Showing his fighting spirit

The film also started Chan's screen signature style of mixing kung fu with comedy.

Chan remembers the struggles as a stuntman in his early years, and is using the festival as a platform to give recognition for the many people behind hazardous shots in movies.

"I had two wishes for 20 years. One was to hold an event for stunt performers, as few international festivals have set awards for them. The other was to establish an alliance for stuntmen (and stuntwomen) to bring them more welfare, such as insurance and standardized pay," Chan says.

Aside from the annual film festival he launched five years ago, a China Stunt Artist Alliance was formed in 2017. But Chan says he is still working to establish an international alliance for stunt artists across the world, an appeal he highlighted at this year's festival.

In the late 1950s, when Hong Kong was still a British colony, Chan grew up in the small quarters of the French embassy, where his father worked as a chef and his mother was a domestic helper.

His father later relocated to Australia for a new job and Chan was sent to the China Drama Academy, a Peking Opera school run by Yu Jimyuen who used the traditional master-apprentice teaching system to train his students. Chan spent 10 years there. Among his peers were Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, who later became martial arts stars of Hong Kong cinema.

Following a centuries-old custom inherited by generations who lead opera troupes, masters used physical punishment to discipline students but they also established a connection with their apprentices almost like that between a parent and a child.

"On my third day in this school, I was severely beaten by my master. I cried and screamed," Chan recalls.

While having meals, also part of the tradition that troupe members usually eat together, Chan recalls he often couldn't reach the meat or vegetable dishes easily but instead had to just eat bowls of rice in front of him, as using chopsticks to get food from a distance was deemed disrespectable behavior in front of a master.

"It was somewhat like a prison for me during the 10 years … I had no dreams back then. My only wish was to not get beaten by my shifu (master)," Chan says.

But soon after, a young Chan demonstrated his gift for martial arts, earning many chances to play small roles in films such as Big and Little Wong Tin Bar and The Love Eterne.