By Daniel Zelter

Jackie takes Hollywood

You've heard about Hollywood Blvd., and the tradition they have of putting 
stars' signatures and footprints in the cement. Well it seems Jackie Chan is 
also one of the Hollywood alumni who got this privilege. It was back in '95 
or '96, when his film Police Story 4: First Strike(retitled Jackie Chan's 
First Strike) came out. The irony was that he was being honored, even though 
the low ticket sales from the dubbed versions of his films would almost send 
him packing back to Hong Kong. (Rush Hour's unprecedented success is what 
made him decide to continue to make American films.) It wasn't even the 
first time Jackie tried to be in American films. As early as 1981, he had a 
cameo in Cannonball Run. But now he was actually in the limelight.

Anyway, since it was my first time being there, I didn't know they cordoned 
both sides of the street with metal barriers. This was so that crowds 
wouldn't surround the people involved in the ceremony. And I could only get 
a small glimpse of Jackie. But fortunately, you could still hear him with 
the microphone. From what I remember of his speech, he seemed to be happy 
that he finally made it in Hollywood. In fact, he signed a thank you to the 
fans, when he was writing on the cement block. Speaking of which, he wrote 
his signature in 4 different languages: English, Chinese, Japanese, and 
Korean. It seems he was going to send the cement stone on a tour through 
Asia for a year before it stayed in Hollywood. To this day, I don't know if 
his signature is still there, but I'll never forget the event.

John Woo becomes big:

This event was at the Shrine Auditorium in Downtown L.A. It also back in '97 
when Face/Off just came out.[I know some of the people who hated Mission 
Impossible 2 might be thinking, "Yeah, and he hasn't done anything good 
since!" But I liked the film, even if Cruise nearly ruined it.] Woo was no 
longer relegated to directing Van Damme movies like his contemporaries would 
be later on. After Broken Arrow's success, he was a household name in the 
U.S.

I heard John Woo was giving autographs, so me and a friend decided to go 
down there and see him. Unfortunately, the place was PACKED! Just the lines 
for merchandise to be signed were long. I don't remember all the questions, 
but I was slightly amused when some 13 year old kid told him, "The Killer 
rocks! Where'd you get the idea for that movie?!" And John Woo replied that 
he was inspired by the French film Le Samourai. From what I read in another 
book, Hong Kong was a real breeding ground for aspiring directors-during the 
60's-because of all the different international films being shown there. As 
for myself, I was going to ask him how he felt about Tarantino ripping off 
his films, but the moderator there forced me to ask him a watered down 
question about his role as a producer on Peace Hotel. (One of the other 
films where Chow Yun Fat engages in sword-play.)

Anyway, it soon became 3 o clock, and the lines for autographs were STILL 
pretty long. Technically, I'd only come to see him, not to get his 
autograph, but my friend was dedicated to it. So he got himself a French 
Bullet in the Head poster, and got me a French Hardboiled poster. So after 
waiting for a long period of time, I got to see the man himself, and asked 
him if he'd ever consider working with Jet Li. But he said he already tried 
doing martial arts films, and it didn't work out for him. Anyway, he signed 
my poster "To Daniel: Best Wishes" in English and Chinese", and I still open 
it up to look at it every once in a while.

Jet Li: Starring in stupid movies since 2000

When I started seeing Jet Li films, I used to think he was much cooler than 
Jackie, mainly cus the only Jackie films I'd seen were the ones where he'd 
try to do really lame comedy in between good stunts. (Although I still 
consider the live action version of City Hunter to be among his funniest 
movies.) But here was Jet Li, a martial artist AND an actor! And when he 
proved his potential in Lethal Weapon 4, I knew it was only a matter of time 
before he'd be the lead in his own movie. And I read about his next project 
on Jet Li fan sites: Romeo Must Die. Oh yes, I kept up with it, up until the 
trailer for the official site. And the trailer looked great! So one day, I 
decided to go to the Shrine Auditorium[Yes, I'm a regular there:)], because 
he was doing a Q+A to promote the movie. It was so crowded, I couldn't even 
get in to see him! Fans were asking him questions like if he'd do sequels to 
Black Mask and Fist of Legend, and he responded only if there was a demand. 
And when the trailer for the movie played, everyone cheered! The film went 
on to make around $80 million, if I recall. It's a shame Jet Li's been 
starring in horrible movies after that,[Here's hoping Hero is the Crouching 
Tiger-killer it's being hyped up to be!]because that moment felt like the 
start of a bright future for Hong Kong movies in the mainstream. Little did 
I know it would be an unknown by the name of Ang Lee who would veer 
Hollywood films in that direction.