Jing cha gu shi 2013

I have watched many of Jackie Chan's films in the past. I am a fan of how he combines his awesome martial arts skills and stunt work with precise comedic timing. We see a different Jackie Chan in "Police Story 2013", he gets darkly serious here.

Sad to say, I have not seen any of the five other Police Story films of Chan before. Not even the first one, which Jackie himself considers his best in terms of the action. This Police Story is not really related to the other films, so it does not really matter if you have seen the others or not.

The film opens with a shocking scene of Jackie Chan actually pulling the trigger of a pistol to his temple. From there we will get pulled into a tale of Captain Zhong Wen, a man torn between his dedication to his duty as a policeman and his duty as a father.

Zhong's rebellious daughter May introduces him to her boyfriend, Wu Jiang, who runs a very popular avant-garde bar. What was supposed to have been a family meeting turned out to be an elaborately-planned violent hostage-taking drama borne out of a tragic incident that happened five years ago.

Jackie Chan is much older now, but his action skills are not diminished. He gets to fight with a champion mixed martial arts fighter in one very long and brutal one-on-one fight scene. Awesome fight scene. His dramatic acting skills are wrung out here as well because of the dilemmas and tough decisions his character had to face. There was no hint of comedy in this Jackie here. We only see the old Jackie Chan smile and laugh in the outtakes over the final credits.

His daughter May was played by pretty young actress Tian Jing, whom I just saw in "Special ID" just last week. Too bad she did not figure in a fight scene in this film. But she was much better here in terms of her acting because of her character's arc. Tian actually looked a lot like Filipina actress Kim Chiu in this film.

The villain is played by award-winning Chinese actor Liu Ye. He plays his disturbed and vengeful character with much depth, with so many intense confrontation scenes with Jackie.

The direction by Sheng Ding was a little sloppy, with a lot of off-focus shots left in the final print. The story-telling and the script were quite neat in terms of the details, considering this tale went back and forth from previous events interjecting into present scenes. There were some welcome moments of comedy but they were not from Jackie.

Overall, this is a very good action film held together by an excellent dramatic story, with just the right amount of comedy to keep things interesting. Jackie Chan is really still at the top of his game, even at this age (he turns 60 in April this year). He should not be retiring soon. We still expect a lot from this talented man.

Because of his dedication to duty and the demands of his job "Senior Inspector Zhong Wen" (Jackie Chan) has essentially neglected his wife and daughter for years. As a result, when his wife is seriously injured in a car accident he arrives at the hospital much too late and this causes his grief-stricken daughter "Miao" (Tian Jing) to want nothing more to do with him. However, sometime later things seem to change when Miao calls him and sets up a meeting at a night club. Unfortunately, when he gets there he is knocked unconscious and is taken hostage along with his daughter and several other people. It soon transpires that the kidnappers want more than just money and Senior Inspector Zhong Wen is the key to their plans. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this is yet another movie which focuses on the serious side of Jackie Chan. And while he certainly performs well enough I believe that this trend has somewhat diminished the overall entertainment value of his films. It's just not the same without the humor that normally accompanies the martial arts and action. Likewise, the technique used to tell the story resulted in a slow pace which didn't help either. In any case, this wasn't necessarily a bad film by any means but it clearly wasn't up to the typical standards of a Jackie Chan movie and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

As a long time JC fan and movie buff, I found the fast paced editing too distracting. Why the editor decided to hack even dialog sequences into constantly shifting angles and tiny bits is beyond my knowledge of film making. The director and photography certainly covered ALL the bases, but editing tried too hard to evoke or imply action where it was not needed, or, at other times, cover for poorly directed choreography. I do understand JC is not a spring chicken and that plays a role in edits. Still...could be handled more concisely without jumping edits. Seemed as if the editor was a character at times. Hmmmm.

The story was fairly solid, production values were very high. Acting was spotty at times due to seemingly weak characterizations in the script. The premise had merit, though the finale was not entirely consistent to such.

Again, it was the frenetic editing and confusing camera direction that distracted from the core elements of the story/narrative and knocked two stars off the review. At the same time, two stars added for seeing JC in a serious role and incorporating family values regarding a single father trying to amend his relationship was great. There is, as always, tremendous talent there. As to those that criticize JC for this effort, I'd suggest they be more gracious toward a man that is evolving on personal levels, and one who strives to entertain at all costs. Go Jackie!!

Although Police Story 2013 (警察故事2013) stars Jackie Chan and shares the same name as the first three 'Police Story' films that got him famous, they're unrelated and very different in tone. Similar to the unrelated New Police Story (新警察故事) released in 2004, this film uses a serious, darker and gritter approach as well.

The story is about a group of people gets kidnapped at a nightclub, all seemingly unrelated, until it is revealed that is not the case and Jackie need to save the victims and his own daughter as well. The first half of the film is slightly boring and uneventful for an action thriller. Some plot events that happens in the film are unnecessary to the story.

Despite Jackie's great performance in the film (especially the emotional ending scene where he's willing to do whatever it takes to save his daughter), the film greatly suffers due to its lackluster plot and lack of memorable strong developed supporting characters.There's aren't enough action sequences in this film and most of them were normally out of focus and hard to really see what is really going on at times, especially the brutal cage match between Jackie and a Thai fighter.

The film also lacks a compelling villain, his motivations for doing the kidnapping are very personal but the film doesn't provide any scenes for the audience to empathize with his loss. A great villain normally have a plan that is well thought-out and precise. They know when should they strike and where it hurts the most. They have a goal and clearly knows the best way to accomplish it. This one doesn't.

Furthermore, the Cantonese-dubbed version I've watched in the cinema ruined the experience as well. I would really prefer that they use the original Mandarin version instead. A disappointing film.

Rating: 6.5/10

The reviews I have seen that rate this really low mostly have the same complaints. "Not enough action," Not enough humor." Personally I liked the fact that Jackie is going in a different direction. He is admitting that he's getting older. Instead of pretending he can still kick ass like when he was 30 ( *cough* Stallone, Schwarzenegger *cough* ) he is following more in the steps of Clint Eastwood.

In a way he reminded me of Robin Williams. When Robin gives up his clown persona and makes a movie like One Hour Photo, he shows he can really act. Well Jackie is moving away from his Kung Fu Clown persona and relying more on his acting. And he's showing that he has the chops.

I originally rated this movie higher, because I was unfairly judging it as a Jackie Chan movie.But I changed my score to a seven because I think that is a more objective rating. The movie does have some problems with the script, directing and editing. But it is by no means horrible. Perhaps some of the problems could have been fixed with a bigger budget. But then again, Hollywood size budgets are certainly no guarantee of quality either.

In short. If you do not require constant impractical martial arts action, or silly slapstick, then you will enjoy this for what it is. An action-drama, with enough action to satisfy your blood lust, but also an attempt at telling an interesting story.