn from his father and uncle, but he is also the first to learn out of a massive clan period and as a result, he is one of a few exponents in the world, that has attained a 9th-degree red belt. Lethal Weapon was made for $15,000,000 and grossed $120,000,000, which means there were a lot of bums on seats, that saw this fight scene.

FREERUNNING
Freerunning is an offshoot of Parkour, with a different philosophical outlook. Whereas Parkour is more concerned with traversing obstacles, if you are able to get past, through and over any obstacle, by just using three movements, this would be considered a success because the aim is to overcome the obstacles. In Freerunning, the competitive element and showmanship place an emphasis on expressing a personalised way of traversing your environment. There doesn't actually have to be any barriers in your way, Freerunning is more about using stylised movement to get from one point to another. In the clip below, Sébastien Foucan of the Parkour team "Yamakasi Group" can be seen using Parkour and Freerunning to evade 007.

CAPOEIRA
In 1993, actor and martial artist Mark Dacascos starred in a film called Only The Strong. The film didn't perform particularly well in the eyes of the critics or at the box office, but like so many martial arts films that are not particularly hot in their narratives or acting, the film offered us our first big taste of the Afro-Brazilian martial art of Capoeira. This one film introduced the art to a multitude of people around the world, who had not seen anything like it and from this point, Capoeira's trajectory was drastically changed to make its trajectory as popular as any of the big Japanese or Chinese martial arts.

In 1978, Jackie Chan made 7 films back-to-back. In the future, some of these movies would go on to be hailed as classics and grouped together to form a series called "The Jackie Chan Collection". Included in that catalogue of films are titles such as; Shaolin Chamber Of Death (aka Shaolin Wooden Men), Magnificent Bodyguards, Snake & Crane Arts Of Shaolin and To Kill With Intrigue. In between the formation of the Jackie Chan Collection which started in 1976 with New Fist Of Fury and finished in 1983 with Fearless Hyena 2, Jackie would also star in Snake In The Eagles Shadow (1978) which went on to be a major success. Two films after SITES, Jackie went on to star in the movie that would not only eclipse SITES's box office, but become the film that would give him his international breakout. In Drunken Master Jackie played Wong Fei-hung, a real life person of interest, mythological figure, folk hero and one of the most depicted characters in TV and movie history. Jackie delivered on all fronts and gave us a delightful portrayal of a young Fei-hung, who was comedic, juvenile, sincere and of course physically skillful. His rendition of the character set new standards in combining straight Kung-fu, comedy/Kung-fu with dramatic acting and is still regarded as one of the best today.

Drunken Master earned HK$6,763,793 at the Hong Kong box office, becoming the second most popular film in Hong Kong in 1978. This was the equivalent to US$1.45 million. In Japan, the film grossed ¥1.9 billion (US$17.21 million), becoming one of the year's top ten highest-grossing films. In South Korea, it was the highest-grossing film of 1979, making ₩1348 million (US$2.8 million). Earnings combined, the film grossed a total of approximately US$21.2 million in East Asia, the equivalent to US$83million. Drunken Master II broke Hong Kong's grossing record, earning HK$40,971,484 (US$5.302 million). By 1995, the film had grossed US$17.3million from five other East Asian territories and grossed CN¥10million in China and NT$39,889,970 in Taiwan, ¥726million in Japan and US$5.45million in South Korea. It actually took 6 years for Drunken Master II to hit North American theaters as The Legend of Drunken Master and when it did, the film was showcased in 1,345 screens. This re-edited, English language dubbed version made US$3,845,278 in its opening weekend and made a total of US$11,555,430 in the United States and Canada. Combined, the film's total worldwide gross revenue was approximately US$34.31million.

What was instantly noticeable about Project A (1983) was the time period that it was set in. Traditionally, Kung-fu films were either set in an ancient period circa the time of the Shaolin monks or in modern, present times. Project A was set in the 19th century and focussed on the Hong Kong Marine Police and their fight against sea pirates. Chan played Sgt. Dragon Ma Yue Lung, a Marine police officer who is mature enough to try and stove off the hostility between the marine police and the local ones, but not wimpy enough to back out of a bar brawl when provoked. As the villainous pirates get more and more bold in their attacks, eventually the two police corps join forces to take them on, leading to an explosive showdown. Project A was the 4th film Jackie directed and you can see a great deal of cinematic homage to the stunts of Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton, who Jackie has cited influenced him. On top of that, there is a great cast of actors who we would later go on to see in many future classic Hong Kong films, including actor Dick Wei as the pirate Lor Sam Pau and two of Jackie's closest friends and Peking Opera School buddies; Yuen Biao who plays captain Tzu the head officer for the local rival police force and Sammo Hung who is cast as Fei, a local smuggler. Collaborating again for the second time, Sammo is also credited as the action director and fans would go on to witness these 3 appear in many films together as one hell of a triple threat. 4 Years later a sequel - Project A Part II (1987) was released, but it didn't feature Yuen Biao or Sammo Hung, as they were both filming Eastern Condors (1987). Project A made HK$19,323,824 / US$2.7 million and Project A Part II which saw the remaining pirates from the original film try to get revenge on Dragon grossed HK$31,459,916 / US$4,052,938 at the Hong Kong box office.

