B Plus Movies

Watching Jackie Chan’s American films, I often wonder if people who have not seen his Chinese films understand just how cool this man is. It’s not just that he did incredible stunts, but that he did them usually with no more to go on than some hand written calculations and a good guess. It’s not that he’s a comedic actor, but also a stunt choreographer and director, sometimes editing his own film. And it’s not just that he has made good movies, but that he’s made movies that completely change one’s expectations from cinema.

Case in point: Police Story.

The film starts with a slight goofball of a cop, played by Jackie Chan, who through a bit of luck and a lot of near fatal moments manages to arrest a crime lord. Afterward, he has to baby sit the crime lord’s secretary until the trial, causing tension and a great deal of misunderstanding between him and his girlfriend. As things progress, the crime lord starts making life a living hell for the cop, framing him for murder. The cop then must take extreme measures to clear his name, which leads to a great deal of mayhem and some really find martial artistry.

Jackie Chan made this movie as a reaction to the film The Protector, an American made action movie that he starred in but in the end thought was kinda bad (I only saw the end of that one, but I can see where he got his opinion). His efforts produced a work that elevated action movies to the next level.  Police Story did a number of things right, but the thing that set it apart was the intense, breathtaking stunts.

We see a shanty town destroyed by a car chase. We see Jackie holding onto a moving double decker bus by an umbrella. We see a motorcycle used as a melee weapon. And then there’s the climactic scene in the mall which is invariably listed as one of his best stunts ever.

Other movies have offered stunts of similar caliber, but what stitches Police Story together is the comedy that happens (mostly) when people aren’t flying across the screen or getting punched. Chan’s character, unlike the square jawed and humorless action heroes with which we are all familiar, seems remarkably approachable and believable, a man just trying to get through his day rather than someone who lives to stomp the wicked and spew bullets towards villainy.  Even when he’s doing things that humans shouldn’t be able to do, he seems the underdog and his success in no way seems inevitable, creating not only sympathy but tension for the viewer.

I don’t knock Jackie Chan’s American offerings. The Rush Hour films were enjoyable and I even liked The Medallion and The Tuxedo. But it’s his work done in China, the one’s where he’s operating without a safety net, by which all his other work must be compared. He may never outdo himself, but even 19 years after it’s release, Police Story shows that he’s got nothing to prove.

And around here, that gets a movie a B+

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