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Jackie Chan - How to Do Action Comedy

Every Frame a Painting Explainers
Open on YouTube First HN thread

9 HN users recommended this explainer in 8 different months between 2015 and 2022.

2007–2026
3 strong recommendations 6 recommendations 2 citations HackerTube score 9.5

HN repeatedly recommends it as the clearest explanation of why Chan's fight scenes beat fast-cut Hollywood action.

Every Frame a Painting analyzes how Jackie Chan stages action comedy, with nine principles such as starting from a disadvantage, using the environment, clear shots, and keeping action and reaction in the same frame.

Pull quote: “does an excellent job of explaining why Jackie Chan's way of doing action is awesome” (HN, 2022)

Also tagged: action comedy filmmaking, jackie chan, film analysis, video essay, editing, fight choreography

What Hacker News said

11 labeled comments from the HN archive; up to 20 are kept per video, favoring different commenters. Each one links back to the original thread.

Strongly recommends seanalltogether October 2017 under Jackie Chan’s Plan to Keep Kicking Forever
Will change how you see modern action fight scenes.
One of my favorite "Every Frame a Painting" videos is on Jackie Chan. If you haven't seen it be warned, it will ruin your view of almost all modern action fight scenes. [this video]
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Strongly recommends doitLP January 2019 under The Painful Price of Becoming Jackie Chan
Breaks down how Jackie Chan sets up stunt-action-comedy sequences.
Here’s a really cool video breaking down exactly how Jackie sets up his stunt-action-comedy. [this video] One thing that was particular interesting to me is how the setup always starts with him at an extreme disadvantage: no shoes, tied to a chair, hanging upside down, etc. I never noticed it before and it’s exactly what makes his action so enjoyable to watch. (The YouTube Channel is called Every Frame a Painting and all the other videos are fascinating and very worth checking out.)
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Strongly recommends Fricken January 2022 under Colors in movies and TV: What happened to them?
Explains why Chan's action beats contemporary Hollywood.
This episode of "Every Frame a Painting" does an excellent job of explaining why Jackie Chan's way of doing action is awesome and why contemporary Hollywood (generally) sucks: [this video]
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Recommends mopsi October 2019 under The Demise of Physical Comedy
Explains Jackie Chan's style versus Hollywood action.
Indeed! There is a great video essay about Jackie Chan's style (and how it differs from standard Hollywood action movies) on "Every Frame a Painting" Youtube channel: [this video]
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Recommends andrewzah October 2020 under Be prolific
Contrasts Jackie Chan's films with American-produced ones.
You can see this difference in the the films produced by him and his studio versus the american-produced ones. Every Frame a Painting has a good video on this. [0] Typically for films the shooting portion takes only a few weeks to finish, so lots of retakes = money lost. Jackie Chan does a lot of random flourishes in his films that end up with him needing a lot of takes. For example, how he scales fences. [1] The way he scales the castle wall in Wheels on Meals (1984) is probably my favorite example. [0]: [this video] [1]: [link]
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Recommends dmitriid November 2020 under David Fincher’s Impossible Eye
Shows how Jackie Chan films action scenes, especially punches.
Shaky cams are abused in "western" cinema to hide the fact that the studios never have the time to give their actor skills to act out an action scene. In contrast, "asian" cinema either stars actors who can do a large chunks of their own action scenes, or spend time training them. On top of that, "western" cinema doesn't even know about how our eyes and brains perceive the world. Every Frame a Painting has a very good video essay on how Jackie Chan films action scenes: [this video] Note how punches are filmed.
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Recommends jonpurdy January 2022 under Colors in movies and TV: What happened to them?
Explains Chan's steady wide-angle action versus shaky fast cuts.
There’s a great quote from Jackie Chan about fight scenes: “I never move my camera. Always steady. Wide angle.” Most action scenes in movies have moving cameras with fast cuts and zoomed in faces. Makes it impossible to actually track what’s happening. I didn’t realize this until I saw this※ YT video specifically about his action comedy style. ※ - [this video]
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Recommends mkl August 2022 under Hollywood’s visual effects crisis
Contrasts Chan's clear fight scenes with fast-cut Hollywood.
> Worse, I've seen fight scenes with no/little jiggle, but then every move, punch, dodge, car stunt is replaced with a fast cut, so you don't actually see... well, anything. Jackie Chan's non-American work is the antithesis of this. Here's a great Every Frame a Painting on it: [this video]
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