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Police
Story
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Country
: |
Hong
Kong |
| Year: |
1985 |
| Genre: |
Action |
| Format: |
DVD |
| Running
Time: |
94
mins |
| Distributor: |
Media
Asia / Fortune Star/IVL |
| Date
reviewed: |
08/07/2002 |
| |
|
| Producer: |
Leonard
Ho Koon-Cheung |
| Director: |
Jackie
Chan |
Cast: Jackie Chan, Brigitte
Lin, Maggie Cheung, Chor Yuen, Bill Tung, Ken Tong, Lam
Kwok-Hung |
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Story:
Chan plays the super cop Ka-Kui in the first of the
Police Story series. Ka-Kui along with his squad arrest
Chee, one of Hong Kong's biggest drug dealers. He is
assigned by his superiors to protect Chee's former employee
now turned key witness. It just so happens that the
key witness is the beautiful and cunning Salina, played
by always and still a screen legend Brigitte Lin. Naturally
Salina is able to elude Ka-Kui and leaves him with no
evidence so Chee is set free, which results with Chee
setting up Ka-Kui for murder and putting him on the
run. A beaten Ka-Kui faces down Chee and his gang in
a climatic fight in a mall.
Review: The only good result from Chan's
early atrocious American effort The
Protector just happens to be the inspiration he
received for Police Story (which was given the self-explanatory
nickname Glass Story by his stunt team).
Chan, like in most of his films, is such a joy to
watch especially in this classic. Police Story offers
up Chan with his expected yet unusual outrageous stunts
mixed with his brand of physical humor (the bouncing
and juggling of the telephones while answering them
is comedic brilliance). Brigitte puts to good use
her beauty and shares not only in the comedic spotlight
with Chan but also with the action. However, the one
"element" that always disappoints me with
the Police Story films is how they under use Maggie
Cheung: One of my favorite actresses and her character
May only seems to grace the screen for a laugh or
for a beating.
Police Story always seems to be on people's criteria
when judging any Jackie Chan film in the stunt and
action department and it shows. In the opening we
are treated with an inventive exciting car chase through
a shantytown then to Chan hanging onto a hijacked
bus with an umbrella. In the middle there are some
small though rough and brutal fights that lead up
to an insane battle in a mall. Glass is shattered
in almost every frame as we watch Chan unleash sheer
fury and anger on everyone, which results in one of
the best-filmed creative one against all fights. It
includes some of his most famous stunts like Chan
driving a motorcycle with a goon through numerous
walls of glass (copied in Rapid Fire) to having Chan
slide down four stories through glass via pole.
Jackie Chan made up for his horrible early American
films like Battle Creek Brawl and The Protector with
Police Story. This film will always stand as one of
his best not only because of Jackie Chan's hard work
on and off camera but also due to the stunt players
whom made this a sheer energetic and thoroughly enjoyable
film.
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DVD
Fortune
Star/IVL [ NTSC,
All Region ] :
This re-mastered Police Story DVD
comes as part of the excellent trilogy box set produced
by Fortune star, a sleek and stylishly designed presentation
for one of the greatest Hong Kong action trilogies in
recent memory. With a sturdy cardboard case, each DVD
is presented in a slim line cardboard case, each one
almost designed to look like a mini police file of sorts.
To top it all off there’s also the welcome extra
of a hardback photo book that showcases some excellent
moments from across the trilogy.
It’s generally a sure bet most Fortune Star releases
will live up to their boasting of been re-mastered and
restored, this offering doesn’t let the side down
either. Compared to earlier releases this provides an
obvious improvement, presented in anamorphic widescreen
1:85:1, all throughout a consistently great picture
quality is maintained, although some scenes do suffer
from slight glare in terms of brightness, this could
well be due to the original filming. The video presentation
is presented with all the standard audio options to
compliment viewing, with original 2.0 Cantonese, 5.1
and DTS soundtracks available, along with 5.1 mandarin.
The subtitles haven’t been neglected either in
this re-mastering party, they’re done justice
with clear translations, grammar is taken care with
and they’re a breeze to read over the frantic
action much of the movie displays.
To compliment the DVD presentation you’re given
the standard array of extras as far as Fortune Star
releases go, with new and old trailers provided, along
with still photo galleries of the movie. However there’s
the curious 5 minute presentation showing outtakes and
behind the scenes shots of Jackie’s more note
worthy stunts over the years, generally displaying just
how much he ends up busting himself to entertain his
adoring fans.
When put up against other offerings this provides the
best option in terms of audio and video quality, with
a sterling job done in terms of the re-mastering. The
extras are sparse, but in terms of the box set presentation
it’s hard not to call this perhaps the definitive
way to own the action packed Police Story trilogy.
DVD
Reviewed by Gareth Prior
DVD Mega Star [ NTSC, All
Region ] :
The
region less DVD distributed by Media-Asia/Megastar
and comes packed with their usual extras: Multiple/selectable
languages (here it's just Cantonese and mandarin and
subtitles (the English ones are nice), short bios
backed with filmographies, and some trailers.
DVD
Hong
Kong Legend [
PAL, Region 2
] :
The
image quality is pretty good with an anamorphic
widescreen transfer with the original Cantonese
audio track in DD 5.1. The subtitles are also of
great quality and the extra consist of an Audio
Commentary With HK Cinema Expert Bey Logan; Cast
Information; Trailers; Interview with Jackie Chan
(20min.), Never Before Seen Outtake Montage (those
that you can find on the now out of print Japanese
laser disc). This disc is truly a must have if you
like Police Story, probably the best version of
this movie, uncut, undubbed with great image and
sound and a couple of interesting extra. But you
need to be able to play Pal DVD.
Reviewed
by Chris Hanyok
You
can purchase this movie at : 
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| Story |
Cast |
Entertainment |
Subtitles |
Overall |
| 3.5 |
5 |
5 |
4.5 |
5 |
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| © 1999-2003 by “KFC
Cinema”. All rights reserved. |
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