Police Story, or, Keystone Copaganda

When I saw Supercop when it was released in the US in 1996, I was already madly in love with it before the credits even stopped rolling. It was fun, twisty, unabashedly silly, and started my weird crush on Michelle Yeoh (then credited as Michelle Khan), who was doing some of the most amazing stunts I’d ever seen, and she didn’t even have top billing.

I didn’t learn until later that it was actually the third in the Police Story series, which was already well known in Asia and by lovers of Hong Kong action movies. The series has seven entries, including a spinoff Supercop 2 starting Yeoh. The first two movies were made part of The Criterion Collection, and they’re on the streaming service as well as a two-disc set.

Watching Police Story for the first time made me appreciate how much of the template was carried on in Supercop. Jackie Chan plays Chan Ka-kui, a — you might have guessed by this point — supercop with the Royal Hong Kong Police. He’s incorruptible and the best at what he does, but he values justice too much to play by the rules. He’s always getting in trouble with his girlfriend May (played by a criminally underused Maggie Cheung), who’s devoted to him but will fly into a jealous rage whenever she suspects he’s cheating on her or not giving her enough attention, always due to a wacky misunderstanding resulting from his current assignment. There’s always at least two spectacular set pieces, tons of fighting sequences, and multiple sequences of Chan doing slapstick.

And over the end credits, there are behind-the-scenes shots showing the filming of the biggest stunts and action sequences, including the parts whenever someone is inevitably seriously injured. Apparently on this one, Chan suffered burns while doing his climactic stunt, jumping off the sixth floor balcony of a mall and sliding down a string of lights to the ground floor.

It sure seems like anyone who’s most likely to be super into Police Story has probably already seen it years ago. But I think there’s a lot here for anybody who’s action-curious but feels kind of numb after the excesses of the Mission: Impossible and Bond movies, and is looking to feel something again.

I don’t like Police Story quite as much as Supercop, but that’s probably just because the latter was my first real exposure to Hong Kong action movies, and Michelle Yeoh adds so much to the whole thing. Honestly, though, the third movie feels like the rough edges have been sanded down for global audiences. It’s more a light-hearted take on action movies, with stunt work from some of the best to ever do it.

Police Story, on the other hand, is all over the place in tone. In one scene, it seems to be going for mid-80s serious crime thriller, then it’ll suddenly turn into slapstick physical comedy, or an extended wacky misunderstanding bit right out of Three’s Company, and then a melee fight scene, and then back to hard-boiled crime story substituting Jackie Chan’s stunts for Charles Bronson or Clint Eastwood’s guns.

There’s an extended bit in a police station where Chan is having to answer a bunch of different calls from different desks, all on his own. Of course, there are plenty of missed conversations, talking to the wrong person, juggling the phones or catching them with his feet, etc. But the incoming calls range from someone missing a cow to a woman claiming her husband beats her, and another reporting a rape. Even for 1985 it feels odd.

Earlier, there’s a home invasion scene with a knife-wielding attacker, and I could not for the life of me understand why it was set to wacky music, or why the attacker was being so goofy. To be clear, I did figure it out eventually. But it says a lot about the tonal shifts that for a while, I was just shrugging and rolling with it. Okay, a woman being attacked with a knife played as light-hearted high-jinks, why not?

By the end, when Chan Ka-Kui has been pushed too far and sets out on a mission to bring down the bad guy at any cost, it’s such a tonal shift that I was convinced another twist had to be coming. But instead, it was the showpiece action sequence, set in the aforementioned multi-story mall. So much property damage, so much broken glass. Just countless numbers of broken display cases and windows. There is also a motorcycle.

Ultimately, the wild shifts in tone are what make it feel like a real thing. If Supercop feels a bit sanded down, Police Story still has all the sharp edges left when people decide to make a movie, dammit! Criticizing it for being corny, or for being obviously written as a showcase for its stunt sequences, would be missing the point to such a degree as to suggest basic media illiteracy. The people making this are masters at all of the hardest stuff.

I’m still not super-familiar with Hong Kong action movies, but I’ve seen enough of them to declare that Police Story deserves its place as a classic. I’ve heard that fans think the second one is bigger and even better, so I’m already looking forward to it.