Police Story (1985)
Movie rating: 8/10
If you subscribe to the auteur theory of cinema, Jackie Chan is a true auteur. Actor, director, screenwriter, singer, and legendary stuntman, his films are known for their signature style combining death-defying stunts and wild fight scenes with slapstick comedy. Familiar though I am with some of Chan’s Hollywood output—mostly the Rush Hour series, Shanghai Knights, Enter the Dragon if you count a brief stunt getting his neck broken by Bruce Lee, and I’m pretty sure I saw The Tuxedo at some point—I’m less so with the Hong Kong action movies upon which Chan cut his teeth and built his global following.
Happily, Police Story is currently streaming on the Criterion Channel and I was able to look at the picture Chan still considers his best action film. Suffice it to say this movie has some of the greatest action, fight scenes, and stuntwork I’ve ever seen. A car chase that opens the film is wildly inventive and over-the-top. It starts with cars literally driving through the town (meaning driving through every house) and ends with Chan hanging from a bus by an umbrella. What makes this more impressive than modern equivalents like the Fast and Furious movies—Fast Five clearly drew from this scene for its Rio de Janeiro car chase—is the knowledge that all this incredible action and stuntwork was done for real, since CGI fakery was not an option.
Though there are other action scenes during the middle stretch of the movie, this section focuses more on comedy. We get lots of comic set pieces, my favourite being Chan juggling multiple phone calls at a small-town police office, and some surprising elements like a lengthy courtroom scene. The final act revs up the action once more, crescendoing with a fantastic shopping mall sequence in which stuntmen and women are hurled through glass, thrown down staircases, and Chan slides multiple stories down a pole as lights explode around him.
The plot itself is standard and mostly an excuse for the action, stunts, and comedy. It begins with Officer Chan Ka-Kui (yes, the protagonist’s name is Chan, reminding me of Jack Nicholson’s fondness for playing characters named Jack) tracking down a drug lord and protecting a witness. Later it becomes about him being framed for murder and needing to clear his name. But the plot isn’t the point. This is a showcase for Jackie Chan to show off his talents for action, comedy, and fight choreography, easily carrying the film with his charisma, physicality, and comic timing. Chan is a legitimately good actor and pulls off more dramatic moments just as well. The supporting cast are all able, but to me Brigitte Lin was the standout.
The end credits, as is customary for Chan’s movies, presents behind-the-scenes bloopers and footage of Chan directing his fellow cast members. For so many stunts the viewer asks, “How could they possibly pull this off without the actors being hurt?” As I suspected and the credits show, in some cases actors were hurt. We know Chan himself has taken plenty of physical damage over the years.
As if this weren’t enough, Chan himself sings the theme song that plays over the end credits. On a related note, this movie is very ’80s, which for me just added to its cheesy charm. Music might be the most obvious example, with lots of synthesizers, reverb-drenched drums, and a loud “BWAAAM” that amusingly plays when characters say or do something dramatic. Fashions, hairdos, and technology also date the film. But as a fan of ’80s action movies and pop culture, that was just fine with me.
Police Story would became a long-running franchise with three sequels, two spinoffs, and a couple reboots. It cemented Chan’s status as an icon of Hong Kong action cinema, ensuring Hollywood would come knocking at his door again. Here is the action-comedy auteur at the height of his powers.