Over the last few years many of Jackie Chan’s classics from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s have found a new audience thanks to the stellar work of labels like 88 Films, Arrow Video, and Eureka! Entertainment. Arguably one of the most physically talented performers of the last 50 years, Chan was for many the ultimate action star – combining martial arts prowess, a willingness to put his body on the line for increasingly daring stunts, and that all important screen presence that kept audiences glued to the screen.
Understandably Chan become a much sought-after commodity, and his presence (or even just involvement) in a production became a way to increase a movies box office appeal. As a result the star has made cameo appearances in a number of productions over the years, ranging from simply lending his presence by appearing in a single scene, to also being involved behind the scenes by assisting to choreograph the action.
In this feature we chronologically count down 10 of his cameo appearances in Hong Kong productions (and 2 outliers just for the fun of it), which will hopefully attract audiences just becoming familiar with Chan’s output to some of Hong Kong cinemas wider offerings!
Pom Pom (1984) – The first in a series of comedic outings that feature a pair of loser cops played by Richard Ng and John Shum, the 4 Pom Pom movies ran concurrently with Sammo Hung’s Lucky Stars series, and it could well be argued that Pom Pom wouldn’t exist without the previous years Winners and Sinners (which also starred Ng and Shum). Taking a similar approach to slapstick comedic shenanigans, only without the action scenes that Sammo Hung’s Lucky Stars franchise would be imbued with, most likely due to Hung’s role as producer here we also get Jackie Chan in a blink and you’ll miss it cameo. Playing a motorbike riding traffic cop, ironically 4 years later we’d see Chan in a similar role at the start of Police Story II.
Naughty Boys (1986) – Director Wellson Chin’s comedy Naughty Boys offers up another blink and you’ll miss it cameo from Chan, however this time he was much more involved behind the scenes (even having his face appear on the poster!). Both Chan and his Stuntmen Association were responsible for the action in this comedy about a group of diamond thieves, one which offers up a rare starring role for fellow Jackie Chan Stuntmen Association member Mars, paired up with leading ladies Kara Hui and Carina Lau. Apart from being able to glimpse Chan choreographing some of the finale’s action in the behind-the-scenes footage that plays over the end credits, he can also be spotted in the movie itself playing an inmate in a prison scene.
A Kid from Tibet (1992) – By the 1990’s both Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung had several directorial credits to their names, but for the youngest of the 3 Dragons, Yuen Biao, it would take until 1992 for him to make his directorial debut (and so far only time in the director’s chair) with A Kid from Tibet. Like his Peking Opera brothers Biao also uses his debut as a starring vehicle for himself, playing a Tibetan monk who travels to Hong Kong in pursuit of a powerful treasure that’s been stolen. Perhaps as a show of support, upon Biao’s monks’ arrival in Hong Kong airport, while disembarking he bumps into another passenger going in the other direction, played by Jackie Chan. Interestingly, the scene was re-created in 2005’s Tom Yum Goong, with Tony Jaa bumping into a Jackie Chan lookalike!
Project S (1993) – Perhaps the most infamous of all Chan’s cameo’s, Project S was a spin-off from Police Story 3: Supercop (even being called Supercop 2 in some territories), offering up a leading role for Michelle Yeoh as the Mainland cop who’s partnered with Chan in the 3rd Police Story entry. In what very much feels like a standalone scene, Chan shows up as Chan Ka Kui disguised in drag, involving a wig and figure-hugging red dress, in an attempt to foil a jewellery store robbery by Eric Tsang (who is also in drag and clocking in a cameo appearance!). Chan’s appearance here feels more like an excuse for distributors to put his face on the poster in some countries, however it at least offers up a brief dose of his distinct style of action before the rest of the movie is handed over to Yeoh.
King of Comedy (1999) – In 1999 Hong Kong comedy legend Stephen Chow and Jackie Chan agreed to clock in cameo appearances in each other’s productions. Chow showed up as a cop in Chan’s Gorgeous (in what’s arguably the funniest scene in the entire movie, and ridiculously one which was cut from the US release!), and in King of Comedy Chan shows up as a stuntman working on a movie that Chow’s character is playing an extra in. The story of an unknown actor trying to make it in the industry, King of Comedy offers up an equal amount of both drama and comedic beats, and seeing Chan essentially playing a version of himself on-set (in a scene clearly paying homage to the finale of John Woo’s The Killer) makes for one of his best cameo appearances.
Gen-X Cops (1999) – On the brink of the new millennium it seemed like Chan was keen to ensure the Hong Kong action genre was left in good hands (presumably while he continued to cash cheques in Hollywood), and the result was Gen-X Cops. Featuring a line-up of the most popular young stars of the era (re: most of the Young and Dangerous cast), Chan was onboard as executive producer, and also brought in several members of his stunt team (including Nicky Li as action choreographer) to lend their action credentials. Chan’s involvement technically already allowed distributors to preface the title with ‘Jackie Chan Presents’, but perhaps as a safety net to ensure audiences didn’t feel too duped, he also clocked in a brief comedy relief cameo as a fisherman.
