How Jackie Chan’s action comedy Rumble in the Bronx opened ‘the golden door to the West’ for the Hong Kong star, launching his Hollywood career

Jackie Chan tried to crack America in the 1980s with The Cannonball Run and The Big Brawl, but it was his 1995 film that launched him on the international stage

It featured Anita Mui, but through graceful fight scenes and stunts, Chan emerged the star of the show, and proved that he did what he did ‘better than anybody’

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Jackie Chan in a still from “Rumble in the Bronx”, the 1995 action comedy that launched the Hong Kong martial artist’s Hollywood career. Photo: New Line Cinema

Matt Glasby

Published: 4:15am, 5 Jan 2024Updated: 1:09pm, 28 Oct 2024

“Don’t let the situation change you,” says Jackie Chan’s Hong Kong cop midway through Rumble in the Bronx, the riotous action comedy from 1995. “You have to change it.”

When it came to cracking America, it was advice Chan would learn to heed himself. His first effort, 1980’s The Big Brawl, lacked directorial dynamism.

“No one will pay money to see Jackie Chan walk!” Chan complained – correctly – in his autobiography.

The fight scenes in 1985’s The Protector so appalled him that he re-edited the film for its Hong Kong release. And The Cannonball Run series (1981-1984) cast him as a Japanese character, confusing the other stars.

Rumble In The Bronx (1995) Official Trailer - Jackie Chan, Anita Mui Action Movie HD

“Sammy Davis Jr spoke Japanese to me every time we met,” Chan wrote later. “I didn’t bother correcting him.”