Police Story/Police Story 2

Jackie Chan elevated himself to international superstar status and inaugurated a new brand of Hong Kong genre cinema in 1985 with Police Story, an urban action movie that combined Chan's talents for spectacular martial arts fighting, gymnastic choreography, lighthearted comedy, and gasp-inducing stunts (which he always performed himself). Playing Chan Ka-Kui, a Hong Kong police inspector who is part of a sting operation to knock down local kingpin Chu Tao (Yuen Chor), our hero finds himself in the middle of a furious shootout, drives a passenger car through a hillside shanty town, and fights a gang of thugs while hanging from an umbrella outside a careening double-decker bus—all in the first sequence. Chan directs as well as stars, filling every moment with either high-octane action or goofy slapstick (much of it cringingly chauvinistic). Chan also gave Maggie Cheung her big break as his long-suffering girlfriend, May, with Brigitte Lin costarring as sophisticated mob crony Selina Fong, who is put under police protection after she agrees to testify against Chu. The runaway hit spawned the 1988 sequel Police Story 2, with Chan directing and starring once more, and Cheung returning as the hapless May. This time out, the inspector is demoted to the traffic division, which just happens to puts him in position to take on an extortion ring of bombers and a drug lord with revenge on his mind. The narrative and comic sequences are downright silly, but the stunts, set pieces, and martial arts choreography are amazing. Featuring both the original Cantonese and English-dubbed soundtracks with optional English subtitles on both films, extras include outtakes. Recommended. (S. Axmaker) [Blu-ray/DVD Review—May 7, 2019—Criterion, 222 min., in Cantonese w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $39.95, Blu-ray: $49.95—Making their latest appearance on DVD and Blu-ray, 1985’s Police Story and 1988’s Police Story 2 both feature great transfers with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-ray release. Extras on Police Story include excerpts from the 1999 documentary 'Jackie Chan: My Stunts' (65 min.), a podcast with Chan and filmmaker Edgar Wright (36 min.), interviews with Chan (20 min.) and Wright (14 min.), a 'Becoming Jackie' segment (16 min.), and 'The King vs. Kings II' excerpt from a 2017 TV program with the original members of the Jackie Chan Stunt Team (12 min.). Extras on Police Story 2 include the Hong Kong release version of the film (105 min.), a 1989 episode of the Son of the Incredibly Strange Film Show from 1989 (41 min.), a new 'Reinventing Action' behind-the-scenes segment (21 min.), an interview with actor and stuntman Benny Lai (16 min.), a segment from a 1964 French television program on Beijing opera training (13 min.), a stunt reel (5 min.), and an essay by critic Nick Pinkerton. Bottom line: these beloved Jackie Chan films are a welcome addition to the Criterion Collection.]