Day 9 - Quest for Jackie Chan in Adelaide

I left Perth early in the morning to Adelaide, only to arrive and to quickly get myself over to my first interview with Dr Gerry Groot who, not only is a senior lecturer in Asian Studies, but was an extra in the original making of Drunken Master 2 (1993). Imagine that, being on set alongside Jackie Chan! Funny enough, how I found Dr Groot was through a google research of “Jackie Chan & Adelaide” and he popped up. I was definitely intrigued to find out the realities and hardships of the JC set Dr Groot retold how a 10 second clip that he was in took 12 hours to shoot in freezing weather!

Jackie Chan’s film set was intricate and precise. They spent enormous amount of time with aspects of lighting, cinematography and of course, numerous takes!
Dr Groot played one of 8 imperialist guards and felt honoured to have flaunt a real British guard uniform and rifle. This contrasted his other experiences in the Chinese film industry, where props were very flimsy and low grade.

Wrapping up, he signed the Jackie Chan postcard and away I went to meet up with Master Leong of the Wing Chun & Tai Chi Academy in central Adelaide.

Master Leong introduces himself one of the family descendants of Grand Master Ip Man and continued his introduction with a hierarchy map of the who’s who of Wing Chun. He spoke about his journey setting up a martial arts dojo and the hardships of it, fending off competing rivals, triads and even the taxation office. Nevertheless, what he built is his pride a joy flaunts numerous students of the Adelaide region. So what did he think of Jackie Chan? Well, I believe less favourably. Master Leong referred to “negative energies” that surround Jackie Chan and that it is evident amongst the word of mouth generated by his colleagues.

Tough account, but it is a perspective thing right? I haven’t met Jackie so it really doesn’t matter to me. Master Leong then sent me away, telling me to return the next afternoon for I guess, more stories.
I wrapped up the day by heading to Parafield Gardens to my host family Banh for an Italian dinner and a good yarn to tell.