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BEHIND THE SCENES |
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rumble_in_the_bronx
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The largest jump in the Bronx, from Rumble in the Bronx
(1995)
Some people say that
the great jump, that eye-opening leap from one building to an adjacent
building, was done by Stanley Tong who was the director of this film.
For example, stuntman Kenji Tanigaki has claimed
so in his informative book on Hong Kong movies and stuntmen's world. Also
Clyde Gentry III has said the same thing in his own book, although, on
this one, I don't know to what extent he is sure about it.
Okay, maybe Kenji could be completely bull-shitting. Or maybe he's saying
the truth. I simply don't know, for I wasn't on the set when Jackie(or
someone else) jumped off the building to the other.
But here, I'd like to
try and stand on both sides, and take a little look into this controversial
issue to who is actually jumping in the movie. (this is the important
part. I'm talking about the jump shown in the movie. Not about who jumped
off footage.)
| A:
Reasons why I doubt it is Jackie
1.
The camera is very far away, and during the jump we do not get
to see the face of the performer.
This
is an important factor since it was Jackie's policy to show
his face in the same cut as the stunt performance. He showed
his face in Project A after the fall, and he showed his face
before the stunt in Police Story.Also, it was clear that Jackie
was falling into the burning coals in Drunken Master 2.
Some people have said that we first see Jackie running off the
car so that proves that he is jumping, but I doubt that since
the two different cuts do not go together. When he jumps off
the car, as we can see in the picture on the right, he jumps
off the car with his left leg first going into the air, and
then he swings his left leg back and then to front again, and
that makes the end of this shot. But when we see the jump from
side ways in the next several shots, we do not see the person
swinging his left leg so much. These two cuts simply don't go
together. It's been edited.
Counterargument:
But you could say something like - It was impossible to locate
a camera near the buildings so they had to shoot from a distance.Yes,
very possible.
2.
To add to this, the cut in the outtakes where we see Jackie
wiggling his butt on the balcony, doesn't seem to go together
either.
This
is just a guess but, if we watch both the shots where he is
jumping, and where he pops out of the building he landed on,
it seems like the amount of sunshine is different. As
in the pic on the right, the sun seems to have gone away, leaving
less sunlight on the second building. If Jackie popped out onto
the balcony soon after he finished filming the stunt, wouldn't
there be more sunlight?
Counterargument:
But I can never tell how the clouds will move. Maybe a large
cloud was just approaching and covered the sun soon after
the stunt finished. Jackie with his 'butt shake' simply proves
that he is happy after finishing the stunt.
3.
Even outtakes do not prove much, since they made up an outtake
in Project A2 for example.
Yes,
in the Project A2 outtakes, there is a scene in which the hatchet
Chan throws towards the camera actually hits it. Then right
after this outtake shot, we then see the cameraman reacting
to this and cover his eye as the hatchet hits the camera. This
looked pretty much like a fake outtake, unless the crew were
totally aware that the hatchet could hit the camera, and were
shooting the main cameraman with a different camera from a different
position. Possible. But I doubt it. I think it was a deliberate
fake shot put in for another bit of entertainment.
Counterargument:
But
well, what is the point in making fake outtakes then? Wouldn't
that be considered as deceiving? And after all, the hatchet
outtake might not have been a fake one.
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| B.
Reasons to why it could be Jackie
1.
Jackie says himself that he was the one who is jumping.
Yes, pretty simple.
Counterargument:
But
can you actually trust 100% what a person you don't really
know in real life says? I mean, have you met the man and talked
about this in person? Jackie is an entertainer and a movie
maker, right? He is in a position where he sometimes has to
tell lies.(Don't tell me that he is not the sort of person
that would lie. That's bollocks. How can you be so sure?)
2.
To the contrary to what I said in A-2, I think there is a mattress
around Jackie's feet when he pops out of the balcony.
This mattress was also there when the stunt actually took place.
Looking at some of the shots of the jump, I think I can see
the floor of the landing point bouncing up a little bit, which
I suspect was a mattress for safety. And if this mattress is
still there when Jackie pops out, then I think it means that
he popped out pretty soon after the jump took place, implying
that there isn't much progress in time. Thinking this way, I
can easily deny what I've just said about the sunlight.
Counterargument:
Maybe
there was no mattress. It is very vague and can't really tell.
3.
Maybe Stanley Tong did the stunt as well, but Jackie also did
it.
I don't have anything to say to this. Some people claim that
they both did it, but used Stanley's jump in the movie simply
because it looked better. Or you could even say, they both did
it, and that's why people say " Stanley Tong did the jump,
but what we see in the movie is done by Jackie. "
Counterargument:
If
Jackie had jumped as well, then why didn't they show it in
the outtakes? It would be natural for Jackie to at least show
his own jump as well counting on his previous ways of showing
the outtakes. And okay, even if they both jumped and had decided
to use Jackie's jump in the movie, can you really say that
was Jackie jumping? The camera is too far away to concentrate
on faces, hairstyle, body size, etc...and isn't it very very
hard to tell? What makes you so sure?
4.
And after all, we do get to see someone who is very much likely
to be Jackie Chan showing out of the building and wiggling his
butt.
This
person looks like Jackie Chan, and I'm pretty sure it is. And
so if he comes out onto the balcony to win the applause from
the other crew, it has to be nobody else but Jackie Chan.
Counterargument:
Nothing
to say really.That guy shaking the butt seems like the man
we know as Jackie Chan. True.
|
Personally, because I'm on the doubting side of this discussion, I would
like to emphasize on A-1, that we cannot simply say it was Chan doing
because we don't get to see the face. So the person jumping in the
movie may not be Jackie Chan.
Four possible sepeculations;
- Jackie jumped once, Stanley jumped once, and they decided to use Jackie's
jump for the movie.
- Jackie jumped
once, Stanley jumped once, and they decided to use Stanley's jump for
the movie.
- Only Jackie jumped and that footage was used in the movie.
- Only Stanley jumped and that footage was used in the movie.
If the case was the
forth possibility, then I'd call Jackie a good liar. (without any hostility
here). But don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that Jackie IS a liar because
there isn't enough evidence yet to say whether the jump we see in the
movie was Jackie's or Stanley's. It's impossible to tell from that distance.
And even if that jump in the movie was Stanley's, I still don't know if Jackie did or didn't
jump himself. Maybe they threw away the footage of Chan's jump. Or maybe
Jackie never jumped. Who knows.
Was the jump in the movie
Jackie Chan's or Stanley Tong's? - We'll never know.
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Reference
: Kenji Tanigaki, "Enter the Stuntman (Moeyo!
Stuntman)", 1998.4.20
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