Police Story (1985)

Few movies if any come closer to defining popular Hong Kong cinema of the 1980s or Jackie Chan as a filmmaker and star than POLICE STORY. With a single volley, this filmic broadside of eye-popping stunts, high-impact fight work, classic slapstick comedy, and passionate dramatics remapped the face of martial arts and action cinema and sent a thunderous flying kick to Hollywood filmmakers who thought they knew how to package Jackie Chan.

Although Chan was already the territory’s leading action star following his breakout, classic kung fu hit DRUNKEN MASTER and modern comic actioners PROJECT A and WHEELS ON MEALS, this movie sent the message home in a big way. It was his answer to THE PROTECTOR, an ill-fated co-production between Golden Harvest and Warner Bros. that attempted to fit Chan into the mold of an Asian cop in New York, Hollywood style. Unhappy with the results, Chan went back to Hong Kong and proceeded to shoot a cop movie his way. Although Chan had previously directed four movies and action directed several others, POLICE STORY was the first to really show what he was capable of in every regard.

POLICE STORY isn’t just an action and martial arts movie. As an avid fan of movies in general, Jackie Chan draws on a broad range of influences to pad a series of showstopper stunt sequences with content every bit as colorful. The result is a wild roller coaster ride that peaks and corkscrews through a dizzying whirl of emotional states and dynamite action. It’s pure, unfiltered Jackie Chan at his best.

The film opens with an action set piece that would be difficult for anyone to top, let alone in the same movie. A police sting to nab crime boss Chu Tu (Chor Yuen) gets messy when his suspicious underlings sniff out undercover cops closing in on a crooked deal taking place in a hillside shanty town. Recently transferred officer Chan Ka-kui (Jackie Chan) and his team quickly find themselves caught in a frenzied shootout with the criminals as frightening residents scurry for cover. Things only get crazier when Chu and his thugs make a run for it by plowing downhill, straight through the shanty town with Chan in pursuit.

The scene is unbelievable. The entire shanty town was built from scratch, only to be leveled by careening cars. As the camera pans back to take in the total carnage, stuntmen can easily be seen narrowly leaping out from in front of speeding cars as dust rises and structures collapse all around. There is no adequate comparison.

Chan tops the scene off with an iconic double-decker bus chase where he hangs off the side with nothing but an umbrella he snatches from a passerby. It ends with Chan staring down the bus with a revolver and nabbing the shaken bad guys.

Looking back, Chan doesn’t throw a single punch during the whole opener. What happened to Jackie, the comedy kung fu star? The answer is nothing, actually. He’s still here as he proves later in the film. What’s different from most of his previous films is that Chan snatches an opportunity to draw on his wider interests, including fast cars, hot women and most importantly, showing that Hong Kong filmmaking was equal and sometimes superior to Hollywood productions. As the outtakes at the end of the movie proves, there is no way POLICE STORY could have been made in the U.S., at least not since regulation began in the 1930s.

Rather than continue to bowl the audience over with non-stop action, Chan makes the wise decision to build up the story and characters in the second act. In doing so, he’s able to display the kind of situational humor that made films like WHEELS ON MEALS and MIRACLES such a treat. This is where Jade Screen queen Brigitte Lin enters as Selina Fong, Chu’s new secretary whom the police have pressured into being a witness at his trial. Chan is reluctantly assigned to protect her round the clock. This provides an opportunity for some enjoyable comic nonsense where longtime Jackie Chan stuntman Mars pretends to be a knife-wielding, masked assassin out to quiet Selina. Later, Selina’s scantily-dressed presence in Chan’s apartment causes some mixed up confusion with his jealous girlfriend, played by a young Maggie Cheung. Ironically, she went on to play this lightweight supporting role for both sequels, before becoming one of Hong Kong’s most substantial leading ladies.

A comedy highlight occurs later when Chan is left to tend the telephones at the police station. In yet another homage to classic Hollywood slapstick (following his silent film references in PROJECT A and its sequel), Chan gets himself tangled up in phone cords and conversations while trying to respond to incoming calls and eat his noodle lunch sans chopsticks. This scene has nothing to do with the plot and yet it just naturally fits.

Chan has this incredible skill for turning the ordinary into extraordinary whether displaying expert parallel parking form, dodging a runaway car during a conversation with his girlfriend or lightly hopping a fence and moonwalking animal poo off his shoe. It’s so easy to take it all for granted, but as fans know Chan may have re-shot some of these scenes countless times and endured all sorts of physical pain to get them perfect.

Chan could be criticized for keeping his leading ladies in their place, with the very notable exception of Michelle Yeoh in POLICE STORY 3: SUPERCOP. It’s certainly the case in POLICE STORY. Lin and Cheung both end up at the mercy of the bad guys and require rescuing or protection by Chan. Lin fares better as she gets to sexually tease Chan at one point and later takes a glass-shattering swing at one of the baddies with a baseball bat. Poor Cheung, playing the role of a petulant girl just gets pushed and pulled like a rag doll. For both actresses, it’s a far cry from the empowered female characters they played in latter films like THE HEROIC TRIO and THE EAST IS RED.

