We rank Chan’s 10 best films to date, from good to great.

10. The Foreigner (directed by Martin Campbell, 2017)

Directed by British filmmaker Martin Campbell, who previously made the Bond films GoldenEye and Casino Royale, The Foreigner was an old-school political thriller which finally gave Chan the chance to play a dramatic role that suits his advancing years.

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Chan plays a Vietnam veteran whose daughter is killed by a bomb planted by the Real Irish Republican Army (Real IRA). When the British police prove ineffective at tracking down the perpetrators, Chan goes to Ireland to find them himself.

The revenge element of the film is pure Hong Kong – it’s long been a staple ingredient of local martial arts films – and the political aspects are well designed, and elevate The Foreigner above its B-movie premise. Chan takes a lot of punishment in some action scenes that are more exaggerated than those usually found in political thrillers.

9. Mr Canton and Lady Rose (aka Miracles) (dir. Jackie Chan, 1989)

Chan wanted to show the world he could act and be romantic on screen, and this led to an unexpected change of style for 1989’s Mr Canton and Lady Rose. It’s a kind of remake of Frank Capra’s 1961 Pocketful of Miracles, and featured the late Anita Mui Yim-fong as a nightclub performer.

In spite of the film’s focus on drama, it contained one of Chan’s most accomplished stunt sequences – a fight in a rope factory. The change of style was a big success in Hong Kong, where it topped the yearly charts, although the lack of action led to a different cut being made for overseas distribution.

8. Rumble in the Bronx (dir. Stanley Tong, 1995)

Chan had been trying to break into the US market since the 1980s, with limited success. But this martial arts- and stunt-filled action romp finally gave him the hit that he was looking for.

Rumble in the Bronx is certainly Chan’s best film of the 1990s, and he uses the faux New York setting to good effect. The story has Chan visiting New York to attend his uncle’s marriage, where he runs afoul of both a biker gang and a corporate diamond smuggling ring.

The martial arts sequences are acrobatic, and Chan ably demonstrates his unique talent for using the surrounding environment as a foundation for the choreography. A demolition derby involving an out-of-control hovercraft is reminiscent of those in Police Story , and there’s a dangerous jump from a building that, in the usual Chan fashion, is shown twice.

7. Armour of God (dir. Jackie Chan, 1987)

Hong Kong cinema has always been good at assimilating foreign trends, and Armour of God saw Chan play an adventurous hero loosely modelled on Indiana Jones. The film also demonstrated a much tougher approach to the action scenes than had been seen before. In a sometimes bizarre storyline, Chan plays an adventurer out to rescue his girlfriend from a religious cult.

Chan had his worst accident ever when a relatively simple stunt involving a jump from a tree went badly wrong while filming in what was then Yugoslavia – he suffered a skull fracture and a bone fragment lodged in his brain. Chan underwent brain surgery, and now has a permanent hole in his skull.

6. Police Story 3: Supercop (dir. Stanley Tong, 1992)

Chan had directed the previous two instalments of Police Story. But for part three, producers Golden Harvest hired director Stanley Tong Kwai-lai, gave him a sizeable budget and told him to make the movie look as spectacular as possible. The sight of Chan wielding a machine gun was a shock for Hong Kong audiences as, back then, he never used guns.

5. Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow (dir. Yuen Woo-ping, 1978)

Chan plays an unskilled martial artist who is taught Snake Fist style kung fu by an elderly master played by Yuen Siu-tien (in reality, Yuen Woo-ping’s father). When his master is attacked by a rival from the Eagle Claw school, Chan must come to his aid.

Chan and Yuen Woo-ping decided to do something different to eradicate the memory of Chan’s failed attempts to imitate Bruce Lee in his earlier films, and the result proved a big hit with the public. Yuen’s martial arts choreography is sublime, and there are some fabulous demonstrations of Snake Fist style, Eagle Claw style, and Praying Mantis style.

4. Project A Part 2 (dir. Jackie Chan, 1987)

The film starts with Chan being demoted and sent to run a neighbourhood police unit, where he cracks down on police brutality, stops police corruption, and instructs the police to work hard to serve the public.

If that concept doesn’t tie your brain in knots, there are also some great stunts and fight sequences. The stunts are very physical and there’s no camera trickery involved. As with Sylvester Stallone in the West, Chan takes a masochistic amount of punishment before he comes out on top. The slim plot focuses on Chan trying to arrest some powerful and well-connected gangsters.

3. Drunken Master (dir. Yuen Woo-ping, 1978)

Drunken Master improved on the comedic aspects of Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow, fully establishing the chirpy and cheerful image that Chan would keep for most his career. Audiences had loved his earlier pairing with Yuen Siu-tien, so the duo teamed back up for a story about the young Wong Fei-hung.

The film’s selling point was a style of kung fu that can only be executed while drunk. Although a style of drunken kung fu – sans drinking – exists in Shaolin martial arts, Chan said he invented the film’s version himself. Chan finds the perfect balance between kung fu and humour, and the result is thoroughly entertaining.

2. Police Story (dir. Jackie Chan, 1985)

Police Story features three of Chan’s most notable stunt sequences. The opening shows a whole village wrecked by a fleet of cars, and the ensuing chase sees Chan attempt some dangerous manoeuvres with the aid of an umbrella. Chan later manages to destroy an entire shopping centre.

Chan’s stunts have been compared to those of Buster Keaton by Western critics, although Chan told this writer that he had not actually seen Keaton’s films at that point.

1. Project A (dir. Jackie Chan, 1983)

Project A saw all the elements of what would become Chan’s signature style – acrobatic martial arts, daring and clever stunts, and his cheeky on-screen personality – blended together for the first time. The result shows Chan at his absolute best.

Chan plays a marine policeman in 19th century Hong Kong who is trying to outwit some pirates. The movie benefits from high production values which include a pirate battle, but its pièce-de-résistance is Chan’s jump from a clock tower 16 metres (52ft) high. The first two takes of the stunt went well, but the third time Chan attempted it he bounced off an awning that was supposed to break his fall, and hit the ground.

The failed scene is featured in an outtake in the end credits, an idea which became an enduring hallmark of a Jackie Chan film.

In this regular feature series on the best of Hong Kong martial arts cinema, we examine the legacy of classic films, re-evaluate the careers of its greatest stars, and revisit some of the lesser-known aspects of the beloved genre. Read our comprehensive explainer here.