Police Story (1985) [Film Review]

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

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