Review: Back when NEW POLICE STORY was originally announced, there was a real air of anticipation from Jackie Chan fans. Jackie’s films had followed a trademark ‘action slapstick’ style for the last few years - both in Hong Kong and America - and NEW POLICE STORY promised to be something different. Although it was decided that the film wouldn’t be a direct sequel to the original POLICE STORY films, the filmmakers kept the title to reflect the darker nature of the project, which was to be more in line with those earlier classics. The big question Chan fans were asking was could Jackie deliver a more serious role where he was less dependent on playing the lovable buffoon and more dependent on giving a dramatic performance? NEW POLICE STORY proved that he could.

Jackie Chan stars as Officer Wing Chan, a broken and alcoholic policeman. He’s a man who’s world is falling apart around him as he has lost the respect of his peers and risks losing his fiancée. From the very outset of the film its clear that this is supposed to be a Jackie Chan that we are unfamiliar with. Messily drunk, he passes out in an alley, and the film then flashes back to show how and why he has fallen apart and come to be in this state. It’s a strong opening and it sets up quite a dark atmosphere that the film manages to keep pretty well throughout with only the occasional minor break in tone. The film attempts to be a grittier than usual effort, although it still has a well polished feel to it and there is a sense that it is never entirely sinking its teeth into the drama that it flirts with. Chan gives a strong central performance, and resists the temptation to resort to the familiar likeable screen persona that he usually presents. It’s his best dramatic performance since CRIME STORY, choosing to play the part very low key - not only with regards to tempering his own performance but also by being very generous to his onscreen co-stars. The supporting cast rise to this challenge and are uniformly good, although noticably underwritten. Nicholas Tse makes a strong attempt at stealing the film from its older star - and he nearly succeeds. Tse visibly enjoys his role as Frank, Chans younger partner, and he’s also given some room to impress in the action stakes. The rest of the young cast also give good performances, especially Daniel Wu as the leader of the Police-baiting thieves and you can’t help but wish that they were given something more complex to get their acting teeth into.

As NEW POLICE STORY sets out to be a convincing action thriller, its nice to see that there’s a real sense of menace which drives several key scenes. The premise of a cop-baiting gang seems a little thin but its used to set-up several strong set pieces. As unlikely as the opening twenty minutes may seem at first, they’re certainly effective and display a little more brutality than you may first expect. This pays off well though and the emphasis on making NEW POLICE STORY a thriller is set, resisting the temptation to make this a bog-standard action fest. The majority of the films running time has several action scenes but little in the way of martial arts style action, so the rewarding bout that is part of the finale between Jackie and Andy On is all the more exciting. It’s set in about the most colourful location they could have chosen, but should have you hitting the rewind button a few times.

While NEW POLICE STORY proved something of a return to form for Chan, it does also have some annoying moments of melodrama that should have been much more subtle. There’s an effectively tense scene two-thirds of the way through the film which is then almost ruined by sloppy attempts to squeeze some sort of emotional reaction out of the situation, something which is entirely unnecessary and simply doesn’t work. There’s also the odd plot twist which doesn’t really convince, and ends up feeling like a lazy attempt to make the film seem more complex than it really is. Even with its few flaws though, NEW POLICE STORY confidently impresses not only in its attempts to make a quick change of direction in Chans output, but in the sheer energy from the entire cast. Benny Chan can occasionally feel like a hit-and-miss director but with NEW POLICE STORY he hits that target more often than he misses. More like this in the future, please.