Police Story 3: Supercop

After the dissapointing Police Story 2, Jackie steps off the director chair and let's Stanley Tong do the job. This entry in the series tones down the acrobatic fights trademarked by Chan, focusing more in vehicle chases, shoot-outs and regular (but well coreographed of course) hand to hand fights, and instead of Ka Kui running around Hong Kong, he travels from country to country while infiltrating a gang of drug dealers. Funnily enough this feels more of a natural sequel to the original than the jarring Police Story 2. The addition of Michelle Yeoh's Capt Yang brings a lot of freshness and contrast to Chan's Ka Kui wacky and hot-blooded persona, and steals the show for the most part. The only downside is that most of the secondary characters from the previous movies are either ditched or have just small roles. Still, you can go wrong with this one.

This is a really fun movie. Jerry Bruckheimer could learn a thing or five from Stanley Tong. I can only give it 8 out of 10 because it's not exactly deep, y'know? It is light as a feather, but it's also fun, fun, fun -- far more interesting and surprising than any "action" film I've seen out of Hollywood in a long, long time, all of which have seemed to me to be recycling the same script, plot, characters, and score to desperation. (Beats me how people could shell out eight bucks a pop to see Enemy of the State aka Mercury Rising aka Absolute Power...when they could rent Supercop for two bucks and actually see something unexpected.)

Of course, this film stars Jackie Chan being his usual goofy self, deftly making his extraordinary skills as a martial artist, stuntman, and physical comedian look as natural as breathing, but the other amazing talent in this piece is exhibited by the fantastic stuntwoman Michelle Yeoh (aka Michelle Khan), the same woman who for the first time blew away many Western moviegoers in Tomorrow Never Dies.

I think this woman is made entirely of rubber and springs. Most of her stunts in this movie are actually scarier and more daring than most of Chan's, and some of the most brutal took more than one take. And she did a lot of them in a dress!

Fortunately, she is also in the sequel to this, Supercop II. It's seven years old, and I can hardly wait to rent it. (When was the last time you were in a hurry to see an action flick almost ten years old?) Too bad I can't say the same for Rush Hour, which I had to click off after less than 10 minutes because Chan's co-lead character was such an obnoxious idiot.

I really hope Hollywood learns from Chan and his Hong Kong associates, and not the other way around. Indicators are not positive. Keep your fingers crossed. Meanwhile, watch Supercop and enjoy something fresh.

Great action scenes with a young Jackie Chan doing all his own stunts, including some pretty incredible ones. It is also a very funny comedy movie. Sure he's not an awesome actor or anything but he is definitely likable and a funny guy with an amazing level of talent for the physical fight scenes and stunt work. We really enjoyed this one.

POLICE STORY III - SUPER COP (Jing Cha Gu Shi III: Chao Ji Jing Cha)

(USA: Supercop)

Aspect ratio: 2.39:1 (Technovision)

Sound format: Mono

Police officer Chan Ka-kui (Jackie Chan) goes undercover within a criminal gang whose millionaire boss (Kenneth Tsang) plans to dominate the Asian heroin trade.

Though co-scripted by Chan regular Edward Tang (also responsible for the first two entries in the "Police Story" franchise), POLICE STORY III - SUPER COP is slightly darker in tone than its immediate predecessors and offers a much more streamlined combination of comedy, drama and action. This shift in focus was occasioned by the hiring of stuntman-turned-director Stanley Tong (RUMBLE IN THE BRONX, CHINA STRIKE FORCE, etc.), who keeps a tight rein on the film's narrative excesses whilst indulging some of the most spectacular action set-pieces ever filmed, *anywhere*.

Nothing in the first half of the movie - Chan's fight with gymnastic beauty Sam Wong at a mainland police training center; his initiation into Tsang's criminal gang by helping the villain's brother (Yuen Wah) escape from a prison work camp; a battle with police in a crowded marketplace, etc. - can prepare viewers for the *astonishing* climactic confrontation between Good and Evil, involving a series of hair-raising car stunts, Chan dangling (apparently unassisted) from a rope-ladder beneath a helicopter as it swings *high* above the streets of Kuala Lumpur (!), and the final hand-to-hand battle on top of a speeding train, upon which the aforementioned helicopter has become precariously entangled - and not a CGI shot in sight! Filmed with breathtaking gusto by artists working at the top of their game, this is commercial cinema at its most astounding (check the outtakes during the final credits, in which various participants come perilously close to serious injury or *death* during filming!).

Maggie Cheung makes another extended cameo appearance as Chan's beleaguered girlfriend, though the film is stolen clean away by Michelle Yeoh (billed as 'Michelle Khan' in some prints) as a mainland policewoman who assists Chan in his undercover operation, and who proves to be Chan's equal during the fast and furious combat sequences (the character proved popular enough to warrant her own spin-off feature, PROJECT S, in 1993!). Easily the best of the "Police Story" series to date, and one of the most memorable efforts to emerge from HK in the last fifty years, POLICE STORY III - SUPER COP is a winner. Followed by FIRST STRIKE (1996).

As usual, the movie was re-edited and rescored for its 1996 US debut under the title SUPERCOP. That version is missing only a few minutes of material, but should be avoided nonetheless.

(Cantonese and Mandarin dialogue)

Jackie Chan is the "Supercop" of the title in Stanley Tong's martial arts caper. Forget about the plot and just sit back and enjoy the spectacular stunts, broad comedy, (it's even funnier in this dubbed version), and first rate action sequences including an absolutely terrific climatic chase scene involving a train, a helicopter and a rope ladder between the two while the redoubtable Michelle Yeoh proves to be every bit Chan's equal when the chips are down. Not a Chan classic perhaps but hugely entertaining nevertheless.