Decoding a Second Memoir
2018 marked the release of Jackie Chan’s second memoir (Never Grow Up). It was an English translation of a book (originally titled Growing Old Before Growing Up) that was first published on April Fools Day in 2015. The 2018 release date was December 4, but I was so eager to get it that I headed over to eBay to see if there were any advance copies. I managed to find such a copy and ordered it on what would have been Bruce Lee’s 78th birthday i.e. November 27. I received the memoir the next day. Most readers reading Jackie’s book might not get four indirect references.
Chapter 7 (titled The Big Breaks) has an anecdote of Jackie working as a stuntman with Sammo Hung on a film with a female lead. I’ve deduced that it was a 1973 film called When Taekwondo Strikes. It starred Angela Mao, and was directed by Huang Feng. Jackie said: “Once, I was supposed to stand next to the female lead. My hair was long at the time, and when I hit my mark, I unconsciously flicked my hair. The director yelled cut and came over to scream at me, cursing my family back eight generations. I was stunned and ran off in tears. All the other martial artists laughed at me for crying. My shame turned into rage. I grabbed a wooden prop knife and was about to rush over to hack at the director - You can scold me, but why did you have to bring my mom into this? Sammo Hung, who was working on this picture, grabbed me - Are you crazy? Don’t do that! The next day, I quit.”
In the same chapter, Jackie recalled getting rides from a fight choreographer during his early stuntman days. Jackie became his assistant, but he doesn’t mention the man’s name. After browsing the Hong Kong Movie Database, it would appear that the man was Han Ying-Chieh. He was the reason why the villain was named Han in Enter the Dragon (1973), since he played the villain in Bruce Lee’s first martial arts movie - The Big Boss (1971). Han and Jackie worked on Bruce’s second martial arts movie, Fist of Fury (1972), before working together again on None But the Brave (a 1973 movie starring Cheng Pei-Pei).
In Chapter 16 (titled The Gritty), Jackie talks about working as the fight director on a film which attracted the attention of two thugs who wanted to know who the fight director was. Jackie bravely said that he was. Outside of movies where he’s the star, he has rarely worked as a fight director for other people. Through process of elimination, we can ascertain that this can’t have been during the making of The Outlaw Brothers (1990) because that had several fight directors. “The” is definitive whereas “A” is infinitive, so we’re looking for a movie where Jackie was the sole fight director for someone else who was the star. Jackie refers to himself as staying at the Lincoln Plaza Hotel, which wasn’t around in Hong Kong during the seventies. This, alone, rules out The 36 Crazy Fists (a 1979 movie that inspired the name of an American heavy metal band) and Dance of Death (a 1979 movie).
Also, Jackie Chan refers to himself as having his own team and dressing room - two things that he didn’t have on those independent productions. As for the eighties, Jackie did have these things when he was choreographing other people for movies produced by Golden Harvest. In 1989, he only worked on one scene in The Outlaw Brothers (the scene that was filmed inside a sound stage where security would be tighter than outdoors). That leaves us with Naughty Boys (1986). This stars Jackie’s best friend, Mars (a.k.a. Cheung Wing-Fat), which is why Jackie went out of his way to have a cameo. Jackie can also be seen in the closing credit sequence during the out-takes.
Carina Lau was indirectly referenced in Chapter 21 (titled One More Shot). Reading between the lines, it seems like Jackie was talking about Project A Part II (1987): “A former star I worked with would go out drinking every night. Too hungover to work, she’d only be able to drag herself to the studio at 6:00 p.m. I was afraid to embarrass her, so I just said, If you’re not feeling well, don’t come in. I’m a little under the weather myself. So she ended up sleeping all day, then going to a bar again that evening. Who wants to deal with that?”
In Hong Kong, Carina is known as the wine fairy. Another thing about Chapter 21 is that Jackie mentioned that Sammo Hung directed a film which didn’t have much of a box office run because four big stars were doubled extensively. Jackie doesn’t mention the title but I know that he is referring to The Moon Warriors (1992). It starred Andy Lau, Anita Mui, Kenny Bee and Maggie Cheung; yet it only grossed 11 million H.K. dollars. That’s the sign of an above-average success, yet it fell short of the 30 million goal. The running time was only 83 minutes, because each star was so busy that they had to use stand-ins and stunt doubles. Unlike the rest, Maggie was not a singer.
Ironically, neither of Jackie’s memoirs mention about the last time that he met Bruce. I won’t regurgitate it here as there are enough versions that can be read or heard online. What I will say is that their final encounter reminds me of a Scrubs episode titled My Finale (the season 8 finale). Perry is the mentor of J.D. and he knows that he might not see him again. Perry is reluctant to tell J.D. what he really thinks about him, but J.D. eventually finds out. Jackie never revealed what he thought that Bruce was thinking, but many fans have guessed.
