Film- Police Story

Year of release – 1985

Country – Hong Kong

Stars – Jackie Chan, Maggie Cheung, Brigitte Lin, Bill Tung

Dir – Jackie Chan

Howdy Amigos!

Hope this post finds you all well.

For today’s Martial Arts Movie Madness post, I wanted to recommend one of my favorite films, from an absolute legend of the genre. This is Jackie’s 2nd appearance on Martial Arts Movie Madness, and given how much he shaped the modern martial arts movie, you can expect plenty more of his work to make the list before we are through!

Chan Kau Kui (Jackie Chan) is part of a team of Hong Kong cops, tasked with bringing down crime lord Chu Tao (Yuen Chor). After a spectacular shootout and chase sequence through a shanty town, Chu Tso is finally apprehended.  The cops decide the best way to make the charges against Chu stick, is to ‘flip’ his secretary Selina (Brigitte Lin) and convince her to testify against Chu. Kau Kui is tasked with keeping her safe until the trial, a task he hardly relishes. After scaring Selina into submission and beating up some thugs and hitmen sent to silence her, Kau Kui manages to get Selina safety of his home, but come the morning, she vanishes. The case against Chu collapses due to lack of evidence, and the vengeful villain seeks retribution by framing our hero for murder. With Kau Kui forced to go on the run to clear his name, opportunity presents itself to nail Chu once and for all. With enemies on both sides of the law closing in, can Kau Kai get his man before they get him?

If I could pick one Jackie Chan film that perfectly encapsulates the great mans illustrious career, ‘Police Story‘ would be it. Here, he serves as Director and Stunt Choreographer to incredible effect. The opening sequence is stunning both in it’s planning and execution. At one point, you are left wondering how on earth no one died whilst shooting this movie, and then you understand why Jackie couldn’t find work in Hollywood at that point; no studio boss in their right mind would’ve hired a maniac like that! There’s also the brilliant fight scene in Chu’s apartment, where Jackie battles gangsters and hitmen, and the amazingly brutal finale, in which Jackie takes on hordes of bad guys at a busy shopping complex. The combatants literally turn everything around them into a weapon and when you realize that they were not using sugar glass, you understand that the pained expressions on the actors faces are horribly real.

To say ‘Police Story’ is influential is putting it mildly. Not only did it spawn a highly successful franchise for Chan, it led to a number of Martial Arts movies with similar themes and style in Hong Kong. ‘Tiger On Beat’ and ‘In The Line Of Duty’ are just two of examples that borrow heavily from the chaotic style of film-making. A new wave of movies emerged, all attempting to blend gritty action with moments of slapstick comedy and high drama. Whilst many tried, none could quite recreate Chan’s charm and downright disregard for his own life and for the lives of his stuntmen for that matter!

Simply put, this movie f’n rocks. I could go on and on about how much your missing if you haven’t seen it, but i’m simply going to let the epic trailer do the talking for me.

If you’d like to check the movie out, you can find it at Amazon and all other good DVD retailers. It isnt available in the UK on streaming services, though I have heard that it can be found online in the U.S.

Right, thats it for now from me, i’ll be back with another recommendation for you all soon.

A cosmic, comic book culture consuming, hayfever suffering, cartoon watching ninja, who's stuck in a time-warp. Can often be found watching retro cartoons on YouTube or aggravating my cat.
A cosmic, comic book culture consuming, hayfever suffering, cartoon watching ninja, who’s stuck in a time-warp. Can often be found watching retro cartoons on YouTube or aggravating my cat.