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After several recent Hollywood flops, Jackie Chan has gone back to Hong Kong for one of his old action franchises. In "New Police Story," Chan reprises the role of a supercop fighting crime, chasing villains and at the same time reclaiming some lost local glory.
The first "Police Story" film was made in 1985. Then at the height of his athleticism, Chan performed lightning-quick kung fu and death-defying jumps. Now he's 50 and not so agile or nimble. Although "New Police Story" still includes dazzling fights and jaw-dropping stunts -- including a runaway double-decker bus and a climax on top of Hong Kong's concave-roofed Convention Center -- this is a different kind of cop caper.
Compared to his recent comic-action shtick, this is a far darker and more serious outing. There is little to no comedy here. In fact, various characters die nasty, torturous deaths. Chan's character, Inspector Wing, doesn't just face physical obstacles and stunts, he is put through a psychological bender. As the leader and sole survivor of a disastrous mission, where his entire team is killed by a bank-robbing gang of fashion-trash punks, Wing is racked with guilt and falls into a drunken stupor.
Faced with this debilitating despair, can his idealistic, young new partner pull him out of his doldrums and bring the gang to justice? Can he still go mano a mano with a kid half his age? Mirroring Chan's own career crisis, "New Police Story" seems to concede Chan's faltering status as boxoffice draw. Aimed squarely at the Asian market, this effort is unlike your average Chan vehicle. Although he is still the star, Chan's not carrying the film on his own. Like Inspector Wing, he is no longer an unstoppable force of one.
A major part of the movie's appeal are the many young Hong Kong actors and teen idols inhabiting supporting roles. Hunky heartthrob Daniel Wu makes a meal playing against type as a cop-hating psychopath with family issues. Less focused is Nicholas Tse as Wing's Mod-looking eager-beaver partner. Coaxed out of retirement is Hong Kong beauty Charlie Yeung to be Chan's love interest. Canto-pop fans will also recognize other faces from the Emperor Entertainment Group's roster. After all, they co-financed the picture.
By Chan's standards, there is more story and character development in "New Police Story" than his usual Hong Kong stuntfests. In particular, Wu and Tse's supporting roles are given greater shades of nuance than the franchise's typical cardboard stereotypes. Or at least they try to. This is still a silly action movie, and the script's psychological profundity is simplistic at best. As for Chan, he spends as much screen time shedding tears as throwing kicks.
The shorthand of most Hong Kong action filmmaking is to fill the screen with as much activity as possible, narrative-relevant or not. "New Police Story" is certainly a case of that. The characters are kept busy in this densely plotted tale. At just over two hours, a trim -- particularly in the emotionally flat scene when Chan's colleagues are methodically dispatched -- wouldn't hurt at all.
But even if it's not a classic, "New Police Story" is still a grade above Chan's recent output. More significantly, now that he has come to terms with his own infallibility, both physically and at the boxoffice, Chan's career might just continue in a more unpredictable and interesting direction.
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