The Golden Age of Jackie Chan: 5 Films Every True Fan of Hong Kong Action Movies Must Watch
While Hollywood piles on CGI that bangs without bite, there’s a different kind of cinema that still stings when you watch it: Hong Kong, from the ’70s through the ’90s. Those pictures often traded digital polish for lived-in risk — you can almost hear the tendons protest. At the centre of that messy, thrilling world was Jackie Chan, whose fights felt like something that could happen off-screen, because sometimes they did. Below are five films that, for better or worse, keep turning up in any serious talk about HK action.
"Drunken Master" (Jui kuen)
Year: 1978 (yr.) Director: Yuen Woo-ping (dir.) Rating: IMDb — 7.4 / Kinopoisk — 7.8 / Letterboxd — 3.8
A scrappy hit turned a young stuntman into a recognizable face; box-office math favored this one over its peer from the same year. Jackie is cast as the wayward son of a kung fu teacher, shipped off to learn an unorthodox "drunken" method from a teacher who’s equal parts menace and mentor. Yuen Woo-ping — yes, the same fight-maker later tapped for The Matrix — staged sequences that mixed flip-heavy moves with comic timing. It’s messy in the right places, and sometimes I wince at a landing; that human flinch is part of the film’s pull.
"Project A" (A gai waak)
Year: 1983 (yr.) Director: Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung (dir.s) Rating: IMDb — 7.2 / Kinopoisk — 7.9 / Letterboxd — 3.7
There’s a jump in this one that makes people either clap or hold their breath: the clock-tower stunt that echoes a 1923 silent film. Jackie rehearsed for days, then did it without the usual nets and without a stunt double; two parachutes slowed the fall from roughly 18 meters. They ran three takes and used the best. This movie also leans away from formal kung fu choreography toward a rougher, more improvised fighting vocabulary — it feels like a street scuffle translated for the lens.
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"Wheels on Meals" (Kuai can che)
Year: 1984 (yr.) Director: Sammo Hung (dir.) Rating: IMDb — 7.0 / Kinopoisk — 7.9 / Letterboxd — 3.6
The final sequence swaps choreography for blunt contact: Jackie versus Benny "The Jet" Urquidez, a real kickboxer with decades in the ring. When people call those exchanges “real,” they mean it — shots landed, cuts swelled, and the camera sometimes caught collisions that weren’t mimed. One unplanned moment — a punch that snuffed a candle — stuck in the cut because it felt true. It’s the kind of scene that makes you respect both the performer and the cost.
"Police Story" (Ging chaat goo si)
Year: 1985 (yr.) Director: Jackie Chan, Chen Chi-hwa (dir.s) Rating: IMDb — 7.5 / Kinopoisk — 7.9 / Letterboxd — 4.0
Here Jackie wore multiple hats: actor, director, and the one who arranged many of the stunts. The shopping-mall chase — panes shattering, props flying, a pole slide wrapped in lights — is the sort of sequence that makes you uncomfortable and thrilled at once. No fancy effects cover the bumps; you feel the rawness. Watching it, I catch myself rooting for the camera as if it were another performer.
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"Armour of God" (Lung hing foo dai)
Year: 1986 (yr.) Director: Jackie Chan, Eric Tsang (dir.s) Rating: IMDb — 6.9 / Kinopoisk — 8.0 / Letterboxd — 3.3
This one veers into globe-trotting adventure with a rough, improvisational heart. The shoots involved tricky stunts (some of which went sideways) and a tone that alternates between slapstick and danger. A notorious incident during production left Jackie with a serious injury; people still tell that story not to lionize him but because it reminds you how fragile the whole enterprise can be when stunts are real. The film mixes treasure-hunt energy with moments that abruptly remind you a stuntman’s life is not a set of safe choices.