JANUARY 22 — My Shakespeare’s a little rusty, but if I recall correctly in Hamlet the prince staged a play to “catch the conscience of the King.” 

The protagonist used art to draw out something very specific from life.

I’d like to suggest that Jackie Chan has been trying something similar for the past nine years or so.

I (and everyone else) first noticed it in The Foreigner (2017, director Martin Campbell). 

Chan’s character had just witnessed his daughter being killed in an IRA terror attack. His sorrow and pathos (not to mention wrath channelled against Pierce Brosnan’s character) was something Chan fans have never really seen before. 

One could even say that the main pulse of the movie was precisely the anguish of a parent experiencing unimaginable loss, and everything else was just a prop to that.

Then came Bleeding Steel (2017, director Leo Zhang) where there are very poignant scenes of Chan’s Special Forces character secretly watching over and protecting his daughter to keep her safe from a biomechanical bad guy. 

Crucially, Chan’s character cannot reveal his true identity to her because that would expose her to danger. The few scenes where he weeps “from afar” over his daughter made me sit up: Could there be something beyond cinema here?

Around this time news emerged of the broken relationship between Chan’s real-life daughter, Etta Ng, and himself. 

Born out of wedlock from Chan’s affair with former beauty queen Elaine Ng, Etta has never considered Chan her father at all; she has for many years refused to have anything to do with him and even accused him of homophobia.

I couldn’t help but do the Math. Recalling those high-emo scenes in Bleeding Steel (where Chan demonstrably loves his child but can’t really go “near” her), I began developing a hunch that perhaps the real Jackie Chan was trying to do a modern Hamlet gig by reaching out to his daughter by way of his favourite art-form.

Still, I didn’t think much of it. I mean, it was only two movies which could hardly be said to mean much. 

Then in 2023 the same pattern happened so many times I’m happy to bet two movie tickets it’s not a coincidence.

The Chinese New Year hit Ride On (2023, directed by Larry Yang) saw Chan as an ageing stuntman trying to save his beloved stunt-horse from being taken away. 

In the process he also connects with a long-lost daughter and, through many tears (and replaying of old stunts which, I suspect, is a way of showing how much he’s suffered for his craft so a bit of slack cut for parental neglect would be welcomed?) seeks forgiveness for being an absentee dad.

That same year Chan made a movie with John Cena called Hidden Strike (2023, directed by Scott Waugh) and yet again (!) there are scenes where his daughter berates him for abandoning her and, yet again (!), Chan’s character tries to explain that his professional responsibilities were critical and yes he failed as a parent but he wants to make amends.

By this time, I didn’t need any more convincing. I believe the world was being treated to a case of an ageing superstar using his cinematic influence to reach out to an estranged loved one.

The Shadow’s Edge (2025, directed by Larry Yang) also has a young police woman rebuking a father-figure for neglect and this proxy-dad (played by Chan, of course) trying to explain how he tried his best to protect and be there for her.

Finally, we get to last month, where Unexpected Family (2025, directed by Tai) gives us Chan as an old-timer suffering from stage 2 Alzheimer’s and who longs for his son who’s abandoned him. 

I’m 200 per cent sure he made the movie with his real-life son, Jaycee Chan, in mind. 

It simply cannot be a coincidence that news of the father-and-son strain came out barely two weeks before this movie about a father longing for his son’s return and forgiveness.

That’s six movies in less than a decade where we have Jackie Chan playing parental figures with major regrets over the past treatment of their children or wards, in order to get the message through to his real children that he still cares for them despite his past mistakes. 

It’s practically a movie script.

From recent news about the possibility that Etta may be reconciling with her dad, I’d say Jackie’s work has hopefully paid off. This six-act drama could have a happy ending. 

If so, I’m sure Chan will tell you that his children’s love is worth more than any form of professional success he could dream of.

Then again, he’s probably been saying that since 2017, hasn’t he?

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.