Jackie Chan, the Chinese action superstar, has a new feeling for parental love after shooting his latest action comedy Rob-B-Hood, which will hit Chinese screens on September 29.
"While shooting this film, I thought of my mother. I finally realized how difficult it was for her to hold me and hug me and raise me," Chan said at the premiere of the movie held in Beijing on Wednesday.
Rob-B-Hood, starring Jackie Chan and another popular Hong Kong actor Louis Koo, tells the story of three bandits who have to look after a baby they stole from a rich family and protect it against a sinister gang for ten days.
With no experience of taking care of babies, Chen was not at ease shooting the film.
"This is the first and the last time I will cooperate with a baby," he said. "After shooting the film, I was determined to write a song dedicated to parents all over the world that would make children aware of all the things parents do to bring them up."
That's how the final song of the film was born.
Chan devoted more time to the baby in the film than to his own son, he said. "When my son was born in America, I was only there to hold him for a short time and then had to fly out."
"But I had to hold this baby every time he came to the studio for three long months. I was afraid he might be hot or cold, I didn't know what he was going to do next and when he would piss or shit... Parents are really great," Chan said.
However, he doesn't feel ashamed of not spending more time with his own son, and he's sure that his son will feel proud of him one day. "If I had been there to hold him everyday, I wouldn't have had my career."
But Chan said everybody should give more love to their parents.
"These days many young men strive for fame and gain but somehow they forget the parents who are waiting to have dinner or watch a movie with them," Chan said.
"Someday you might be free to take care of them, but they might already have left forever," said Chan.
Rob-B-Hood, in which Huayi Brothers Film Investment Co, Ltd. and JCE Movies Ltd invested 130 million Hong Kong dollars (US$16.25 million), is the third cooperation between Jackie Chan and director Benny Chan, following Who Am I? and New Police Story.
(Xinhua News Agency September 22, 2006)