Police Story; or, The Ultimate Jackie Chan
You want glory? I will give you glory.
In all probability, Jackie Chan busted into a lot of households
with the release of Police Story on VHS back in the day. I was already vividly
familiar as a kid with Jackie’s skills in Rumble in the Bronx (1995) and Mr. Nice Guy (1997),
but nothing could have prepared me for that epic Golden Harvest logo, catchy
theme song, and lots of action set pieces. This is my review of the original
Police Story from 1985.
Release Info
Release Info
Directed by: Jackie Chan Starring: Jackie Chan, Brigitte Lin, Maggie Cheung, Chor Yuen
Language: Cantonese Original Title: 警察故事 Runtime: 101 min
Synopsis
Police Inspector Chan Ka-kui (Jackie Chan) participates in
an undercover operation led by the Royal Hong Kong Police and the aim of which
is to arrest the drug lord Chu Tao (Chor Yuen). All of a sudden, the shootout
begins and Ka-kui finds himself in pursuit of fleeing Chu Tao. Inspector
manages to capture and arrest the criminal, but this is not enough. Ka-kui’s
superiors plan to use Chu Tao’s secretary, Selina (Brigitte Lin) as a key
witness in the upcoming trial. Eventually, Chu Tao is released on bail, yet he
intends to have his revenge on Ka-Kui. As a result, the inspector is framed for
murder. In order to clear his name, Ka-Kui cooperates with Selina and his
girlfriend May (Maggie Cheung) in order to retrieve incriminating data on Chu
Tao.
The Protector on the Edge
Jackie Chan went to make Police Story due to his
disappointment with James Glickenhaus’ The Protector (1985). He wanted to prove that
he can make the best cop movie possible without the studio/director interference
and what we get are 101 minutes of pure Jackie’s action/comedic style.
Evidently, the film’s greatest advantage is the action.
Jackie swings from the side of a double-decker bus almost as if he was Harold
Lloyd, later he moves on to relentless fights with the bad guys (most notably
in the parking lot and in Chu Tao’s mansion), and, at the very end, the viewers
are left out of breath in the movie’s thrilling shopping mall finale
(sarcastically nicknamed by the crew as “Glass Story”).
Whereas Police Story undoubtedly delivers in the field of action,
its comedic aspects constitute a totally different story. What worked in terms
of gags on the set of, for example, Wheels on Meals (1984) is not particularly
effective here. Don’t get me wrong, Jackie’s subtle comedy like answering
multiple phones or quarrelling with Maggie Cheung is perfectly acceptable, but Jackie’s
over the top shenanigans in court or staged fight with Mars greatly contradict
the film’s supposed tone of grittiness.
Speaking about performances, Jackie is at the top of his
game here, but his overall acting will significantly improve in the subsequent
Police Story movies. Brigitte Lin shines not just with her beauty (apartment
escape scene), but also in terms of a visual charm and physical prowess, even
as damsel in distress. Maggie Cheung was severely underused in the first and
third entries of the series, yet it’s always great to see her in earlier roles.
Chor Yuen and Charlie Cho do great jobs playing memorable bad guys; however,
they are reduced to comical figures in Police Story 2 (1988).
In addition, the music score composed by Michael Lai and
Tang Siu Lam has that very 80’s synthesizer feel. Apart from the main theme’s
instrumental version and its rearrangements, the film features a variety of
different music cues in key scenes, which was not quite common at that time, because the
productions' scores would be limited only to a theme or one
continuous music cue.
Recommendations
Highly recommended to anyone who wants to see classic Hong
Kong works of Jackie Chan. However, if you want to see Jackie in a dead serious
cop drama, then I suggest that you check out Kirk Wong’s Crime Story (1993)
instead. Apart from that, Police Story is a great film and a solid first entry
in the super awesome cop series. Get on that double-decker bus and let Jackie
show you how good old action set pieces were made back in the non-CGI days. Sweat and bleed in search of the Great way!
Overall score: 8/10
