As far as actors are concerned, Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan are the most famous men in Hong Kong cinema. As a child, Bruce Lee appeared in a number of films. As a youth he also began to study the martial arts and as a young man left Hong Kong to go to college in America. While in America he was able to win a part in the television series, The Green Hornet. Soon afterwards he filmed two pictures that were known in America as Fists of Fury and The Chinese Connection. The success of these two films led to a deal which allowed Lee to produce, wrie, and direct his own film. This led Lee's creation of The Return of the Dragon and an effort he coproduced entitled Enter the Dragon. Unfortunately, while working on his next project, entitled Game of Death, Lee passed away although the circumstances are unknown. Bordwell calls Lee, «the first Hong Kong Star to achieve worldwide reknown» and says that he, « helped popularize Chinese martial arts.
Another person to help escalate the popularity of Chinese martial arts is Jackie Chan. At the age of six Chan began to attend an institute which taught him to singing, dancing, martial arts, and acrobatics. Soon after he was able to find work in the film industry and even worked on a few Bruce Lee projects. Chan began as a stunt player, but eventually was able to work his way up as one of Bruce Lee's clones. Chan's career began to take off after filming Snake in the Eagle's Shadow. As his career began to take off Chan seemed destined to be the successor to be Bruce Lee's throne. Chan's problem was how to assume this position without becoming the direct clone of Lee. Chan accomplished this by playing the opposite of Lee's image. While Lee was often viewed as the hero, Chan likes to be viewed as the underdog. This theme runs in a lot of his films. Chan often plays a raw talent who learns whatever it takes to win the situation he is in. Another thing that separated Lee and Chan were their acrobatics. Lee never made it a point to learn acrobatics so he often used a double if any leaps or tumbles were required. On the other hand Chan is a master at acrobatics an always performs his own stunts. This is something that he is very popular for in Western culture. Chan truly enjoys performing his own stunts and has even said «I live for pain. Even when I was young I loved pain.» This can often be seen in the outtakes that are commonly shown during the final credits of his films.
Although these two stars are very different, Lee and Chan both embody the spirit of Hong Kong. These two symbolize the cinema of their nation's time and it is from them that their people draw a source of pride. Lee and Chan have given Chinese film a face that the rest of the world won't easily forget.
The recent success of Chinese cinema in Western culture seems to indicate that they will only get better. Films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, directed by Ang Lee, have helped get Chinese cinema the recognition it deserves. The actors and directors of China have done a superb job of making quality films, but we must not
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