Police Story (traditional Chinese: 警察故事, Ging chaat goo si; pinyin: Jǐngchá Gùshì) is a 1985 Hong Kong action-comedy film directed by and starring Jackie Chan and written by Edward Tang. It is the first of the Police Story series featuring Chan as a Hong Kong police detective named "Kevin" Chan Ka-Kui.
Chan began work on the film after a disappointing experience working with another director on The Protector, which was intended to be his entry into the American film market.
Police Story was a huge success in East Asia. It won the Best Film award at the 1986 Hong Kong Film Awards. According to Chan's autobiography, he considers the film his best in terms of action.
Plot
The Royal Hong Kong Police Force is planning a major undercover sting called "Operation Boar Hunt" to arrest crime lord Chu Tao (Yuen Chor).
Inspector Chan Ka-Kui (or Kevin Chan in some versions) is part of the operation, along with undercover officers stationed in a shanty town. However, the criminals spot the police and the ensuing car chase cuts through the hillside shanty town, vehicles destroying the shacks and causing large explosions.
Ka-Kui persists in his chase, eventually following on foot as the drug lord attempts to escape in a double-decker bus. Ka Kui catches the bus and initially is able to hang on to it using an umbrella, but is thrown off. He then manages to get in front of the bus and bring it to a halt by threatening to shoot the driver with his service revolver. Later, Ka-Kui is reprimanded by Superintendent Li for letting the operation get out of hand, but is subsequently presented to the media as a model police officer.
His next assignment is to protect Chu Tao's secretary, Selina Fong (Brigitte Lin), who plans to testify in court about Chu Tao's illegal activities. At first, Selina insists that she does not require protection, but after Ka Kui has a fellow policeman break into her apartment and pose as a knife-wielding murderer, she becomes more cooperative. After Ka-Kui and Selina leave her apartment later that evening, they are attacked by some street thugs, whom Ka-Kui is able to defeat with his martial arts skills, though the fight leaves Selina's car a wreck.
When Ka-Kui arrives at his apartment with Selina, who is only wearing lingerie, he is surprised by his girlfriend, May (Maggie Cheung) and her friends, who are throwing a birthday party for him. May, seeing the scantily-clad Selina, misunderstands and becomes angry with Ka-Kui, shoving the birthday cake into his face. Ka-Kui is later able to explain to May that Selina is a witness, but only after much bumbling and further misunderstanding.
Meanwhile, Selina has discovered that the attack by the man with knife at her apartment was a sham, and so she decides to not cooperate with Ka Kui. She sneaks away while Ka-Kui is sleeping and is not present for the crucial court date the following day.
Ka-Kui prepares to make the jump in the shopping mall.
Though Chu Tao is released on bail, he wants revenge against Ka-Kui. Using a corrupt policeman, Inspector Man (Kam Hing Ying), Chu Tao is able to frame Ka-Kui for the murder of Inspector Man. Now a fugitive cop killer, Ka Kui must try to catch Chu Tao and clear his name.
The action comes to a head in a shopping mall, where Chu Tao has an office. After surviving a murder attempt by Chu Tao's men to ensure her silence, Selina goes to the office to download incriminating data from Chu Tao's computer system. Chu Tao notices that the data is being dumped, and he and his men head to the shopping mall to intervene. Ka-Kui, who's monitoring Chu Tao's activities, follows. In the ensuing fight, Ka-Kui defeats all of Chu Tao's henchmen. The briefcase containing the computer data falls to the ground floor of the mall, but Chu Tao retrieves it. Ka-Kui, at the top floor, leaps off a ledge and grabs a pole wrapped in lightbulbs. He rapidly slides down the pole, smashing through the bulbs, crashing through a glass ceiling, and finally reaching the floor, where he violently apprehends Chu Tao but is held back humorously by his two friends Tak and Kim to stop him from delivering one final kick to Chu Tao.
Action scenes
The film contained many large-scale action scenes, including an opening sequence featuring a car chase through a shanty town, Chan stopping a double-decker bus with his service revolver and a climactic ending fight scene in a shopping mall. This final scene earned the film the nickname "Glass Story" by the crew, due to the huge number of panes of sugar glass that were broken. During a stunt in this last sequence, in which Chan slides down a pole from several stories up, the lights near the pole had heated it considerably, resulting in Chan suffering second-degree burns, particularly to his hands, as well as a back injury and dislocation of his pelvis upon landing.
In an interview with Chan, he discusses the stunt of sliding down the chandlier. As with the clock tower stunt from Project A (1983), Chan described his fear at the thought of performing the stunt. However, during the filming of Police Story, there was the added pressure of strict time constraints, as the shopping mall had to be cleaned up and ready for business the following morning. One of Chan's stuntman gave him a hug and a Buddhist prayer paper, which he put in his trousers before finally performing the stunt.[1]
Stuntman Blackie Ko doubled for Chan during a motorcycle stunt in which his character drives through glass towards a hitman.
The umbrella Jackie used is the metal umbrella because the wooden one kept slipping when he tries to hang onto a double decker bus.
