Jackie Chan: Inside the Dragon

Didn't get too far into this book. It quickly got very stale. I was hoping for more insight into Jackie's life, but it was basically just a summary of each movie he starred in. I got the impression that the author had no personal insight into his life at all other than having watched the movies.

To date this is the absolute best book devoted to the movies of Jackie Chan. The only negative is that the book is already out of date, a second revised edition is over due. "Inside The Dragon" was published just before "Mr. Nice Guy" was released. There is a mention of a few possible future projects which included "Rush Hour", which at this point was intended to team Chan with Martin Lawrence. A chapter devoted to Jackie Chan finally breaking through, in a big way with "Rush Hour", in America would have to be added. There are a few books devoted to Jackie Chan, however none of them are as satifying as this one. "Inside The Dragon" covers the vast majority of his films and is complimented by tons of stills from his movies as well as various movie posters. The author offers insight into most of Jackie Chan's major films. There are also sidebars devoted to a few of Jackie Chan's frequent costars such as Ken Lo and Dick Wei. Each chapter is devoted to different aspects of Jackie Chan's career, from his early Lo Wei "chop socky" films to his later collaborations with director Stanley Tong. Two great in depth chapters are devoted to Jackie Chan's ten best fight scenes and his seven "best" movies. I beleive that this book is essential to any fan of Jackie Chan. After four years I still refer to this book repeatedly.

Inside the Dragon serves as a great introduction to the world of Jackie Chan. He is an insipring actor and director and Gentry covers many of his important films, though the information is very outdated. This book was written when Chinese films were prevalent on laserdisc and VCD, but not on DVD. Gentry does make some claims that I feel to be unbeleivable at times. He states that Chan did not perform many of his movie stunts. Now, any real Chan fan knows by simple oberservation that Chan uses a stunt double quite often (if you don't believe me see Thunderbolt, Dragons Forever, the Protector, etc.) but that's besides the point. What I didn't find was sufficient evidence supporting some of Gentry's claims, though you can judge for yourself. I recommend the book because of its moderate price tag, otherwise read Chan's auto biography I am Jacie Chan: My Life in Action.

Das Buch zu Jackie Chan's Leben!Ich hab es - als Fan - gefressen!Es ist super geschrieben und ich freue mich nun endlich etwas mehr über Ihn erfahren zu haben!

A bit too list-like in style.