Police story (1985)

As one of the first real Jackie Chan films, i wasn’t sure going in whether this would have teething problems or not. It’s not a perfect film, but it really demonstrates that Jackie Chan knew exactly what he was doing right from the start.

Set in modern-day hong kong, Jackie Chan plays a police officer framed by a drug lord and pursued by his own department as he attempts to find a key witness to get that drug lord back in prison. But really this is all unimportant backstory for the main event, which is a series of excellent fight scenes, inside and outside, moving and static, across hong kong. And the fight scenes are really excellent. I heard there wasn’t much in the way of safety regulation during filming and things got dangerous for Chan and the other actors. That’s a little concerning, but all the flying smashed glass in the end product is a true spectacle.

The runtime is a lovely hundred minutes, and there is a little bit of drag in some of the dialogue scenes, because no one is watching this film for character development, but this is a minor critique as most of the time we just get to watch Jackie Chan jumping around and beating people up. When that’s what’s going on, police story shines.

It might be old and an early attempt from Jackie Chan, but all the hallmarks are already present and the film is a lot of fun to watch!