“I never wanted to be the next Bruce Lee. I just wanted to be the first Jackie Chan.” (not from the book) – 3.25/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: dangerous stunts, amazing movies, being kind, terrible mistakes, and martial arts.

A candid, thrilling memoir from one of the most recognizable, influential, and beloved cinematic personalities in the world.

Everyone knows Jackie Chan. Whether it’s from Rush Hour, Shanghai Noon, The Karate Kid, or Kung Fu Panda, Jackie is admired by generations of moviegoers for his acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, and mind-bending stunts. In 2016—after fifty-six years in the industry, over 200 films, and many broken bones—he received an honorary Academy Award for his lifetime achievement in film. But at 64 years-old, Jackie is just getting started.

Now, in Never Grow Up, the global superstar reflects on his early life, including his childhood years at the China Drama Academy (in which he was enrolled at the age of six), his big breaks (and setbacks) in Hong Kong and Hollywood, his numerous brushes with death (both on and off film sets), and his life as a husband and father (which has been, admittedly and regrettably, imperfect).

Jackie has never shied away from his mistakes. Since The Young Master in 1980, Jackie’s films have ended with a bloopers reel in which he stumbles over his lines, misses his mark, or crashes to the ground in a stunt gone south. In Never Grow Up, Jackie applies the same spirit of openness to his life, proving time and time again why he’s beloved the world over: he’s honest, funny, kind, brave beyond reckoning and—after all this time—still young at heart.

This was probably one of the most surprising memoirs I have ever read.

I can’t say I’m a huge Jackie Chan fan since I haven’t seen a lot of his movies – and apparently there are a lot of them -, but I’m a fan of the person he is. I always admired his work ethic and humble background, especially knowing how far he has come.

As I was expecting, he started his martial arts training very young and he did it for about 10 years. He soon started working on films as a stuntman, and he quickly became more and more popular because he was very hard-working and was always pushing his limits! He also talks about how every part of his body was broken at some point – he even goes into detail about every single lesion, which was insane to read about!

Now let me tell what surprised me the most about his story: I always saw him as a humble person, but he admits he wasn’t always like that. He talked a lot about his mistakes and how he mistreated people a lot. I can’t lie, my view of him changed a little! That was very surprising to me, but he was very open about it, which also tells us how much he has changed.

I really liked reading about his story, his passion for creating high-quality movies and always pushing his limits. I still admire him.