Cast
| Actor/Actress |
Character |
| Jackie Chan |
Sergeant "Kevin" Chan Ka-Kui
("Jackie" on UK and Australian releases) |
| Brigitte Lin |
Selina Fong, Chu Tao's secretary |
| Maggie Cheung |
May, Ka-Kui's Girlfriend |
| Chor Yuen |
Chu Tao, Crime Lord |
| Charlie Cho |
John Ko, gangster |
| Fung Hak-On |
Danny Chu |
| Kam Hing Ying |
Inspector Man |
| Lam Kwok-Hung |
Superintendent Raymond Li |
| Bill Tung |
"Uncle" Bill Wong |
| Mars |
Kim |
| Lau Chi-Wing |
Counsellor Cheung |
| Tai Po |
Lee / Snake Eyes |
| Ken Tong |
Tak / Tom |
| Wan Fat |
Jacknife / Mad Wing |
| Woo Fung |
Sha Tau Kok Station Commander |
| Money Lo |
television interviewer |
Awards and nominations
- 1986 Hong Kong Film Awards
- Won: Best Picture
- Won: Best Action Choreography
- Nominated: Best Director (Jackie Chan)
- Nominated: Best Actor (Jackie Chan)
- Nominated: Best Actress (Brigitte Lin)
- Nominated: Best Cinematography (Cheung Yin-Tsou)
- Nominated: Best Film Editing (Peter Cheung)
Box office
The film grossed HK $26,626,760 at the Hong Kong box office.
DVD releases
In late 2004, Hong Kong's Intercontinental Video Limited released a remastered anamorphic widescreen Police Story Trilogy boxset in Region 0 NTSC format, featuring optional English subtitles and a choice of Chinese-language soundtracks. The original mono tracks on this release are out of sync. On December 19, 2006 the Weinstein Company released a Region 1 NTSC DVD (under their Dragon Dynasty label) with special features and deleted scenes (January 23, 2007 in Canada). Hong Kong based company Kam & Ronsom Enterprise have announced that they will release the first three Police Story films on Blu-ray Disc in June 2009.[2] The first film was released on Blu-ray on September 14, 2009 [3]
Critical reception
The English version of this film received a rating of 78% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
Sequels
Police Story 2
Main article:
Police Story 2Police Story 2 (traditional Chinese: 警察故事２), made in 1988, features many of the same actors reprising their roles from the original. The story picks up with Chan Ka-Kui demoted to traffic cop for causing so much damage in his apprehension of Chu. Chu has been released from prison on the pretense that he is terminally ill, and Chu and his clan continue to harass Chan and his girlfriend May as Chan gets reinstated to the detective unit when criminal bombers begin extorting money from businessmen.
Police Story 3: Super Cop
Main article:
Police Story 3Police Story 3 (traditional Chinese: 警察故事３超級警察, or Supercop) was made in 1992. Michelle Yeoh joins the cast, portraying a police officer from Mainland China. The story involves Chan and Yeoh's characters going undercover to break up a drug smuggling ring. The action moves from China to Kuala Lumpur, where Chan's girlfriend May is kidnapped. The film marks the last appearance of Maggie Cheung as May. Michelle Yeoh reprises her role in the spin-off, Project S (1993). Dimension Films released Police Story 3 in the US in 1996 under the name of Supercop with some edits to the film, the complete replacement of all music and sound effects, and English dubbing.
Police Story 4: First Strike
Police Story 4 (traditional Chinese: 簡單任務 or Jackie Chan's First Strike), made in 1996, is the only film in the Police Story series made partially in English. The action shifts away from Hong Kong and East Asia, with a globe trekking espionage plot, lending the film the air of a James Bond adventure. New Line Cinema's US release contained several alterations. Filmed on location in Ukraine and Australia, the film also marks the last appearance of Bill Tung, who plays Chan's superior in the series.
New Police Story
New Police Story (traditional Chinese: 新警察故事), made in 2004, is a reboot of the Police Story series. Chan portrays a disgraced detective named Wing, and acts alongside younger Hong Kong actors including Nicholas Tse, Charlene Choi and Daniel Wu. The story features a more dramatic focus, taking a darker and more serious tone.
Influence
- The shanty town chase inspired a similar sequence in Bad Boys II. There's also a similar scene in the 2004 Thai film, Born to Fight.
- Jackie Chan fan Brandon Lee paid homage in his film Rapid Fire by filming a similar sequence from the mall fight scene, in which Jackie's character rams a villain with a motorcycle, through multiple layers of glass.
- The scene where Chan stops a bus in Police Story, inspired a similar scene in the Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell film Tango & Cash.
- Between 1994 and 2004, the Hong Kong TV series Police Report adopted the Police Story theme song sung by Jackie Chan, as its own theme. Televised job advertisements for the Hong Kong Police also adopted segments of the song.
See also
References
- ^ Police Story, Jackie Chan interview, Bey Logan Audio Commentary (DVD featurette). [DVD]. Hong Kong Legends, UK.
- ^ http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/asia/china/e3i4e9a6c684b313de0498ce32a2dae08e3
- ^ YESASIA: Police Stroy (Blu-ray) (Hong Kong Version)
External links
