Hey, when did Jackie Chan and Shah Rukh Khan turn into real actors? (MNIK, Karate Kid)

Cafe Society
1

Huh.

I’ve always felt that Hong Kong kung-fu star Jackie Chan and Bollywood masala-movie hero Shah Rukh (or Shahrukh) Khan are two of the most enjoyable comic talents in global cinema. Not only are they both extremely good at the basic schtick of their respective genres (martial arts in Chan’s case and action/dance/melodrama melange in Khan’s), but they’re both just funny. They’re immensely watchable and likeable in comic scenes, and it’s always been one of my dreams that someday somebody will make an action comedy starring both of them. Geez, I would go to see that like ten times and then buy the DVD.

However, until recently I would never have said that either of them had any significant dramatic range or depth as a serious actor. Then I saw Khan in My Name Is Khan earlier this spring and Chan in the new Karate Kid just this week. And I’m like, whoa.

Khan’s movie (about an Indo-Muslim immigrant family in the US devastated by the 9/11 aftermath) in itself is not that far above the usual standard of cheesy Bollywood melodrama, but I was really impressed by his performance as an autistic man who has serious difficulties interacting with others. Deprived of his usual over-emotional mannerisms, Khan IMO did an amazing job of making us empathize with a character whose whole point is that he’s very bad at normal empathy. The scene where the physical-contact-averse Khan is stoically enduring a hug from his mother (and timing it!) because he knows she needs it for comfort was a little gem of charm.

And Chan in Karate Kid, which as a movie is IMO better than MNIK but still a fairly formulaic genre film, was even more of a surprise. The emotional scene where he and the young boy he’s training talk about his family was really affecting, and I think he played it magnificently. I would never have thought that Jackie Chan could actually make me cry.

What’s up with these guys? Is it the directors they’re working with, or the move into middle age (Khan’s 44 and Chan’s 56), or just the accumulation of acting experience? Or could they always have turned in performances like this if they’d had the cinematic vehicles to present them?

2

I thought SRK has been a very good actor for a long time. In Bollywood, he started out playing the or the ‘other man’ - you know, the one that pushes the girlfriend off the cliff so he can marry her rich sister.

I refuse to believe Chan can be serious at all though. :slight_smile:

3

Shinjuku Incident is very serious, as is Crime Story, New Police Story, and even Drunken Master 2 has its moments.

4

And there I was thinking he’d just steal your wife/girlfriend from under your nose… :wink:

5

Heh-heh, as I recall Baazigar it was actually a tall building he pushed her off of, but it comes to the same thing. Anyway, I’ve always adored SRK’s performances but I just never saw any terribly subtle acting in them. I think that’s changed.

6

Chan has done some dramatic stuff before but this is really the first time he’s been given the chance to do it in English. I thought he handled it pretty well.

7

I think Chan’s big weakness is doing drama in English. If you want to see how he handles drama, you can look as early as Snake in Eagle’s Shadow or as recently as New Police Story. In English, he has a much harder time emoting.