HONG KONG (AP) - Jackie Chan's son doesn't want to be an action star like his father. While the Hollywood comedy ''Rush Hour 3'' was another hit for Chan at the box office this summer, his 24-year-old son, Jaycee Chan, was mixing with the arty crowd at the Venice Film Festival.

With a major role in ''The Sun Also Rises,'' a Chinese-language movie that competed for the top Golden Lion prize in Venice, Chan was considered for acting honors alongside the likes of Adrien Brody and Michael Caine.

Neither Chan nor the film won any prizes, but his appearance highlighted his desire to chart a course distinct from his father's.

''I'm starting to carve my own path,'' he told The Associated Press. ''I've made an art-house movie. ... My range is greater. I'm not just making action movies. I'm trying many different things.''

The elder Chan, through a spokesman, turned down an interview request.

So far, Jaycee Chan has played the son of a crazed mother in rural China in ''The Sun Also Rises,'' a teenager dealing with his girlfriend's unexpected pregnancy in ''2 Young,'' and a rebellious young man on the run from gangsters in the upcoming movie ''The Drummer.''

He's been in one film that resembles the work of his father: ''Invisible Target,'' a frantic flurry of fight scenes and daredevil stunts in which he played a rookie police officer.

Jaycee Chan was born in Los Angeles and raised in Hong Kong. He attended high school in the U.S. and studied for two years at the College of William & Mary in Virginia.

His first love was music, he said, but his advisers told him to juggle both singing and acting careers to boost his profile, a standard approach in the Chinese-language entertainment industry.

Since releasing a self-titled folk album in 2004, he has focused on acting.

In a recent blog entry on his Web site, Jackie Chan described his joy when Jaycee surprised him with a birthday cake on his private jet.

The 53-year-old actor said he doesn't see Jaycee very often, and the two didn't talk much on the plane after the birthday surprise.

''I know we care about each other,'' he wrote. ''It just isn't always necessary to be expressed with words. So Jaycee and I just sat side by side reading newspapers and it was very comfortable.''

By MIN LEE AP Entertainment Writer

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