Le Marin des mers de Chine

There are certain cinema ideas that were just meant to work, no matter what the circumstances might be. Jackie Chan fighting pirates easily ranks up there as one of the slickest ideas ever composed. Thank goodness it delivered on the premise. Jackie Chan's Project A is a mesh of action, comedy, and homage to classic slapstick. Within the 100+ minutes you'll see some spectacular fights, even more spectacular physical stunts, hilarious physical humor, and of course, Chan at his best. Unlike the insurance-run Hollywood, the Jackie Chan Stunt Team wasn't afraid of taking risks or getting hurt at the sake of entertainment, and this beat-em-up' underrated classic overpowers any modern-day action film that Hollywood could muster. Project A is silly but viciously raw; and thanks to clever direction and choreography, its one of the better martial arts movies out there.

Project A is about (Yes guys, there is a plot) a group of sailors, Navy-like men trying to stop Chinese pirates from wreaking havoc in the coastline. However, because of corruption amongst the government and the police force, they are unable to receive enough funding to continue the fight and are forced to thwart the terrorism when it strikes on their home turf. Jackie Chan and co. must try to stop the rivalry against the Chinese police force and unravel the web of corruption that's entangling everyone involved and heightening the danger present. Jackie Chan not only starred and directed the flick, but he wrote the script too, and it's quite clever at times. Other times, it can be quite confusing—usually in those instances you are anticipating the next fight, which is never too far away.

In a martial arts movie, we watch for all about the fighting. While Enter the Dragon may have started the obsession and love towards the genre, Jackie Chan and his reliable crew perfected the art in the 80s. Project A is easily one of the best choreographed films of all-time in terms of the action; some of the fights are just flat-out unbelievable. Jackie Chan fights with a bicycle for crying out loud. While the punching and kicking combinations aren't as gruesome as his other films (Drunken Master, Meals on Wheels, Dragons Forever), the elaborate movements and avoidance of damage (example: Chan avoids a man swinging a sword at him for two minutes straight) more than make up for it. Not a single action fan should be disappointed. Plus, just like Chan's best comedic work, there has to be at least one humorous fight thrown in, and Project A delivers in this category as well.

Chan's direction does two things: allows for the action to remain intense, and showcases just how elaborate everyone's movements are. There is no trickery; you shall see elongated shots of hand-to-hand combat that's too precise to be filmed in the United States. While Chan doesn't have the ability to capture emotions like Spielberg or Scorsese he knows how to flesh out the energy and craft of a good fight. And that's why we are watching this, correct? Nobody's acting here is award-worthy, but it gets the job done and maintains its silly-but-serious tone. Sammo Hung gives the best performance of the film as the thief that thwarts Chan's quest for justice and at the same time helps him.

Bottom Line: While perfection or masterpiece isn't achieved here, Project A delivers everything you could possibly want in a martial arts film: amazing stunts, great fights, decent story, good acting, worthy adversary, explosive finale, and a tang of humor. Well-directed and written by the master himself, Project A remains one of Jackie Chan's best work and another example of how his foreign films are far superior to that of his work in America. It's not all his fault though; Hollywood doesn't lust as much over precision and perfection as the Chinese do when staging a fight. Legend of Drunken Master's final fight took months to film; one stunt here required a week of merely convincing Chan before actually filming it----we don't believe in investing that much time towards a couple of minutes. This is called effort, and Chan's career has more effort than twenty-five actors and actresses put together. Project A: Jackie Chan fighting pirates; it's too good to be true. Thank goodness it's true.

P.S. Is it so hard to correctly dub a movie? Buena Vista pretty much butchered this film.

Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao and Samo Heung were all at the height of their considerable powers when this film was made and it shows. This blows just about every other martial arts film out of the water faster than any of San Pao's pirates ever could. With humour, suspense and a half decent plot thrown in to add to the blistering action I found this to be the 'three dragons' most accessible film to a western audience. The humour translates well and three sequences stand out as some of the best action scenes ever put to film the three being Jackie's homage to 'Safety Last' by falling from the clock tower, the bonkers bike chase through increasingly narrow city streets, and the final showdown defeat of San Pao by Jackie, Yuen Biao and Samo (with a little help from Mars and some wayward grenades). This is the pinnacle of Jackie Chans stunt career and is near impossible to better and I doubt that anyone will ever reach this level of stunt excellence again. If you only ever see one Jackie Chan film see this one as it is truly unique.

Okay, let's judge this film overall, and not just by the fighting, which is obviously the best thing about this film.

The sets are very good, and you can tell that this was a big-budget film for the time. You get the feel of being in colonial turn-of-the-century Hong Kong. The costumes add to this feel too, not to mention the fact that a lot of the buildings used actually ARE Hong Kong landmarks from all those years ago. On top of this, there's the fact that the film ages less because it is a period piece. Police Story might as well be called, "Eighties Story." Acting - well, although I watched this movie in Chinese with English subtitles, and with English dubbing, I cannot find anything wrong with the acting. It's all done pretty well, with the obvious quirks that make Hong Kong movie acting what it is: strained facial expressions, a lot of pointing, and a lot of laughing that is laughable itself.

Sound - not very good, but when you consider that all the sound had to be re-dubbed, it makes sense, and allow for more leniency.

The plot is not wafer-thin, as has happened in earlier Chan movies, but this isn't Pi. To be honest, it's about as complicated as a Jackie Chan movie is ever going to get, and if the only reason for watching a kung-fu movie is plot, you're an idiot, anyway.

Right, then - action - and boy oh boy, this film is full of incredible action. I have over sixty Jackie Chan films in my collection, so I know what I'm talking about when analysing his films. Project A ranks among the best of his films, when looking at the action. There are so many fights staged, and so many pay-offs. You get to see Jackie, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biu fighting each other, and the bad guys in such a fast, furious, and creative way that this is an action movie you'll never forget. Dick Wei is muscular and mean as the head of the pirates, and is a formidable foe, who forces the three brothers to come together to dispose of him.

As usual, the stunts would not have been allowed in Britain or America, but hey, this is Kong Kong, so let's blow these guys up, and watch them flip and fly across the set for our own satisfaction.

Overall, this is a top notch film, with wonderfully edited fights, excellent creativity, and superb Chanesque humour along the way. It's a showpiece of the efforts of the three special ones of Hong Kong cinema in the eighties, and any fan of Hong Kong cinema should only miss this at their peril.

Boy, that lead-in stinks of a rotting cliche, doesn't it? But I really do enjoy this movie. Every time it hits cable, I watch it.

Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung play wonderfully off of each other, even in the dubbed version. The story is realistic enough to be compelling, and the action sequences are superb. My personal favorite is the battle on the bicycles in the narrow back alleys.

The one thing that has made Mr. Chan my favorite martial arts actor is the way his movies infuse humor and slapstick into serious fight scenes, and Project A, in my opinion, does that better than any of his other films.

Highly recommended.

In their incredibly dangerous stunts and amazing body control, Jackie Chan and Buster Keaton are surely kindred spirits. In this film Chan falls from a clock tower, slowed only by a few sheets of fabric, and lands on his head, and it seems a miracle that it didn't kill or paralyze him. And he did that stunt several times(!), which on its own makes the film worth seeing. Just imagine if Harold Lloyd had actually fallen during Safety Last!. As for the rest of it, it's as zany as you might expect, with a plot that's not always easy to follow laced with martial arts sequences and juvenile humor. It's a fun one to watch and wonder what's coming next though, and Chan is, as always, irrepressible.