Set within The Royal Hong Kong Police Force the Police Story franchise has the most entries in all of Chan's franchises numbering eight, though some are spin-offs and reboots. Set in modern days, Jackie only directed the first 2 films but with each outing still pushed to elevate the risk or complexity in the action sequences. In Police Story (1985), Kevin Chan (Jackie) is framed for murder by a gangster and must prove his innocence whilst bringing down the criminal who framed him. In Police Story 2 (1988), the gangster Kevin Chan put away in the first film is released on false pretenses of bad health and seeks to make Kevin Chan's life miserable, at the same time criminal bombers start extorting businessmen for money. In Police Story 3: SuperCop (1992) Kevin now holds the rank of inspector and must team up with another Inspector from Interpol - Jessica Yang (Michelle Yeoh), a female version of himself to bust a drug smuggling operation. 

In Armour Of God (1986) Jackie plays the Asian Hawk, an Indiana Jones style adventurer, who uses state of the art technology, unique gadgets and his physical prowess to track down and collect lost artifacts. Blackmailed into finding the remaining lost pieces of the Armour Of God by a religious cult, Hawk is forcibly thrown into a worldwide adventure where he must obtain the artifacts, in order to rescue his kidnapped friend from the cult. In Armour Of God II: Operation Condor (1991), the Asian Hawk races against a neo-nazi and his mercenary henchmen to retrieve gold from a now buried, secret military base from WW2. 21 Years later, Jackie reprised the role of the Asian Hawk in Chinese Zodiac (2012) where he searches the world for 12 bronze heads, each of which represent a figure from the Chinese Zodiac. Armour Of God's box office was HK$35,469,408, Armour Of God II: Operation Condor made HK$39,048,711 ($10,405,394) and the Chinese Zodiac grossed US$171,338,930, though the latter film really did not match the former two entries in story, humour and action. 

After the success of Rumble In The Bronx in 1995, Jackie proved that he could be successful with US mainstream audiences when he is allowed to do, what he does best. Earlier efforts in the form of Battle Creek Brawl (1980) and the horrendous The Protector (1985) had him either not fully delivering the Jackie Chan experience or studios trying to turn him into Dirty Harry. Rumble In The Bronx was made for $7.5million and grossed $76million which definitely got the attention of producers. In the formation of Rush Hour, Director Brett Ratner flew to South Africa himself to pitch the film to Jackie and a few days later Jackie agreed to be in the movie. Chris Tucker came on board later, but rumour has it that Martin Lawrence (Bad Boys) was considered before him and Eddie Murphy (Beverly Hills Cop) actually declined the part, that we now can't imagine anyone but Tucker playing. Brett Ratner had history with Chris Tucker, having directed him in Money Talks (1997) in which Tucker starred alongside Charlie Sheen.

Rush Hour (1998) sees Jackie play Yang Naing Lee, a Detective Inspector for the Hong Kong Police Force, who tries to find and rescue the young kidnapped daughter of Han (Tzi Ma) a Chinese consul ambassador, who is currently stationed in Los Angeles. The F.B.I. believe that Lee's arrival will look like the calling of outside help and believing the international optics to be negative they call in the L.A.P.D. and saddle Detective James Carter (Chris Tucker) with Lee as a babysitting assignment. This assignment also serves as a payback punishment to Detective Carter who messed up a previous case for the F.B.I. Both cops annoyed about their circumstances rebel to save the young kidnapped girl and the comedy ensues from the defiance, cultural misunderstandings, the language barrier and pig-headed stubborness as the two men interact with each other and other people in their company. Eventually they get past these barriers, form a friendship and go on to save the day. In Rush Hour 2 (2001) the duo this time around are in Hong Kong and it is now Carter who is the fish out of water and although on holiday, the pair still manage to get themselves embroiled in a money counterfeiting operation run by the triads. In Rush Hour 3 (2007), Ambassador Han is in trouble again with the Triads, where he escapes an assassination on his life. Lee and Carter must go off to France to find a woman who knows the identities of some of the top members of the society and then take them down. The Rush Hour films are both Jackie's (and Chris') most successful films to date. Rush Hour was made for $35million and grossed $244,386,864 worldwide, the huge success led to the sequel Rush Hour 2 with a substantially bigger budget of $90million. The sequel went on to earn $347,425,832 at the box office. The last entry, which did show signs of not being as original or funny reflected this in its taking and with the franchises largest budget of $180million, it performed the worst at the box office with earnings of $258,022,233.

