jackie chan stunt in armour of god

[cooksandkungfoodle]

is this jackie chan in this out take?

just looks different to the out take at the end of armour of god where he had his accident..

was this the real out take that jackie had his accident?

[Fightingfist]

No i dont think it is jackie, not even close lol

[D1 Ma]

As somebody wrote in comments, it's indeed, from Shamus(1973)

Now i'm thinking, since Jackie took the idea of using outtakes during the credits from Burt's Cannonball films, maybe, he got the idea of the stunt from this Burt's movie? They look incredibly similar. just speculating

[Cognoscente]

I used to think that the stunt was filmed in 1986 because, besides the mention of it in Jackie's second book, the February '86 issue of Inside Kung Fu references Jackie surviving brain surgery. When I did a Facebook photo search, I came across a mid-eighties fan club announcement from Willie Chan which indicates that the accident happened on September 7, 1985!

https://www.facebook.com/JackieChanWorldFans/photos/p.1338269259705615/1338269259705615/


Speaking of 1985, I came across this Chinese post about how Jackie originally wanted N!xau to be his sidekick instead of Alan Tam.

https://www.facebook.com/hkent168/posts/1418797341585515


In Jeff Yang's book, it's said that Jackie spent 6 weeks recovering and he returned to do the stunt. In Jackie's second book, he talks about returning to the set 7 days later! He didn't want to wait for 6 months for his hair to completely conceal the scar so he tried to think of ways for only half of his face to be filmed. After a few days, the strategic blocking wasn't working so everyone returned to HK. The film was completed "a year later."


In the Hong Kong Filmography book by John Charles, it was revealed that Armour of God was released in Japan circa August '86 (as confirmed in the below link).

http://kungfutube.info/3672


I often wonder how much of the film had been shot before the accident. In the below page, there are some photos of a short-haired Jackie with the Western actors. Bearing in mind that films aren't shot in chronological order, so Jackie must have filmed the beer gas scene before the accident since his hair only noticeably changes when he's sliding down the hill. He even has short hair in the shots between both scenes. 

http://hongkongmovietours.blogspot.com/2015/05/armour-of-god-behind-scenes.html


I found this page which contains an awesome still and some anecdotes from two of the Croatian actors.

http://arhiva.nacional.hr/clanak/49654/kad-je-zagreb-bio-hollywood

Edited June 12, 2021 by Cognoscente

[Josh Baker]

Im gonna say a decent chunk of the film had been shot before Jackie's accident. Im guessing this stuff exists in the Fortune Star vaults somewhere and if so Id love to see it because I thought Eric Tsang did a great job directing the stuff that he shot (the first five minutes)- its eclectic and snappy and with lots of very tight camera work, much more exciting than Jackie's direction in the film which outside the fight sequences is pretty uninspired (understandable, hed just suffered a brain injury) I also love the clever allusions/twists to similar moments in Indiana Jones and James Bond in Tsang's footage which is pretty much missing in Chan's footage, its the usual Chan humour we'd seen in his previous scenes; its good, but lacks the edge in the Tsang footage.

Is it time to retweet to Fortune Star 'Release the Tsang Cut'?? 😂

Edited June 16, 2021 by Josh Baker

[Cognoscente]

It's also possible that Eric shot the fashion shoot massacre since it's quite bloody for a JC movie!

[Josh Baker]

15 minutes ago, Cognoscente said:

It's also possible that Eric shot the fashion shoot massacre since it's quite bloody for a JC movie!

Yeah seems pretty out of step tonally with what Chan was willing to put in his movies at that time; Im surprised Chan didnt re shoot it/ cut it down if so. 

You could be onto something as the scene has a reference to The Godfather with the photographer getting shot in the eye; considering the Indy references in the other Tsang footage its perfectly feasible he shot this, as Chan is unlikely to make such a specific reference to an American movie outside of the silent comedies from the 1920s he loved.

