The setup
Police Story is an action comedy following honest Hong Kong police detective Chan Ka Kui (Jackie Chan) after he single handedly arrests a major triad drug lord. Ka Kui is assigned to protect the drug lord’s secretary, who is set to testify for the state, but things quickly go wrong when she vanishes. The syndicate retaliates by framing Ka Kui for a murder he didn't commit, forcing the clean cop to go on the run to protect his girlfriend, clear his name, and bring down the criminals through a series of jaw dropping, high stakes martial arts stunts and battles.
Police Story is one of those films that reminds you exactly why Jackie Chan became such a massive star.
The story is pretty simple. Jackie is a policeman trying to bring down a drug kingpin, but honestly, the story isn't really the reason you're watching this. You're here for the action, the stunts and Jackie Chan doing things that would make a health and safety inspector have a breakdown.
The opening chase is brilliant, with cars smashing through buildings and basically nobody seeming to care whether they're going to survive it. Then you've got the bus chase, which is just ridiculous in the best possible way.
And then there's the shopping centre finale. Jackie is fighting loads of people, smashing through windows, using everything around him as a weapon and eventually sliding down an electrified pole. The fact that so many of these stunts were actually done for real makes it even more impressive. He genuinely got injured doing some of this stuff, which is absolutely mental.
It's not perfect, and some of the dubbing can be a bit strange, but none of that really matters because Police Story is just ridiculously entertaining.
It's old school Jackie Chan at his best, and after watching this I'm definitely interested in checking out more of the series.
NCN Score
Our final score for Police Story.
