Many fans say that if Bruce Lee does not die, there is almost no chance of Jackie Chan succeeding. Although this hypothesis will never hold, with the help of many known data, we can analyze what exactly is the relationship between the two people's careers. First of all, it can be determined that both belong to the kung fu superstars and have a wide range of popularity worldwide. In terms of age, Jackie Chan, born in 1954, is only 14 years younger than Bruce Lee, who was born in 1940. When Bruce Lee died in 1973, Jackie Chan was not yet 20 years old. The age factor also affected Jackie Chan's failure to become famous immediately after Bruce Lee's death. But the core element is not yet here, and we will continue to analyze it below.
Jackie Chan became famous in 1978, when Jackie Chan was just 24 years old, and Bruce Lee had been dead for a full 5 years. But when analyzing this problem, we have to consider a factor, Bruce Lee died, his career was in the ascendant, and his death, without any warning. At that time, Bruce Lee had just become famous for two years, and from this point of view we would explore a problem, that is, although Bruce Lee's life suddenly ended at that time, his career was still at its peak. Death did not bring Bruce Lee's career and fame to an abrupt end.
But Bruce Lee's death has made many people think that there is an opportunity, including Jackie Chan, who came from martial arts. Many filmmakers began to look for a replacement for Bruce Lee, and some even found tang long, an actor who was very similar to Bruce Lee's body shape, in South Korea to replace Bruce Lee in making up for his unfinished films. During that time, many movies related to Bruce Lee were released. At that time, as a major communication medium, many viewers could not easily distinguish the technical components of the story shot by the film method. Therefore, many people think that Bruce Lee himself, as in the movie, must be an unpredictable kung fu master.
In reality, Bruce Lee is indeed a generation of kung fu masters, but this is probably different from the heroic image he created on the screen. As the pioneer of the kung fu genre, Bruce Lee was almost an absolute spokesperson for kung fu films between 1971 and 1973. During this time, in the field of kung fu films, there was no opponent who could compete with Bruce Lee. As a result, after Bruce Lee's death in 1973, the entire film industry was at a loss, and although many remedial measures were taken later, a suitable heir to Bruce Lee was still not found.
Jackie Chan was once selected by luo Wei, a director who had worked with Bruce Lee, and was pushed into the film world as bruce Lee's heir, but after several works were released, the effect was very general. In the film, Jackie Chan imitates the tough guy image of Bruce Lee, but in the end he does not find the essence of Bruce Lee's kung fu. In the period from 1973 to 1978, film technology was developing rapidly, and people never forgot the mission of how to inherit the legacy of Bruce Lee kung fu films, after many kung fu people tried, Jackie Chan finally became popular in 1978 with the two films "Snake-like Executioner" and "Drunken Fist".
The success of Jackie Chan marks the beginning of a new stage in kung fu genre films. In the post-Bruce Lee era of kung fu films, Jackie Chan played a key role in carrying on from top to bottom, but Jackie Chan's fighting style was completely different from Bruce Lee. Jackie Chan's kung fu movies, compared to Bruce Lee's kung fu movies, can not be completely said to be inherited and copied, if we have to define the comparison between Jackie Chan's kung fu movies and Bruce Lee kung fu movies, we should say that Jackie Chan's kung fu movies are "differentiated" competition for Bruce Lee kung fu movies.
Jackie Chan's kung fu movies follow the route of kung fu comedy, while Bruce Lee's kung fu genre films are completely a kung fu ultimate pursuit. After Bruce Lee, almost no filmmaker can show such a profound kung fu charm on the screen with his flesh and blood. Therefore, 5 years after Bruce Lee's death, Jackie Chan became famous. This in itself has little to do with the inheritance of kung fu films. There are two clues here that we can analyze.
The first clue is the change in the influence of Bruce Lee's personal reputation after his death. In fact, when Bruce Lee died, his fame was not getting smaller, but getting bigger, and at the same time, Bruce Lee and kung fu genre films were tightly tied together. As the pioneer and promoter of kung fu genre films, Bruce Lee's death caused the sudden leaderless situation of this genre film. Under such circumstances, the development of kung fu genre films has also undergone a process of exploration again and again.
The core reason for this is that Bruce Lee's death is so sudden that the creation methods of many kung fu genre films have not been fully solidified, and Bruce Lee's kung fu philosophy has not been fully expressed. In this case, Bruce Lee's fame is increasing, kung fu genre films and Bruce Lee are tightly tied together, and Bruce Lee has died, which makes the development of kung fu genre films lose their direction.
But beneath this thread, there is another key thread. We just said that Bruce Lee's sudden death has lost the direction of the development of kung fu genre films, but it has not lost its momentum. After all, the movie starring Bruce Lee broke the box office record many times, and the commercial value behind it is a piece of fat that many film investors are unwilling to give up. In Bruce Lee movies, Hong Jinbao, Jackie Chan and others who have run dragon sets and starred in supporting roles many times naturally hope to go further on the road of kung fu genre films.
But as we have just analyzed, under the influence of Bruce Lee's death background, it is difficult for these people to achieve Bruce Lee's influence by simply copying bruce Lee's model. In this case, After several years of exploration, Jackie Chan and others finally found a new direction for the development of kung fu films in addition to Bruce Lee's kung fu genre films. However, it must be noted that Jackie Chan has only replaced Bruce Lee's position in the film industry, but Jackie Chan has not yet reached the height of Bruce Lee. In this regard, it is still the reason why many people still miss Bruce Lee.
Later, Jackie Chan's success came from his exploration of kung fu films, and through the combination of comedy films, Jackie Chan became the successor of Bruce Lee kung fu films. Although martial arts stars such as Bruce Lee and Zhen Zidan appeared later, these people can hardly be seen as the inheritors of Bruce Lee kung fu films. After all, there wasn't much intersection between these people and Bruce Lee.
In fact, from the perspective of Jackie Chan's differentiated competition for Bruce Lee kung fu films, even if Bruce Lee does not die, Jackie Chan still has a chance to succeed. It's just that in terms of fame, Jackie Chan or other stars may be delayed for a few years, but it will not affect the birth of new kung fu movie stars. After all, this is determined by the nature of the business, not by the inheritance of kung fu films.