Actually, this would not be Jackie Chan's first onscreen 'death'. I've seen his character(s) die in at least 3 films:
Hand of Death (aka, Countdown to Kung Fu) (1976).
New Fist of Fury (1976).
Plus another film where he was a young kid with a crew cut (title forgotten) where his character gets beaten to death.
I'd definitely be interested to see Shinjuku Incident.