The first Jackie Chan movies: how martial arts superstar shaped his fighting style in Shaolin Wooden Men, The Young Master, and more

They wanted him to fill Bruce Lee’s shoes, but Jackie Chan quickly understood that wouldn’t work. He honed his fighting style in early films, then stepped up

Signing for Golden Harvest allowed him to direct, and his first film for the studio, The Young Master, ‘set a new path for Asian films’, Chan later recalled

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Jackie Chan in a still from The Young Master (1980).

Published: 5:15am, 4 Apr 2021Updated: 8:51am, 4 Apr 2021

Jackie Chan’s first shot at fame during the mid-1970s saw Lo Wei, who had directed The Big Boss and Fist of Fury, try to turn him into a Bruce Lee clone. But their first film, New Fist of Fury (1975), failed at the box office.

The kung fu comedies Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow and Drunken Master, both released in 1978, finally put comparisons with Lee to rest. Chan then signed to the Golden Harvest studio, which gave him the resources to direct The Young Master (1980), in which he was able to flex his wings as a director, actor and choreographer.

In this previously unpublished interview from 1998, Chan talked to this writer about the qualities of his early films.

When you made New Fist of Fury, Lo Wei, the director, wanted you to perform like Bruce Lee. How did you react to that?

Yes, Lo Wei just wanted me to be another Bruce Lee, and he wanted me to do kung fu in the style of Bruce. But I am not like Bruce Lee as a fighter, and as a person I am different, too, as I am happy-go-lucky. I did not have all the experiences that Bruce had, and I could not act the way he did, either.

Bruce knew a lot about philosophy, which he had learned at school, and I don’t have his talent for philosophy. I just know what I am doing, I know my craft.