Project S

After helping thwart a major hostage situation, "Jessica Yang" (Michelle Yeoh) is sent to Hong Kong to assist in a police matter there. As it so happens her fiancé, "David Chang" (Rongguang Yu) has just recently moved there because he supposedly wants to stabilize his financial situation prior to marrying her. While this may be true he also plans on robbing a large bank there with some help from an American criminal named "Roger Davidson" (Alain Guernier). What neither of them realize is that their paths are about to cross again in an unexpected way. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this film is an off-shoot of the "Police Story" series (featuring Jackie Chan as "Inspector Chan Ka Kui") and essentially follows "Police Story 3-Supercop". Yet, while Jackie Chan does have a rather brief (and bizarre) scene here it focuses almost exclusively on Michelle Yeoh. That being said it lacks the peculiar mixture of comedy and charisma that only Jackie Chan can give to a film. That's not to say that this film is necessarily bad, it's just that it doesn't have the same degree of excitement as any of the "Police Story" movies. Accordingly, I rate it as just average.

This spin-off of "Supercop" is one of my favorite Hong Kong action movies. "Once a Cop" ("Chao ji ji hua") kicks off with a rousing high-energy title sequence and never lets up. The story is meatier than most action yarns: a Chinese policewoman (Michelle Yeoh) tracks a gang of bank robbers to Hong Kong, unaware that their ringleader is her fiancé, an ex-cop (Yu Rong-Guang). This intriguing set-up searches the emotions of the main character as it explores the cultural clash between get-rich-quick Hong Kong and the duty-bound mainland. There's also a sympathetic subplot about a Hong Kong cop who's attracted to Yeoh but feels intimidated by both her and her fiancé. The action sequences are all superbly executed, credibly grounding their martial arts in the actors' own athletic abilities (rather than falling back on wires and special effects). And Yeoh's graceful gymnastic prowess has never been used to better advantage.

Unfortunately, not everything about "Once a Cop" clicks. The relationship between Yeoh and Yu isn't developed as deeply as it could be (though it's still more interesting than most action-movie romances), and it ultimately doesn't make the most of the premise's irony. Jackie Chan's cameo (reprising his "Supercop" role) is awkward and not well integrated into the story. And Alain Guernier as the central villain gives the worst impersonation of an Englishman I've ever seen (even if John Malkovich's Dr. Jekyll in "Mary Reilly" comes pretty darn close). But pound per pound - and punch per punch - "Once a Cop" is as thrilling and exciting as any reality-based martial-arts movie to come out of the Crown Colony. Anyone wowed by Michelle Yeoh's work in "Tomorrow Never Dies" should definitely check out this

Depending on your whereabouts in the world, this film may go under any one of the following titles: Supercop 2 (USA), Once a Cop, Police Story 3 Part 2, Police Story 4: Project S, Police Story V, Project S (UK), Supercop (also UK). Whatever the title, do not be fooled into thinking that this is a Jackie Chan film; yes, he does appear in the movie, but only briefly and in a scene that has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the film.

Michelle Yeoh, however, plays the same character as she did in Police Story 3 (which was known as Supercop in the US and did star JC—are you keeping up?), a hard-as-nails mainland Chinese cop named Yang. She is called to Hong Kong to lend her expertise and assist in the apprehension of a gang of Chinese criminals who are pulling heists right left and centre and peeing-off the local cops.

The police operations are going swimmingly until Yang recognises one of the criminals as Cheng Feng, her boyfriend from China who left for HK to find his fortune, and the two become reacquainted under somewhat difficult circumstances.

With a decidedly routine plot, Project S needed to be something special in the action department in order to compensate, but despite some cracking fight action towards the end, there is far too much quiet time spent between bouts. The action is also geared towards gun-play rather than martial arts, so those expecting a full on fight-fest will be disappointed. That is not to say that Yeoh and co-stars don't display some wonderful skills from time to time; the high kicking action is pretty good when it happens—it just doesn't happen often enough.

The final half an hour, which has the gang attempt a daring bank robbery, offers the best dose of action, with Yang going up against a foe twice her size (and kicking ass, of course!).

Director Stanley Tong and star Michelle Yeoh have both made far better films than this, but if your expectations are not set too high, you may find Project S a reasonable way to spend your time (although 105 minutes was a tad too long for me!).

This film is being billed in the USA as a Jackie Chan flick. Don't buy into the hype - Jackie has a short (2 minutes approx.) cameo in a scene that makes little sense and is hardly tied in to the rest of the film. His presence in drag is unexplained, and worse still his voice has been dubbed by somebody who apparently spent two hours at the dentist's before filming, and was still under the effects of the anaesthetic - or at least it seems that way.

The rest of the film is passable - some good shots of Hong Kong and Guangzhou, but some glaring plot holes as well. Nothing to write home about, but a fairly good performance from Michelle Yeoh at least brings this up to a 5 out of 10 effort.

‘Supercop 2', the sequel to ‘Police Story 3: Supercop' from the same director Stanley Tong, is more than just a sequel. To me, it seems slightly superior to the (still of course very entertaining!) first movie. It has a different approach altogether, because the first movie was basically about full speed action and amazing stunts like we are used from Jackie Chan's movies. Michelle Khan in her role as a police officer from China helped him along. In some ways, it was a `buddy movie' with one buddy being an extremely tough girl! In the second movie, Michelle Khan is the star. Jackie only has a small guest appearance in a silly and unnecessary scene. ‘Supercop 2' gets a lot more serious than its predecessor. The tragedy motif: Michelle realizes her ex-boyfriend has become a criminal and now works for a gang of high-tech bank robbers. The characterization is surprisingly detailed, down to small things like choosing a wrong present for someone you love but not completely understand, and the ending (Will she shoot him? Or will she let him escape?) had me sit on the edge of my seat... My favourite scene is Michelle's fight against one of the mercenaries: a 7 feet giant trying to hit a 5 feet girl, and you bet he's getting his butt kicked really hard – I've never seen something like this before. Hah, take this, Rambo! Probably this movie was an important step for Michelle Khan (a.k.a. Yeoh) on her way to the Bond movie `Tomorrow Never Dies'. Very recommendable, unless you only watch movies for being a Jackie Chan completist, and don't care about any other qualities in a movie, like a few other reviewers here seem to do, I'm afraid.