A bit of a curiosity is a courtroom scene midway through where Chu is tried and eventually set free after Chan loses the prosecution’s chief witness and botches her recorded testimony. It’s quite well staged. Again, it shows that Chan is capable of far more than creating crazy action scenes.

I should take a moment to point out Chor Yuen’s turn as the lead villain. I have to admit that the first time I saw this movie I had no idea who he was. But since Celestial Pictures began releasing remastered Shaw Brothers movies on DVD I have come to know his work. He is, of course, one of Hong Kong’s great directors best known for his superb wuxia pian output. Once one of SB’s leading filmmakers, Chor moved towards acting, particularly on TV. He’s not a bad actor by any means, but his directing gigs deserve the greatest attention. All I have to say is check out INTIMATE CONFESSIONS OF A CHINESE COURTESAN.

What highlights Jackie Chan’s abilities as an actor and filmmaker in POLICE STORY is the pivotal opening to the third act where he is framed for murder by Chu’s men. When attempting to turn himself in, he’s charged with murder by his callous Police Superintendent. TV actor Lam Gwok-hung delivers the film’s only genuinely bad acting performance in this role where he woodenly flip flops between being supportive and critical of Chan’s character. Jackie makes the most of it, however, when he chooses to go rogue and turns his gun on his boss. After all the excessive action and comedy, the film briefly turns dark and gritty as Chan desperately cries foul at the failure of his superiors to support him in the field. Previously, Chan had shown his ability to build up a frenzy onscreen, but for the first time it had meaning beyond beating some bad guy, such as in THE YOUNG MASTER. Don’t ask me how, but it just works. It may have something to do with the nature of Lam’s character. Although the actor is Chinese, the character represents British colonialism, since the British directly controlled the police prior to the 1997 Handover to China. In that context, Chan’s “rage against the machine” has added weight, and no doubt resonated with local audiences at the time just as Bruce Lee’s fight against Imperialism had in FIST OF FURY (aka THE CHINESE CONNECTION).

In his own words, Jackie Chan tried to make the martial arts action in POLICE STORY more streetwise and less “choreographed” than what we had seen in his previous films. He generally succeeds, although I seriously doubt you’d ever see this level of action in any real situation. Regardless, the roots of many of the modern fight scenes we see in later Jackie Chan movies can be seen here.

A scene where Jackie takes on thugs in and around a pair of cars is a classic example of the type of choreography he perfected that employs props and the surrounding environment. He and his stuntmen take it to a whole new level towards the end when they battle it out in the center of a real shopping mall. This is where the film earned the nickname of “GLASS STORY.” The stunt team makes extensive use of sugar glass as bodies crash through merchandise displays, are slammed through windows and dropped from varying heights.

The fight choreography mixed in with all the stunt falls is textbook, both in terms of movement and editing. Hong Kong action directors and stunt actors are often praised for creating long sets of sparring movements without a break, but that’s not what this scene is about. Jackie had already done that in previous kung fu films like THE YOUNG MASTER and now he was moving into the emerging territory of a more sophisticated blend of polished editing and live sparring. If you look closely at the scene on home video, it’s not too hard to see how Chan employs a wide range of tools, including false legs for close-up kicks and carefully inserted stunt doubles for various reaction shots. The sparring itself is a variation of Chan’s patented rhythmic “dance” routine that allows for very tight swipes and precise blocks and blows. Everything is cleanly cut and put together to maximize the force of the movements without cheapening the action with excessive trickery. When viewed without pause, even repeatedly, this mall fight scene holds up remarkably well by today’s standards.

Helping Jackie to capture and present this stunt artistry onscreen are Peter Cheung on editing duty and Cheung Yiu-jo directing the camera. Both had worked with Chan before on films like PROJECT A and WHEELS ON MEALS and would continue to do so after. It is a credit to their abilities, as well as Jackie’s direction that the film looks as good as it does considering that the overall art direction is bland. Then again, it was the 1980s where bad fashion and bad hairdos reigned supreme. Modern action films from that era rarely look good today regardless of where they were made.

Not content to leave the music to someone else, Chan adds his own voice to the film’s theme song. Normally, I am quick to criticize Hong Kong film scores, if they even have one. (Many older scores are made up of stock music or have been replaced in international versions by music lifted from Hollywood films.) I’m also no fan of Canto-pop or the musical work of its crossover acting talent including Jackie Chan, Andy Lau, The Twins, and others. However, Chan hits the right note on the POLICE STORY theme. It really captures the tone of the film and is used to good effect throughout. Chan sang many of the themes songs for his own movies, but this is probably the best example.

POLICE STORY does have its flaws. It’s not THE perfect action movie, but what is? What matters is that Jackie Chan firmly takes the reins and passionately delivers what few could ever hope to. He brings together some of the most daring and skilled stuntmen around, mixes in a dose of timeless humor and gives to the world a highly satisfying viewing experience brimming with creativity and excitement that no computer or wire could ever adequately duplicate. In the process, he has inspired a generation of filmmakers. (Look at the films of Tony Jaa for example.) I may be a little biased towards Hong Kong movies from this era, but just try comparing POLICE STORY to anything comparable from Hollywood at this time. Jackie never had to prove he could do action better, but I’m glad he did.