Crime Story (1993) [Film Review]

Crime Story: or, The Strike of Serious Jackie Chan

     A policeman who fires a gun has to face the following dangers: One, hurting an innocent citizen. Two, being shot when exchanging fire. Finally, killing the thug, but unable to stand the shock. You belong to the last type then, Inspector Chan. You can’t stand the shock of shooting and killing.

There was a period in Jackie Chan’s career when he was working under different directors in order to prove that he was a “manageable” actor/stuntman. As a result, in the early 1990s, he played in such movies as Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam’s Twin Dragons (1992), Wong Jing’s City Hunter (1993), and Kirk Wong’s Crime Story (1993). I have a soft spot for the last picture out of Jackie Chan’s unusual string of collaborations, mostly because it provides a completely different take on the cop movie genre than Jackie’s Police Story series.

Release Info

Directed by: Kirk Wong Starring: Jackie Chan, Kent Cheng, Puishan Au-yeung, Law Kar-ying

Language: Cantonese Original Title: 重案組 Runtime: 107 min

 

Synopsis

Inspector Eddie Chan of the Serious Crime Bureau is an efficient police officer who suffers from mild PTSD. He is assigned to protect Wong Yat-fei (Law Kar-ying), a wealthy businessman who had been kidnapped in the past. Yat-fei feels that somebody is following him and that is why he requests the assistance of the police. Unfortunately, things go terribly wrong and Yat-fei is kidnapped yet again. The assaulters demand from Yat-fei’s wife (Puishan Au-yeung) the transfer of 60 million dollars to Taiwanese bank accounts. Together with the police officer who cracked Yat-fei’s first kidnapping case, Detective Hung (Kent Cheng), Chan searches for the kidnappers. However, he does not realise that one of them is a member of the police force.

 

Police Dragon

As someone rightfully wrote in the Internet abyss: “There are Jackie Chan films and films starring Jackie Chan”. Crime Story falls under the second category and, unlike a standard action flick made by Jackie, it takes the dead serious approach in order to faithfully depict the workings of the police force. The screenwriters even credited the kidnapping case of Teddy Wang as their inspiration behind the story.

 

“What is so unique about this film, apart from the dark tone?” you may ask. Well, Jackie is not a happy-go-lucky hero who engages into fights inspired by Buster Keaton. Contrary to his portrayal of a cop in the Police Story series, Jackie plays quite a vulnerable officer who does not fool around and wants to get the job done. Have you seen the cops being brutally killed in Police Story 1-4? No? Well, Crime Story shows full morbidity. Serving justice to those who died in the line of duty and saving a victim are Chan’s primary goals.

 

In addition, Inspector Chan does not get involved in any romantic relationship. The movie baits the viewers with that motif by introducing the Psychiatrist character (played by the beautiful Pan Lingling) at the beginning of the film, but the relationship goes absolutely nowhere. If that was not enough, there is also the character of a prostitute, Ka Ka (great Christine Ng), who is in a relationship with Detective Hung. You could assume that she would help out Chan on the case, but she does the exact opposite.

 

In terms of action and cinematography, Crime Story also differs greatly from Jackie’s usual works. Of course, Jackie does what he does best with regard to kung fu showdowns, but the camera work in Crime Story is extremely dynamic and builds additional tension. Kirk Wong really did an awesome job on that. That being said, the cinematography handled by Arny Lam and Arthur Wong is just beautiful. Many Hong Kong locations look wonderful on the screen. The million dollar shot is that of Wong Yat-fei overseeing a massive building site.

 

With regard to performances, Jackie Chan does exceptionally well as a serious cop. It’s a real shame that he disliked the film because it was adult oriented (ex. Christine Ng’s steamy elevator scene), but Kirk Wong really brought out the acting out of Jackie. Second best actor is Kent Chang as Detective Hung. I have seen him mostly in comedies, but he really stole the show with his performance of a sleazy and underpaid cop. Honourable mention goes to Puishan Au-yeung as distressed Wong Yat-fei’s wife.

 

Recommendations

Check out Crime Story if you can, this movie was really ahead of its time. In fact, it was New Police Story before New Police Story was hailed as Jackie’s first grim motion picture. It is a really engaging crime drama with decent action and explosive finale. I wish we could have gotten more of such Jackie’s films in the 1990s.

Overall score 9/10