JR Estares
3 HN mentions · mentioned in 3 months, 2014–2023
4:41 · 4.4M views · Sep 19, 2010
The famous ladder fight scene from Jackie Chan's First Strike (Police Story 4), an action sequence that won the Hong Kong Film Award for best action choreography.
Mentioned mostly as a joke or as an example of real stunt work with no wires or tricks.
3 comments from Hacker News
But most fight scenes were fake, even before CGI. In fact, almost nobody ever gets hurt on set... and when people do get hurt, its in stunts (not the fight scenes). The number of "realistic fight scenes" are incredibly slim. Chinese martial arts are mostly Wuxia: a branch of martial arts that was developed for stage performance (flips, spins, etc. etc.) that has very little practical relevance. "Kung Fu" films (ie: Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan) reduce the number of filps... but even then, Jackie Chan's use of hilarious stage props is anything but realistic. I mean: just imagine "Die Hard", no one can sustain that many injuries realistically and keep going. Its fake action, yes with practical effects / non-CGI (blood packs and stunts), but its still fantasy. And "Princess Bride" duel is fully ridiculous: with more flips and gymnastics than actual fighting (arguably the point: it was a comedy film making fun of tropes). Anyone who has actually been in a fighting-sport (themselves mostly "fake", as duels took place centuries ago), will instantly recognize the bad form most of these older fight scenes had. Enemies charge the protagonist one at a time (yes: even in "practical" Kung Fu movies with few special effects) ---------- "Fake" is fine. But there's a lack of progression or understanding going on in a lot of the CGI-fight scenes. They're willing to spend tons of money on big explosions or special effects, but they don't always hit home with me. The famous "Jackie Chan Ladder Fight
> A reality check, a "what you've seen today was staged", a "don't think this was real, and then make poor life choices". I liked the integrity of that. I think it shows something different from that: "the stunt you saw was real". As in: there were no wires, camera tricks, editing, or visual or special effects. Just someone extremely disciplined and good at what they do, trying many times to get it perfect. I don't think the only thing preventing people who watch his movies thinking they could fight a gang of people using a 10'step ladder [1] is the blooper real.. [1] this video
The point was to emphasize how ladders are clearly superior to knives, or even sticks. As has been demonstrated in literature[1]. [1] this video