[Cognoscente]

Also, the concert footage looks like it was directed by Eric since that's not Jackie's sort of thing. Eric is Alan's best friend, which makes me think that Alan must have been incredibly disappointed when Jackie took over to direct.

The July '86 issue of Cinemart had some behind-the-scenes photos.

[Josh Baker]

4 minutes ago, Cognoscente said:

Also, the concert footage looks like it was directed by Eric since that's not Jackie's sort of thing. Eric is Alan's best friend, which makes me think that Alan must have been incredibly disappointed when Jackie took over to direct.

The July '86 issue of Cinemart had some behind-the-scenes photos.

Wow this is a real developing mystery, although there's a shot of Jackie with medium length hair on the top right. I find it funny how Jackie chose to film the monk fight first in summer '86 instead of something more simpler like dialogue sequences.

Even though I love the monk fight I always noticed that its one of the first fights where the stuntmen are doing a lot of the more spectacle-y dangerous stuff (backflip falls, wire-assisted falls etc.) and Jackie is doing a lot more simpler moves (punches, low kicks etc.) and less acrobatic moves, obviously because he was still recovering for a brain injury. Maybe if he had shot these fights later on, it couldve allowed him to do more complicated moves that we were used to seeing from since the days of Project A onward? 

[Cognoscente]

Agreed. It's strange that the film was rushed for a summer release in Japan when Golden Harvest should have postponed the release date so that it could be either a Christmas movie or a New Year one.

[Josh Baker]

6 minutes ago, Cognoscente said:

Agreed. It's strange that the film was rushed for a summer release in Japan when Golden Harvest should have postponed the release date so that it could be either a Christmas movie or a New Year one.

I mean it was released in January '87 in HK anyway so why not just delay it till November-ish rather than have it come out in Japan six months earlier? 

[Cognoscente]

Two decades ago, someone on this forum claimed to have seen an alternate cut of Armour of God on Spanish TV. It was basically the same film for the most part except for the hotel scene. Alan was looking for Jackie but, instead, found himself fighting four assassins disguised as maids in a fight that was similar to what Jackie later did with the Amazons. This version of the film was known as the "What if Jackie dies" version.

[Cognoscente]

May '86 - Cinemart (#197).

[Josh Baker]

On 6/16/2021 at 12:32 PM, Cognoscente said:

Two decades ago, someone on this forum claimed to have seen an alternate cut of Armour of God on Spanish TV. It was basically the same film for the most part except for the hotel scene. Alan was looking for Jackie but, instead, found himself fighting four assassins disguised as maids in a fight that was similar to what Jackie later did with the Amazons. This version of the film was known as the "What if Jackie dies" version.

Hmm that sounds interesting- is this confirmed to be real or just an internet rumour 

 

[Cognoscente]

Nothing surfaced...not even on that old Japanese Jackie Chan website called JC Outtakes, which contained photo galleries of alternate footage for nearly every one of his movies.

[Cognoscente]

I found a better version of the above magazine.

[Cognoscente]

Some promo photos from issues 201 and 202 of Cinemart.

[Cognoscente]

[Cognoscente]

On 6/16/2021 at 11:29 AM, Josh Baker said:

Im gonna say a decent chunk of the film had been shot before Jackie's accident.

In Jackie's second book, he mentioned one example of this in chapter 19: "We'd been shooting a scene in which Alan Tam and I entered the count's ancient mansion, and we needed to emphasize how luxurious it was. My idea was that as soon as we stepped into the hall, we'd be stunned by what appeared to be a wall of animals. On closer examination, they'd turn out to be hunting trophies. We'd walk through the room exclaiming "Wow, that's a gorgeous lamp," "These floor tiles are beautiful!" etc. Then we'd see a leopard-skin pelt and gush, "What a beautiful rug!" And at that moment, the "rug" would stand up, startling us both."

Although, they had to do several takes because the leopard was initially lazy before becoming hostile, so the scene was rewritten to what we see in the final cut.