Police Story (Jackie Chan, 1985)
(contains spoilers)
With Eureka Entertainment’s recently released remastered Blu Ray box set of Police Story + Police Story 2, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to revisit one of my favourite Jackie Chan and Hong Kong action films: Police Story.
Synopsis
The story starts with a police operation to apprehend a crime boss named Chu Tu and his men, who arrive at a shanty town to complete a drug deal. The police are undercover, monitoring the situation and waiting to strike. Among them is Jackie Chan’s police officer character Chan Ka Kui. The police are discovered and a shoot-out ensues with the criminals making their escape. Chan chases down Chu Tu and his men as they drive through the shanty town (literally, in a spectacular set-piece which destroys the town entirely) and hijack a bus. Chan manages to stop the bus and places Chu Tu under arrest, along with some of Chu’s other men and his secretary Selina Fong. Fong is released shortly after, without charges, and Chan is assigned as her bodyguard as the police plan to call her as a witness in Chu’s upcoming trial.
Chan arranges for one of his police friends to stage an assassination attempt on Selina to ensure her cooperation, which is successful, but when Chan has to fight off Chu’s men who are trying to kidnap Selina shortly afterwards, Chan realises things might be a little more serious. Selina soon discovers that the initial attempt on her life was staged, however, and records over a previous confession she made to Chan with what is made to sound like the pair fooling around in Chan’s apartment. Selina disappears and her absence at the trial coupled with the playing of the embarrassing new recording weakens the police’s case against Chu, who is released on bail.
Chu, lusting for revenge, lures Chan to where he is hiding Selina and his men ambush him with the help of Inspector Man, another police officer in Chan’s department who is on Chu’s payroll. Chu’s men shoot and kill Man with Chan’s service revolver, and Chan briefly manages to fight them off and allow Selina to escape. However, Chu’s men eventually subdue and knock Chan out with chloroform, and abandon him outside the city. Chan is the prime suspect for Man’s murder, and must catch and expose Chu in order to clear his name.
The story climaxes with a fight staged throughout a shopping mall, which Chu and his men have arrived at to catch Selina who has printed a large quantity of incriminating data which would expose Chu Tu as a crime lord. Chan chases them throughout the mall culminating in one of the greatest stunts Jackie Chan has done; leaping from the top floor of the mall and grabbing a pole covered in lights to slide down to the bottom, crashing through a canopy as he does so. The police arrive as Chan delivers a beating to Chu (and his lawyer!), and the film ends.
The story itself is fairly simple and unexceptional. What elevates the film is the masterful stunt-work and choreography of Chan and his stunt-team, and Chan’s comedic performance. The film itself is a series of breathtaking action set-pieces and beautifully choreographed fight scenes broken up by comedic and often care-free scenes of story progression. The story itself is not so important, but the more we see Chan Ka Kui interact with other characters the more we like and root for him, even if he is perhaps a little oafish and insensitive at times (particularly towards his long-suffering girlfriend May, played by Maggie Cheung). There’s a fair bit of slapstick humour, with Chan taking a cake to the face on more than one occasion, but it is in-keeping with the light tone of the film. Since Jackie Chan is a master of physical comedy, a modern-day Charlie Chaplin, these slapstick moments work well and never fail to raise at least a smile.
While Chan is the most entertaining thing on screen during the comedy scenes (as well as the action scenes, of course), the jokes wouldn’t hit the mark quite so well without the help of foils like May, the crime lord’s secretary Selina Fong, or Police Inspector Chou (who himself can be a little silly when alongside the staid and strait-laced Superintendent Li). With how good the action scenes are in Police Story, it would be understandable if the audience got restless in the more story-driven scenes, yearning for the next set-piece, but given the comedic tone and playful nature of the majority of these story scenes there’s always something to keep us interested. Then, in the latter third of the story which becomes much more serious, we know to anticipate the big action set piece we can feel just around the corner. The story itself is nothing out of the ordinary, it’s a simple ‘defeat slimy bad guy crime lord’ story, but how it is presented to us is endlessly entertaining.
In any action scene in Police Story, the environment can become part of the action at any time, and this gives it a unique flair compared to Western action films. For example, Chan might use a chair as a weapon, or a mobile clothes rack, or use cars or furniture to jump on to evade or attack his assailants. What is also striking, as in most of Jackie Chan’s Hong Kong films, is that we see all of the action. No quick cuts or clever camera work to make us think it’s a fluid, action-packed fight, but rather we watch the stunts and choreography play out before us in all their glory. This is explored much better in Every Frame a Painting’s video essay on Jackie Chan. It’s testament to the hard work Jackie Chan and his stunt team put into the film, since to get the stunts just right takes a tremendous amount of training, talent and effort, as well as the perseverance to try it again and again until it looks as it should. When we see the results on screen though, we know that it’s worth it.
There’s not much in the way of characterisation in terms of the villains, no particularly interesting character traits or magnetic personalities to draw us into the story or create any significant impact. For example, we don’t know much at all about the police officer Inspector Man, so when he shows up the crime lord Chu’s office and agrees to help ambush Chan, and is subsequently killed after completing the task, there’s no shock or emotional impact associated with it. Its merely something that moves the story along. Likewise, Chu and his associates just seem like stock bad-guy criminal characters rather than anything unique. None of this detracts from the film’s quality however, as it is on the shoulders of Chan that we place all of our emotional attachment, and he is ably assisted by a variety of likeable and charming characters like May, Selina and Inspector Chou.
For me, Police Story is not just about incredible action or choreography, but also an incredibly likeable main character whose comedic flair brings levity and entertainment to every scene. Without this lightheartedness Police Story would perhaps just be something I’d only want to watch the action scenes from in clips on YouTube, but as it is, it’s enjoyable the whole way through. It’s hard to describe or show just how wonderful the choreography and action set pieces are in Police Story just with words and pictures, so if you’re a fan of action, Jackie Chan or both all I can do is urge you to see this film and witness it for yourself.
