Police Story

Synopsis: After single handedly arresting mob boss Chu, Jackie (Jackie Chan) becomes a police hero and media posterboy and is subsequently ordered to look after a Crown witness, the mob's secretary, Selena (Brigitte Lin). After a succession of comical events involving his girlfriend May (Maggie Cheung) Selena escapes and Chu is set free on bail. Now the race is on to find Selena and put Chu behind bars for good before Jackie is executed or framed by the mob's hitmen.

The film's opening perfectly sums up both Police Story and the work of Jackie Chan with an audacious display of amazing stunt work and/or health and safety issues-related stupidity. Two cars smash through a hillside township taking out houses and villagers in a mass of rubble and explosions before Chan chases a bus and leaps onto it hanging on with an umbrella. Throughout the film he smashes through tables, flies through windows and fights everyone in sight. It is all Jackie. One couldn’t imagine any other star putting his life and limbs on the line so readily in the name of cinematic entertainment - it's no wonder he broke so many bones making it - everything is done in-camera and there are no special effects. The film's end credits show Chan filming some of the incredible stunts in a series of painful bloopers.

Police Story is a fine example of Chan’s style of slapstick humour. Director Edward Tang worked with Chan on Operation Condor and Project A, the pair creating a style of kung fu comedy that was the template for Hong Kong's output for the rest of the decade. However whilst there were many imitators no one could ever match the hilarious, breath-taking gymnastics of Jackie Chan. Anyone only used to seeing his bland Hollywood output of recent years will be thrilled to see where it all started.

His co-stars also became huge stars in Hong Kong. Brigitte Lin starred in Tsui Hark’s Peking Opera Blues, Chunking Express and the achieved cult status for a performance as The Bride With The White Hair. Maggie Cheung, a regular Chan co-star will be better known to Cinephilia readers for her roles in Wong Kar Wai’s Days of Being Wild and In the Mood for Love and her incredible performance in Hero.

Chan is a charismatic performer who made the genre his own and this film is great fun from beginning to end. Initially the studios wanted him as a Bruce Lee replacement but soon realised that he had a unique charm all of his own. The winning combination of martial arts and slapstick humour brought Hong Kong cinema to a massive new Western audience and made Chan the star he is today.

FYI: Chan directed two sequels, Police Story II in 1988 and Police Story III - Supercop in 1992, but neither were as effective as the original.although the latter features a remarkable crowning sequence involving a helicopter and a train and is considerably enhanced by the gorgeous Michelle Yeoh, who is no mere decorative attachment.

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