Jackie Chan returns to the seminal franchise which made him an international star, but a lot has changed since his last 'official' Police Story sequel way back in 1993. Can Jackie Chan still deliver the goods, and how does this very chic sequel compare to the rest? Ben Johnson reveals all.
New Police Story
Distributor: Contender Entertainment Group Format: Region 2 (PAL) Length: 122 min Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Audio: Cantonese, English (dubbed) Subtitles: English Extras: Promotional and interview gallery, 'The Making of New Police Story' and Behind the Scenes Sound: DTS, Dolby Digital 5.1
Year of Release: 2004; Origin: Hong Kong; Studio: JCE Movies Ltd., Emperor Media Group, China Film
Director: Benny Chan Muk-sing; Producer: Benny Chan Muk-sing, Willie Chan Chi-keung, Solon So Chi-hung, Barbie Tung Wan-si; Script: Alan Yuen Kam-lun; Action Director: Jackie Chan, Nicky Li Chung-chi; Cast: Jackie Chan, Nicholas Tse Ting-fung, Charlie Yeung Choi-nei, Charlene Choi Cheuk-yin, Daniel Wu Yin-cho, Dave Wong Kit, Andy On Chi-kit, Yu Rong-guang.
Alternative Titles: N/A
Trailer: Click below to see the trailer for New Police Story
Review
A calculated move by Jackie Chan, returning to the seminal franchise that made his name in a last ditch attempt to regroup the initial fandom scarred, if only slightly, by his lackluster string of Hollywood paycheques. Benny Chan has proved himself a dab hand at this sort of thing (see Who Am I? and Gen-X-Cops) - the righteous police thriller that stinks of morality almost as much as gunpowder and burning tyres. Indeed, the whole of Hong Kong, it seems, has closed down for the occasion, with Jackie climbing, blowing up, and fighting on nearly all of the City’s contemporary hotspots. So, this is similar to Jackie’s initial twenty-year-old vision, then, only on this occasion good-time slapstick has been replaced with laden sensitivity, coupled with a measured sense of style that inevitably grates, and a fabulously manicured and youthful cast that adversely forces Jackie to wear all fifty of his years. This is far from Wheels on Meals, and what it lacks in heart it makes up for in big shiny balls.
The film starts with the miserable stuff first; Inspector Chan is depicted as a washed up drunk, swigging straight shooters on the rocks in neon nightclubs, collapsing in alleyways in pools of vomit. Cut to an extended flashback when things used to be very different indeed: Chan makes Chief and is the Force’s ultimate Supercop, disarming bombs with one hand, leading a rookie team of youngsters, wooing new fancy Ho Yee (played by Charlie Yeung – obviously Maggie Cheung was busy), with delusions of marriage.
Our villain is Joe Kwan (Daniel Wu) and his team of cyber punks who prepare to piss on Chan’s bonfire. Joe’s rogue team consist of kung fu kid Tin Tin (Andy On), ex-Marine Fire (Terence Yin), video game expert Max (Hayama Go), and sultry girlfriend Sue (Coco Chiang) – together they don masks and rob banks in youthful abandonment, jumping from skyscrapers and stealing the loot in a hail of bullets. They score points for each cop that is killed in a hatred of the police that runs deep – especially in Joe, who’s Police Chief father hardly makes the best role model, subjecting the boy to years of physical and sexual abuse. As for his cronies, multiply years of wealthy upbringings with overbearing parents and a complete lack of direction and you’ve got a villainous motivation straight out of a violent version of Enid Blyton. When they gun down Chan’s cops in a nighttime raid, the Inspector takes his team of naïve rookies to infiltrate their hideout.
It quickly becomes apparent that backup would have been a good idea, as with only three hours notice Joe’s team have set up a terrific series of computer-generated booby traps in the confines of their secret liar for Chan’s boys to fall into and blow themselves up. Chan ends up dancing to their remorseless tune when they play a series of insignificant games for the lives of each of Chan’s men, who have been individually captured, beaten and suspended on ropes high above the steely floor of the warehouse. With each false move, one by one his men come crashing to the ground, killed in an instant. Joe’s team slain the lot, then blow the place up for good measure, leaving Chan to pile the bodies on a wheelbarrow (including that of his brother-in-law) and run away from the fireworks in slow motion.
Racked by guilt and responsibility, Chan hits the bottle and drinks himself into a stupor while the film catches up on where it started. Another floppy-haired upstart in a Columbo Mac starts to snap the policeman out of it and tries, without much help, to get Chan’s life back on track. Frank (Nicholas Tse) sits through a relentless succession of tears and tantrums as the Inspector dramatizes for far too long before realizing that what’s called for is action-packed revenge. His recuperation is a gradual process: he squanders a duo of petty thieves in the street; he bets with a rival officer on Joe’s arrest; he buddies up with Frank in a humble appreciation of Rush Hour style male bonding; when a bomb is strapped to Ho Yee and she is hospitalized as a consequence, Chan finally stops moping about and bursts into action.
There are dockside explosions and car chases involving double-decker buses (a nod to a previous motif), before Chan utilizes Joe’s raid on the Bank of Hong Kong as a superior site for a mighty showdown. It’s a glossy, commercially endorsed encounter with some truly horrible product placement. Joe’s sadistic and neurotic tendencies lend him to shoot at his own team, while Chan administers kung fu pain on Tin Tin with giant blocks of Lego. The finale happens on the building’s roof, with Frank suspended from the high tides by a rope. Thankfully, things end up delightfully happy for Inspector Chan. Joe, on the other hand, is shot to ribbons.
A calculated move by Jackie Chan, returning to the seminal franchise that made his name in a last ditch attempt to regroup the initial fandom scarred, if only slightly, by his lackluster string of Hollywood paycheques. Benny Chan has proved himself a dab hand at this sort of thing (see Who Am I? and Gen-X-Cops) - the righteous police thriller that stinks of morality almost as much as gunpowder and burning tyres. Indeed, the whole of Hong Kong, it seems, has closed down for the occasion, with Jackie climbing, blowing up, and fighting on nearly all of the City’s contemporary hotspots. So, this is similar to Jackie’s initial twenty-year-old vision, then, only on this occasion good-time slapstick has been replaced with laden sensitivity, coupled with a measured sense of style that inevitably grates, and a fabulously manicured and youthful cast that adversely forces Jackie to wear all fifty of his years. This is far from Wheels on Meals, and what it lacks in heart it makes up for in big shiny balls.
Racked by guilt and responsibility, Chan hits the bottle and drinks himself into a stupor while the film catches up on where it started. Another floppy-haired upstart in a Columbo Mac starts to snap the policeman out of it and tries, without much help, to get Chan’s life back on track. Frank (Nicholas Tse) sits through a relentless succession of tears and tantrums as the Inspector dramatizes for far too long before realizing that what’s called for is action-packed revenge. His recuperation is a gradual process: he squanders a duo of petty thieves in the street; he bets with a rival officer on Joe’s arrest; he buddies up with Frank in a humble appreciation of Rush Hour style male bonding; when a bomb is strapped to Ho Yee and she is hospitalized as a consequence, Chan finally stops moping about and bursts into action.
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