I am a big Jack Chan fan. Yeah, I know he isnt the greatest actor but he is super entertaining. Recently we talked about Jackie’s desire to expand into new (non action) roles, and this might be good, but we will have to see. This however, struck me as odd.
IESB has dug up a story in the Xin Kuai Bao newspaper which says that Jackie’s latest project, Rob-B-Hood, was toned down in order to get Chinese censors off their backs. Not for sexual content, or because there was too much violence, but because they thought Chan’s villainous character was too evil.
Apparently, the Chinese government just doesn’t like Jackie playing a baddie. He told the paper that the first drafts of the script portrayed him as a full fledged villain, but that the character he was to play was watered down in order to get the government’s essential seal of approval.
Now this is what I see as odd. Now I know the Chinese governmenthas their fingers in the Censor game and things work a little differently over there. This is already in consideration. But I found it very interesting and strange that they have tried to make Jackie less evil.
I think it would be interesting to see Jackie as evil, and to my memory I don’t recall him playing the badguy. But for the Chinese government to make the badguy less evil seems a bit extreme. It appears that it is specifically Chan that is the problem.
I have two things that bring up big concerns here.
The first thing is that I think this will hurt Jackie. To take on a badguy role in an action film is a baby step for Jackie to move towards taking roles outside of action. This movie will come out and he will not be believable as a villian and people will attack his “acting ability” or his efforts to grow outside of action.
Secondly, this censorship is taking too much of an artistic liberty. Clearly the Chinese Censors feel that Jackie Chan as the good guy is an image that cannot be tainted. I dont think this should be their JOB. Sure, they have a job to keep certain elements out of film, but they don’t get to pick and choose who gets to play what part. Other badguys get to be super evil, and Jackie gets to beat them up. His squeaky clean role seems to be what these censors are protecting.
They dont want him to be TOO bad.
This movie will not be good simply because the badguy will not be believable. I do applaud Chan for taking this chance, but with the Censors getting involved, this is not going to help his goals.