In witnessing the pairing mode and success of the Rush Hour concept, a fashion for having Jackie work with an American or English speaking co-star took hold for the US produced movies and through the years were given the likes of; The Medallion (2003) with Lee Evans, The Karate Kid (2010) with Jaden Smith and of course the Shanghai series, where, Jackie was paired with Owen Wilson. In Shanghai Noon (2000), Princess Pei Pei (Lucy Liu), a Chinese princess is kidnapped from her homeland and brought to the US. In response, three royal, warrior guards of the Emperor of China are sent out to retrieve her, one of them being Chon Wang (Chan) who makes his way to America's wild west. Through a colliding of events, Roy O'Bannon (Wilson) and Wang team up to take on the kidnappers and other ruffians from the west and much like Rush Hour, the fish out of water tactic is employed, to a mix of hit-and-miss success. The first outing did well enough to warrant a sequel and in Shanghai Knights (2003) Roy and Chon are back, but this time in England, taking on the man who murdered Chon's father. Shanghai Noon's budget was $55million and it made 100.5million yet Shanghai Knights' production team must have been skeptical about the sequel's reception and were wise enough to keep the budget primarily the same for the sequel. With a $5million deficit in the budget, Shanghai Knights went on to gross less than the original, making $88.3million, yet despite the declining viewers and a significant amount of time having gone by, an announcement of a third film: Shanghai Dawn has been made.

In 2008, Jackie voiced one of the Furious Five Kung-fu fighting animals alongside, Angelina Jolie, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu and David Cross in Kung-Fu Panda. Playing a golden snub-nosed monkey, Chan reprised his role another 2 times in 2011 and 2016 for sequels, but also lent his voice to short films and video games playing the same character. In total, the Kung-Fu Panda films crossed the billion dollar mark, grossing $1,817,258,332.  

It is well documented that Jackie went to the Peking Opera school and many of his fellow co-stars/friends are from the same establishment. Within the school, they had a changing line-up of top students that were called the "the seven lucky fortunes". The title/concept later being adopted to name a series of films called "Lucky Stars" with recurring actors and characters. Sammo Hung was the one who developed the concept and Jackie appeared in the first three of these films; Winners & Sinners (1983), My Lucky Stars (1985) and Twinkle Twinkle My Lucky Stars (1985). Other films in the series included Pom Pom (1984), Lucky Stars Go Places (1986), Return Of The Lucky Stars (1989), Ghost Punting (1992) and How To Meet The Lucky Stars (1996). The total box office of The Lucky Stars series amounts to HK $121,890,054.

Jackie Chan's pursuit of physical excellence has led him to serious injury and on more than one occasion a dance with death. His professionalism and desire to push the boundaries of physical cinema have led him to shooting the most takes to get a trick or stunt right and that number is easily in the hundreds possibly thousands. In 2012 jackie was presented with 2 new Guinness World Records; one for holding the most amount of credits in one movie - totalling 15 and the other for performing the most stunts by a living actor. Still willing to perform and direct, Jackie continues to wow audiences and if he ever decides to retire from being on screen, it would be interesting to see what action sequences he could come up with with just concentrating on one thing.

The main problem with the latter entries of the Star Wars franchise is that it continues to deliberately stay arrested and this revelation I will ashamedly admit to, did not come from my own reasoning, but from Freddie Prinze Jr. in a interview about his involvement with Star Wars animation. The problem is whilst we, the fans grow older, we crave a more mature, potent delivery from the journey, with harder themes to match our age and life experiences. Our expectations continue to grow and grow, but become less and less realised as the franchise deliberately stays juvenile. We forget that we have to experience the magic through the eyes of children or as children, which is probably why The Phantom Menace really hurt. The Empire Strikes Back remains the most 'adult' film out of the series, never once issuing a corny moment or a back-track to 'safety' with heroism suddenly coming in to save the increasingly bleak circumstances. The Rise Of Skywalker is a good enough finish for the trilogy and the overall nonagon narrative, though it was always going to be a fight, had with one arm tied behind its back. I think with such a beloved franchise, we were always going to demand more and this finale just might not seem big or fulfiling enough for some.

Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker Is Out Now On General Release.