Jackie Chan’s official fan gatherings, as featured in 1989’s Son of the Incredible Strange Film Show with Jonathan Ross, have been taking place regularly, usually on or around the icon’s birthday, giving those in attendance the chance to celebrate with their hero and make unforgettable memories. In addition to this, the Jackie Chan International Film Week was established in 2015 at the Shanghai International Film Festival to honour the action and martial arts genres.
This year, the 7th Jackie Chan International Action Film Festival took place in Harbin, from the 11th to the 12th of August. I was fortunate to attend alongside fans from other countries.
Among the events that took place was The Global Film Community Action Film Carnival. Attended by fans from 17 different countries-including Russia, Switzerland, Japan, Morocco, and Malaysia-the event gave attendees a chance to stand on stage, face-to-face with their hero, who was taking time out from filming The Armour of God 4: Ultimatum. They shared how he inspired their lives and made a positive impact. I was one of those selected and spoke about the charity JC Dragon’s Heart Europe. I also shared my experiences attending and helping to organise fan tours visiting filming locations in Spain (Wheels on Meals and Armour of God 2: Operation Condor), Netherlands (Who Am I!?) and England (Shanghai Knights and The Foreigner) to follow in his footsteps. Jackie then added that he is currently filming in Azerbaijan and preparing for a big stunt there. Also giving a speech was Florian from Switzerland, who told Jackie how he was inspired by him to study and progress in Wushu, with former JC Stunt Team leader Wu Gang as a mentor. It was great to see Jackie talking to his fans and posing for photos with them in groups. It was a special occasion where fans were able to be face-to-face with their hero and tell him of the positive impact he had on them, as he listened and approved of their journey.
The following day’s events began with the Jackie Chan Bar International Fans Gathering, which saw fans performing and showing their skills, including Florian, who gave a graceful Wushu presentation, and aerial gymnastics performer Egor Churakov, who performed a smooth barrel flip over a few fans as they crouched together. Also, actor and Martial artist Evgenii Takuev demonstrated his skills with metal nunchucks as well as showing his timeless breakdance moves. Both the Chinese and Russian fans took turns performing Jackie’s songs. Also present was Benny Lai (from Police Story 2), who answered questions and was then joined by 3 younger stunt team members. At the end of the event, medals were given out to fans who contributed to various events and activities over the year. I was pleasantly surprised to also be awarded one, although I must admit, apart from being a huge fan of Jackie and these fan events, I can say that my main contribution is that I try to attend these events when possible and have nothing but respect for everyone involved. The main contributors are two Russian fans, both named Anna, who do a lot of the translating, organising and supporting the events, as well as Peng and Jiajia, who are the main organisers based in China and look after every aspect of the events.
As well as this being a place where many fans could gather and share their love and appreciation, many fans also handed out Jackie Chan merchandise from their home countries, including Japanese Promotional posters. One of the fans, Aleksey, from Samara, Russia, showed me a dedicated Jackie Chan scrapbook in which he cut out newspaper articles about Jackie’s films from the 90s and added related notes. Now, keeping it as a prized possession and taking it with him to another country is a real commitment!
Later that evening saw the Closing Ceremony and Honours Gala. A much bigger event attended by various celebrities, including Iko Uwais and Stanley Tong, who were two of the judges. Despite this being the only time it rained in Harbin that week so far, causing the stage to be flooded, the staff worked hard to clear as much of the rain off the stage, and once it started, the performances were still nothing short of spectacular. Among the celebrated films was The Furious, which took home three honours: Best Action film, Best Action Actor for lead Xie Miao, Best New Action Actress for Yang Enyou. The Lifetime Achievement Award went to Ti Lung, making it a full-circle moment to see Jackie presenting the award to another cinematic icon, who fans will know best from playing Jackie’s father in Drunken Master 2. As well as also helping define the golden era of Hong Kong cinema.
Huge thanks to Ben Lewis for sharing his insights and personnel photos.
