hong kong, 1985, cantoneseClearly the moral here is to never try and bribe Jackie Chan. He’ll bring his long suffering girlfriend to the big fight and still win.
JACKIE CHAN
Police Story
This was a ton of fun. There’s honestly not that much more to say other than that. There’s no huge idea or interesting plot or family memory to draw on, or anything like that. It’s a super fun, silly, occasionally jaw dropping, martial arts film from one of the most talented physical actors since the silent era. Which, to be clear, is not a criticism. This was great!
What I do find interesting to think about though, is the way in which CGI and superhero films have made something like this feel even more vital than it did in the 80s when it was first released. I mean, the stunts in this film are absolutely insane. Like Buster Keaton/Harold Lloyd level bonkers. To know, for sure, that Jackie Chan is actually doing all of them? Absurd.
The stakes in superhero films only rise. The entire genre is like that. Every time the heroes fight the villains, like a drug, it has to get more intense. That leads to utterly nonsensical situations where a street level hero like Spider-Man is suddenly saving the world every five minutes. In a movie sense, it’s so cool that we can finally see all that stuff on screen, and it mostly looks like the comic books, that’s rad. Childhood me is geeking out every time I get to see one of my literal heroes on the screen doing all this cool stuff.
But another big part of my brain knows I’m watching what amounts to a very realistic cartoon. And it just... doesn’t look quite right. There’s an uncanny valley that I think exists no matter how good the special effects are. Because my brain knows it’s not real. Whereas, watching a person do the most ludicrous stuff, and knowing that they were really doing it? That just hits so much harder.