Jackie Chan has a bit of a history of working with Chinese government-financed film companies, and as we know, the Chinese government has some strict rules about what it will allow in its movies (Chan also has a history of endorsing some shady products, but that’s another story). Point is, he has in the past seemed perhaps a little too willing to work with repressive government organizations. In a recent interview, he goes so far as to condone repression.

Noting that Hong Kong suffered long periods of oppression under the British colonial administration, Chan said the eventual longing for freedom “does not mean people can do whatever they want.”
“Hong Kong has become a city of protest marches — that’s what the world has been saying,” he said in an interview with the Guangzhou-based magazine Southern People Weekly. “In the past it was Korea, now it’s Hong Kong. [Demonstrators were] scolding China, scolding [the country's] leaders, scolding everything. We should have rules dictating what [issues people] can march for, and which they can’t.”
During the conversation, Chan also repeated the controversial remarks he made at a business leaders’ forum at Boao in April 2009, when he said he’s “not sure” if personal freedom is a good thing and that the Chinese people “need to be controlled”.
“Traffic regulations need to be followed — and can we not regulate against counterfeits? I have learnt to follow laws. Whoever does that [management], even if it’s the government, I will support it,” Chan added.

Hmm, that last bit leads me to wonder if perhaps he’s gotten ineffective law enforcement confused with freedom of speech and assembly. He talks about regulating counterfeits, and you’re like okay, sure, but then he wants only certain kinds of protests allowed, and you think, “Whoa, easy there, Hitler.” But like all Hitlers, he does have a few good ideas. OH GOD HOW DO I ERASE THIS? Anyway, he also said Rush Hour was the film he dislikes most.

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The market that once existed for indie movies that broke people like Kevin Smith and Quentin Tarantino mostly died with the economy, and these days, the big studios only care about the “potential franchise” movies, which is understandable, but shortsighted (a point I’ve made more here than once) in terms of maintaining film’s long-term cultural relevancy. Sean Penn makes a similar argument in a recent interview with Esquire, which isn’t new, except that he also points a finger at his fellow actors, who he says contribute to the system by making “monkey-f*ck-rat” movies. I dunno, that doesn’t sound so bad. I like that chimp-mouthf*cks-toad movie.

In a new interview with Esquire, Penn, who appeared in this fall’s indie drama This Must Be the Place, rips into today’s film industry — including his fellow actors.

“I just did this picture that I enjoyed doing. Gangster Squad. But I do think that in general the standard of aspiration is low,” he told the magazine. “Very low. And mostly they’re just doing a bunch of monkey-f*ck-rat movies, most actors and actresses. And I blame them just as much as I do the business. I know everybody wants to make some money, everybody’s got a modeling contract, everybody’s selling jewelry and perfume. I’m blinded by it. Bob Dylan said in an interview one time — somebody asked him, Are you really this reclusive? He says, No, I’m not reclusive, man. I’m exclusive. Exclusivity is like intimacy.”

I’m with him on the actors-need-to-try-harder-too thing, but he lost me quoting Bob Dylan. You can’t tell if Bob Dylan is singing “Blowin in the Wind” or “The Hurricane” these days, maybe it’s time we stopped treating him like an oracle. “I’m tellin ya, brother, integrity is just a cat screamin’ in a dishrag.”

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