Following on from the bitter disappointment of yet another failed attempt at breaking Hollywood with the movie “The Protector”; Jackie Chan’s Police Story (or Ging chaat goo si) is widely considered to be the best action movie that Chan ever made.
Although heavily dated, the movie is a tour de force and I personally believe it to be the defining part in both Hong Kong and Hollywood action for many reasons.
Jackie plays Kevin Chan, a Hong Kong police man. In almost bungled police drug sting operation, Chan captures a notorious drug lord almost single-handely with the hand of a double-decker bus and an eye-popping stunt that surely must have killed at least two of the stuntmen.
Afterwords, Chan is assigned to protect the secretary to an evil drugs lord who is to act as a witness to the prosecution. But is she being co-operative, or still in league with the gang?
The drug lord’s personal bodyguard frame’s the murder of another bent police cop using Chan’s gun and Chan must fight off attempts on his life while hanging on to his girlfriend and second-guessing bent fellow officers.
During a key scene in the Magistrates court, the drug lord gets off on Chan’s lack of evidence.
Down on his luck, and running from the police, Chan attempts an audicious plot to re-capture the drug lord and acquire evidence of the drug lord’s organised crime links as well as his records of payments to police officers…. this leads to an action packed ending inside a shopping mall.
Unlike his later movies, this one combines drama, excellent action and good story in one. A testament to this movies originality and style is the fact that it was lifted wholesale by many films, including Sylvester Stallone in Tango and Cash, Bad Boys 2 and a Brandon Lee movie (which I can’t remember).
I would definitely recommend this movie, just make sure you get the widescreen version with subtitles, otherwise you’ll miss the magic of what I believe is the best action movie that Chan ever made.
Overall: 9/10
Link:
Police Story (IMDB)