After Bruce, came perhaps an even bigger Hong Kong icon—I’m talking the man, Jackie Chan. With a career reaching back to the mid-seventies--with bit parts even before that--for a time, he was the star in Asian cinema. And as is often the case, the reasons aren’t that complicated. But before we get into that, here we’ll be looking at my personal favorite from his repertoire—some argue Armor of God, some argue Mr. Nice Guy (I won’t argue that the climax to that one is incredible), but for me, it has to be 1985’s Police Story. Though, as I’ll note later, it doesn’t necessarily have my favorite action scene from him…
Chan’s appeal, as we’ll see in this film, is twofold—he’s both incredibly physically gifted, with stunts that imbue that all-important authenticity, but also more than capable of channelling the hapless everyman schmuck. Whereas Bruce went through hordes of bad guys with nunchucks flying, Chan’s characters are always improvizing, always getting by the skin of their teeth. Not unlike a certain Henry Jones Jr. in western cinema, and that’s why that sort of underdog yet capable characters are always appealing. Chan was also inspired by the likes of Chaplin and Buster Keaton, and with martial arts prowess came also physical comedy—that was exemplified wonderfully in his earlier breakouts in Hong Kong, like the classic Drunken Master.
Police Story sees him play future recurring character Ka-Kui, here a Hong Kong police officer on the trail of a major crime lord (Chor Yuen). Immediately we’re treated to a classic scene with a raid on a shanty town that offers all the kinetic vibes you could handle, complete with the iconic sequence of Chan rushing down a steep hillside to intercept a bus. And then it only goes further from there with him single-handedly trying to hijack the vehicle. As often with Chan’s stunts, it’s all authentic and in-camera—and thus, the adrenaline rush is all the sweeter.
Chan’s films usually have fairly simple setups of him playing a rather unlucky guy who ends up going up against criminal bad guys, but there’s slightly more too it here. There’s his struggles with the police bureaucracy, and there’s his bad luck between the women around him (Maggie Cheung and Brigette Lin)—also leading to some of the funniest moments here. You’ve got him trying to manage an entire office of telephones, you’ve got that one memorable moment of a tape mix-up in a courtroom—it doesn’t matter if it’s in Cantonese, it’s hilarious whatever language you speak.
But of course, it all leads to the highlight—the action sequences at the end, in a shopping mall, where we see, from multiple angles, Chan crash through multiple sheets of glass—painful, but right there you see his dedication to the art. It’s not the worst he suffered—that would be in Armor of God—but being willing to suffer damaged bones and more is something that not that many other stars can really claim, now, can they?
Police Story may not be supremely complicated but it’s all kinds of entertaining and memorable on each of its levels, and exemplifies all that made Jackie’s flicks so fun. But for the actual physical peak of his displays, I look to the fight scene at the end of Wheels on Meals, where Chan squares up against fellow martial artist Benny Urquidez—with one particular moment involving candles that is simply incredible. The egos of both pushed them to their limits, and it shows—sometimes, some healthy competition goes a way in hitting those ever higher notes of excellence.
Chan of course would eventually hit Hollywood, with the Rush Hour films and all—but for now, we’ll move on a bit a couple more decades, with another film that hit the west in its own way…
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