Police Story I & II

I am not an ardent fan of martial arts films, but there was a fleeting moment in the mid-to-late 90s where I, and a hearty amount of the rest of America, hopped on the Jackie Chan hype train with his stateside breakout hit, Rumble in the Bronx. I did not go on to watch every single thing Chan did afterwards, but made sure to check out a few of his other hyped pictures in the theaters like the Rush Hour trilogy, Who Am I? and The Tuxedo. I dove into a handful of his pre-stateside hits also and have fond memories of a movie marathon sleepover night at a friend’s where we immensely enjoyed Operation Condor and the Supercop films. I then kind of fell off his films for most of this century as he seemed to pivot more towards family films that were not up my alley, and have neglected him for the most part since. Last year Criterion released a two pack of Chan’s Asian hits with 1985’s Police Story (trailer) and its successor, 1988’s Police Story 2 (trailer). I heard countless praise for these pair of films over the years, but never got around to watching them and decided tracking down this bundle was the perfect way to jump in.

Jackie Chan portrays policeman, Chan Ka Kui in both films and the first Police Story has an intense opening scene where Chan’s crime unit goes on an intricate chase through Chinese slums that sees Chan reprimanded for breaking protocol to get his man and is assigned as police protection for a key witness, Selina Fong (Brigitte Lin). An overplayed trope of the first film is Chan being ridiculously arrogant to impress Fong and his girlfriend May (Maggie Cheung). Chan routinely talks himself into a hole and finds himself at the butt of his bragging, but the whole song and dance comes off as pure schlock and parts of the crude humor would not fly in today’s world. These instances are regrettably too frequent, and ultimately mar the first film. There is one comedy scene that did win me over when Chan is attempting to field multiple calls at the police station, but most of his riff raff with May and Selina are major groaners.

Thankfully Chan’s mastery at martial arts helps compensate for the rest of the film. Chan’s meticulously choreographed fight scenes with his acclaimed stunt team are a treasure to consume. The opening and closing fight/chase scenes are the standouts of the first film. Chan goes into hysterics against his fellow officers and runs into a final blowoff fight in the mall that is filled with motorcycles attempting to run Chan over, many flying bodies shattering panels of glass and culminates in a breathtaking stunt for the ages. The stunt has Chan shimmying down a light-bulb infested pole and crashing down onto a platform that is such a gripping moment that the film breaks the fourth wall and replays it two more times from different angles immediately thereafter. It is a great way to make up for the aforementioned comedy.

Police Story 2 picks up immediately in the aftermath of the mall fight. Despite Chan saving the day, his police chief is not too happy with the wanton destruction he left in the mall so he gets demoted. Mae is initially thrilled, but soon enough the police rope Chan into helping track down a bomb threat-happy gang causing a ruckus in Hong Kong. The dynamic between Chan and Mae is drastically improved in the sequel. Chan dials back the pretentious-ness and cheesy double entendres exponentially which makes him incredibly more empathetic in his plight to track down the bombers and win back Mae’s heart. There remains an occasional lowbrow toilet humor gag with one of Chan’s superiors having bad bouts of gas throughout the film, but it is nowhere near the distraction as it was before.

About halfway through the film, Chan gets a support team specializing in the latest hi-tech gadgetry to track down the bombers. A few of their investigative and stealth tailing scenes of targets drag down the tempo of the sequel, but it is not that much of a detraction in the grand scheme of things. The bombers naturally kidnap Mae, and compromise Chan to work for them and it all leads to an awesome final fireworks factory fight scene where Chan goes ballistic dueling away with each thug at the factory.

Police Story 2 is leagues better than the first film, but surprisingly the bonus second cut of the sequel included in the supplemental material is even better. It is the original Hong Kong release that is about a half hour shorter, and complete with film scratching/tearing defects for authenticity. As much as I like the Criterion Edition of the sequel, I wound up leaning towards the original cut more because it is a snappier watch, and uses alternate footage that helps fill in some minor gaps in the pacing of the Criterion cut. Additionally, the original cut has a different translation of the subtitles that make some of the scenes come across differently and I found myself taking in some scenes with a different perspective. Props to Criterion by the way with their first-in-class restoration work with their HD conversions of both films. Both Criterion cuts on the BluRays have brilliantly restored visuals and audio that stand out tremendously when compared to the original Hong Kong version of the sequel.

Speaking of supplemental material, the Criterion branding lives up to its name once again with the bonuses for both films. In fact I think I enjoyed the extra features for the first Police Story more than that film itself. There is just over an hour long extra titled Jackie Chan: My Stunts that is an excellent deep dive of the fight choreography and what minute details Jackie and his team implements to add that extra ‘oomph’ to the fights in the cinematography. Well worth your time checking out. There are two interviews with movie director, Edgar Wright about his fandom for Jackie Chan, and one of the interviews is with both Chan and Wright which was fascinating to take in. The last of the extras I highly recommend checking out on the first film is King of Kings II which is a 2017 television show excerpt where Chan is reunited with original members of his stunt team that provides some powerful moments with Jackie and his team.

Aside from the original Hong Kong cut, the standout bonus of the hour and a half of extras for Police Story 2 is the extra, Reinventing Action. The 21 minute feature dissects how Asian action films from the 1980s like Police Story were a big influence for Western action films and how they helped evolved the genre over the last few decades. Finally there is a foldout poster included with the two pack, but on the flipside of the poster is an essay by Nick Pinkerton that provides a comprehensive look at Jackie Chan’s early ups and downs before finding permanent success with films like Police Story and proceeds to breakdown both of these film’s finer aspects.

I was surprised I found myself so mixed on the first Police Story. Maybe I would have appreciated it more if I was exposed to it in my childhood, but as it stands now the humor drags it down a few pegs. I would recommend instead watching its opening and closing fight/chase scenes. Police Story 2 is well worth your time however, and you cannot go wrong checking out either version of the film included on the Criterion. Finally, for as lackluster as the first film is the bonus materials compensates greatly for it and the complete package all together makes the Criterion two-pack of Police Story and Police Story 2 a worthy recommendation.

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs

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Atari: Game Over
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
The Avengers: Infinity War
Batman: The Dark Knight Rises
Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
Bounty Hunters
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Captain America: Civil War
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Christmas Eve
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Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special
The Condemned 2
Countdown
Creed I & II
Deck the Halls
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Dredd
The Eliminators
The Equalizer
Dirty Work
Faster
Fast and Furious I-VIII
Field of Dreams
Fight Club
The Fighter
For Love of the Game
Good Will Hunting
Gravity
Grunt: The Wrestling Movie
Guardians of the Galaxy
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2
Hell Comes to Frogtown
Hercules: Reborn
Hitman
I Like to Hurt People
Indiana Jones 1-4
Ink
The Interrogation
Interstellar
Jay and Silent Bob Reboot
Jobs
Joy Ride 1-3
Last Action Hero
Major League
Man of Steel
Man on the Moon
Man vs Snake
Marine 3-6
Merry Friggin Christmas
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
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Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpions Revenge
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National Treasure: Book of Secrets
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Running Films Part 2
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The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
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