Enter the Phoenix (2003) – After spending most of the new millennium in Hollywood, Chan would return to Hong Kong in 2004 to headline New Police Story, but before doing so he’d warm up audiences in 2003 with a couple of cameos, the first of which would be in Stephen Fung’s directorial debut Enter the Phoenix. Co-produced by Chan’s JCE Movies Limited, the comedic plot revolves around the mistaken identity of the gay successor to Yuen Biao’s triad boss, and Chan clocks in a brief final scene cameo. On a sidenote, this would be the first time for Chan and Yuen Biao to appear in a movie together since A Kid from Tibet, although they never appear onscreen together (for that audiences would need to wait another 3 years for 2006’s Rob-B-Hood).
The Twins Effect (2003) – Intended as a starring vehicle for Hong Kong pop duo Twins, for The Twins Effect director Dante Lam called up Chan to clock in a “Special Friendly Appearance” (that’s what its listed as in the credits!) to help bolster proceedings. Naturally, his character’s name is Jackie. Chan’s cameo consists of a couple of scenes, one where he weds Karen Mok, and the other more significant one has him driving an ambulance while fending off motorbike riding gweilo vampires. Although the action direction is credited to Donnie Yen, his inevitable scuffle with the vampires feels distinctly Chan-esque, offering up a lite version of his trademark comedic style imbued with several wirework infused moments. Surprisingly, Ekin Chen’s fight scene is far more entertaining, not something I ever thought I’d write.
The Twins Effect II (2004) – After the success of the previous years The Twins Effect, a sequel was inevitably released the following year. Completely unconnected to its predecessor in every way, here we get a clunky fantasy involving a world where men have become enslaved to women, one which features the debut of Chan’s son – Jaycee Chan. Once more, Chan here is brought in to bust out some action, this time as an ancient warrior who’s been encased for centuries as a terracotta warrior. It’s Donnie Yen that wakes him up, providing a re-match from their face off in Shanghai Knights the year prior, as the pair swirl around in a deluge of early 2000’s CGI projectiles, water works, and slow motion. Is it possible for 2 movies to waste the talents of having Chan and Yen share the screen together in as many years? Apparently yes.
All U Need is Love (2021) – Coming almost 10 years since Chan last appeared in a Hong Kong production, in 2021 director Vincent Kok (who previously worked with Chan on 1999’s Gorgeous) brought him onboard to cameo in the charity production All U Need is Love, made to raise funds for out-of-work members of the Hong Kong filmmaking community due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Taking place in a locked down hotel due to a sudden outbreak of the virus, Chan’s appearance as a member of the Pandemic Task Force essentially amounts to him punching Ken Lo set to the Police Story theme, and little else. However just to see Chan appear in a Hong Kong production in 2021, despite him falling out of favour with local audiences a long time ago, brings an undeniable feeling of nostalgia.
The Pseudo-Cameo
Fearless Hyena II (1983) – Forever likely to be known as the production that Chan walked away from in the early stages having had a bust up with producer Lo Wei, far from abandoning ship, Wei decided to plough on and use any means necessary to put out a finished product. Said finished product involved incorporating unused scenes from the original Fearless Hyena, recycling footage from both Fearless Hyena (including the finale!) and Spiritual Kung Fu, and placing a fake beard on a completely unconvincing Chan double to film any scenes needed to glue the story together. The end result is an incoherent mess, and one which contains so little new footage of Chan in action that, despite star billing, his role can essentially be described as barely more than a cameo in his own movie.
Notable Mention
The Founding of a Republic (2009) – A whole 5 years before Xi Jinping urged the local film industry to make “patriotism the main theme of literary and artistic creation”, kicking off a wave of Mainland Melody movies that continues to this day, 2009’s The Founding of a Republic was somewhat ahead the curve. Made as part of the PRC’s 60th anniversary celebrations and partly funded by the government, the almost 140-minute epic details the rousing tale of Mao Zedong’s rise to power between 1945 and 1949. Released at a time when Hong Kong actors were still a box office draw in the Mainland, directors Huang Jianxin and Han Sanping populated the runtime with cameos from the likes of Andy Lau, Donnie Yen, Jet Li, and – you guessed it – Jackie Chan also briefly turns up playing a Hong Kong journalist.
I wonder if there was also a cameo in Tsui Harks Double Team.
Photo of Jackie on Set does exist.
Next time I pop the movie in, I’ll be on the lookout! =)
Great article! I know it’s not an HK film, but it would have been fun if you mentioned what basically amounted as a cameo in 1997’s Burn Hollywood Burn. (The movie that grossed 80 billion dollars.)
His fight with Donnie in Twins Effect 2 was really sad in how it lifted whole shots and bits of choreography from Jet Li vs Donnie Yen in Hero while being poorly edited.
I do wish the uncut version of Jackie vs Donnie in Shanghai Knights was included in the film. It was very good stuff, and it was infuriating to listen to the director in the audio commentary talk about how much he liked it, but it had to be cut for “time constraints.”
Great article. I wonder how much more footage there is of Jackie Chan in “Fearless Hyena II”. Come to think of it – and not to get dark or anything – but IF Jackie had passed away during his height, there’s a chance that “Fearless Hyena II” would have been his “Game of Death”. In other words, if we lived in that kind of a universe, we’d for surely have a “Fearless Hyena II Redux”! lol
I’d love to see 88 Films, Eureka or Arrow pump out a special edition of “Fearless Hyena II”, Despite its lack of being a solid movie, there’s enough there that collectors would pick it up.