Jackie Chan does kung-fu. The screen legend has been a fixture in action cinema since the ‘70s, but it was in the ‘80s that Chan was able to create the screen persona that would propel him into the hallowed realm of icons alongside Bruce Lee and make the rare leap from Hong Kong to Hollywood. The world is finally catching up to Chan’s brilliance. He was recently presented with an honorary Academy Award. And now the latest honor: Two of Chan’s action classics have been remastered and issued on Blu-ray by the Criterion Collection in a two-disc set of Police Story and Police Story 2. By bringing Jackie Chan’s films to the ever-expanding library of classics, the Criterion Collection continues its dedication to cinema of all kinds, placing the grindhouse next to the arthouse.
Though Jackie Chan had headlined a number of his own martial arts adventures before Police Story, he still operated in the shadow of the genre’s greatest legend – Bruce Lee. Starting with Project A, Chan began to create a new screen persona that would come to define his career. Chan would blend the comedic stylings of silent cinema’s greats (Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and Harold Lloyd) with the blistering fast fights of Lee. But Police Story added a new wrinkle to the evolving persona that Chan was creating by shunning the tradition of the elite trained warrior for more of an everyman. This evolution of Chan’s persona and its place within the history of Hong Kong cinema is explored thoughtfully and thoroughly in an interview with author and New York Asian Film Festival co-founder Grady Hendrix, just one of the many fascinating special features to accompany the two Police Story films.
In this case, Chan’s everyman is Ka-Kui, a Hong Kong police officer who just so happens to be a supercop. In the film’s spectacular opening, Ka-Kui is a member of police strike force tasked with taking down the drug kingpin Chu Tao (Yuen Chor). The raid goes horribly wrong for the characters but incredibly right for the audience. The bullets whiz by our hero before escalating into an incredible chase sequence that illustrates Chan’s brilliance. Ka-Kui gets his guy but conviction isn’t going to be so easy, which is why he’s tasked with guarding star witness Selina Fong (Brigitte Lin). This, however, creates a bit of friction between Ka-Kui and his girlfriend May (Maggie Cheung), who doesn’t quite understand why her boyfriend’s job would force him into close proximity with another woman.
Police Story features some of Chan’s finest action ever and concludes with a breathtaking sequence in a shopping mall, where Chan is forced to confront an army of Chu Tao’s goons. Watching the epic climax of Police Story in 2019 is watching a revolutionary moment in action cinema. Chan’s choreography and clear-eyed direction captures every punch and kick, leaving nothing of the fight to the imagination. It’s all on the screen. This is the kind of groundbreaking action filmmaking that would pave the way for the next generation of action filmmaking, a tradition that has continued with the breathtaking action of The Raid and John Wick movies.
The action and adventure continues in Police Story 2, a worthy sequel that once again pairs Chan’s incredible action work with his unique comedic talents. Once again, Ka-Kui must face off against a team of goons under the aegis of Chu Tao. And, of course, once again Ka-Kui’s poor girlfriend May gets entangled in the high-stakes world of ass-kicking police work. Hong Kong is facing a new reign of terror thanks to a number of bombings, which means that Police Story 2 ramps up the spectacle of its predecessor with fights amidst gigantic fireballs especially in the climactic final battle between Chan’s Ka-Kui and Benny Lai’s clucking deaf criminal.
The two-disc set of Police Story and Police Story 2 is jam packed with special features. Aside from the new 4K restorations and the aforementioned interview with Grady Hendrix, the Criterion edition of Police Story also boasts an essay by critic Nick Pinkerton and the option to choose between the original Cantonese audio and English language dubs of the films. Baby Driver director Edgar Wright praises Jackie Chan in a conversation with the screen icon from a 2017 podcast. Archival footage on the disc ranges from a Chinese television reunion between Chan and his Police Story stunt team, interviews with Chan and Benny Lai, and a 1989 interview with Maggie Cheung. One of the more fun special features is a 1999 documentary called My Stunts where Chan thoroughly explains the process of creating and choreographing his iconic fight sequences and peppered with little tricks that makes the movie magic come to life.
All in all, this is another astonishing set from the Criterion Collection that honors the legacy of Jackie Chan as well as the blood, sweat, and tears that went into bringing this action classics to the screen. Police Story and Police Story 2 are genre classics that haven’t always earned the acclaim that they deserved in their time for blending the high-speed kung-fu action with the slapstick side of silent comedy, but the tide has begun to turn on the critical establishment’s perception of genre films and the Criterion Collection is at the forefront of changing the conversation once again.
Police Story
- Police Story and Police Story 2
- Police Story 2
Summary
A one-two punch from star and director Jackie Chan, Police Story and Police Story 2 arrive on Blu-ray with a new edition from the Criterion Collection that pulls no punches in honoring the wild, audacious cinema of a screen legend who masterfully blended comedy with kung-fu.