Released Date: 23 Sept 2004

Synopsis:

Wing (Jackie Chan) is the Hong Kong police’s resident super cop. He’s the best of the best, cracking every case he handles in record time.

Fung (Nicholas Tse) is a rebel without a cause, a street-smart Hong Kong youth who longs to become a police officer. However, his late father’s criminal background makes this an impossible dream. Fung finally gets his chance to play at being a detective when he persuades Wing that he is a police officer, and they team up to track down a truly awesome group of adversaries, The Gang Of Five…

Led by Joe (Daniel Wu), the Gang consists of five young and cold-blooded criminals. When we first see them in action, they rob a bank before purposely setting off the alarm, treating the responding police officers as target practice. Joe (Daniel Wu) uses “shoot-them-up” videogames as his inspiration to create the most elaborate and deadly traps for the police. The son of an abusive and authoritarian senior police officer, Joe has been nursing a grudge against cops since childhood. He derives an almost sadistic pleasure from wounding and killing Hong Kong’s law enforcers.

Wing’s men are trapped, and gunned down one by one. Only Wing himself escapes…In the aftermath of this massacre, Wing’s life falls apart. His colleagues are all dead, including Rocky, the younger brother of his girlfriend Ka Yee (Charlie Yeung). He hides himself from Ka Yee and, though still technically on the force, sinks into an abyss of alcoholism and despair.

Back to his old self, Wing begins to piece together the identities of the Gang Of Five. Meanwhile, Joe reunites his team, and tries to set up a final gambit. However, Wing is now wise to his tactics. The same scenario in which Wing’s team-mates lost their lives is played out again, only now it’s the Gang Of Five that are hunted down.

Wing finally overcomes his own fears, and calls on all his reserves of courage and strength to finally defeat Joe.

Review:

The "New Police Story", unlike its pre-descendents unfolds itself with homely subjects like the importance of correct parenting, influence of video games on our youngs and the rebellious nature of today's teenagers. With Benny Chan (Heroic Duo, Gen X cop) and Jackie with his usual team of action choreographers behind the set, surprisingly there are no spectacular opening-scene with ears-deafening gunfights or multiple car crashes here. Instead, the opening was quiet and dejected, showing a drunkard cop, Wing (Jackie Chan) who could not even board a taxi and have to settle for the night in a back street alley.

The frame then brings us to and fro the time line explaining the background of each character as the plot develops. The screenplay was stylishly arranged but to all Jackie Chan's fans, the plot of his movies was always secondary. What matters most is the no-fuss Jackie Chan's actions. It is disappointing to see the opening action scene was but all computer generated, showing five bed-head, crazy-looking teenage robbers, led by Joe (Daniel Wu) rappelling down a hi-rise building. This was followed by a typical explosion and a series of gunfights, with Wing running out of a collapsing warehouse trolleying the bodies of his comrades.

Then came an overused bus-ride sequence, where a public bus coincidentally spring out of control during a police-and-robber chase. Expectedly the bus went crashing into a crowded pedestrian walk and glass-decorated buildings. Following was another explosion in the Police HQ. Although there's still not much punches and kicks from Jackie Chan at this point, the emotional attempt to snip the explosive wirings to save Wing's love, Ka Yee (Charlie Young) was both heart-pounding and seat-gripping.

Of course it would not be a complete "Police Story" without a one-on-one sparring action sequence. Unfortunately, the unarm combat in this instalment was nothing spectacular. Finally, the finale was a complete let-down with Joe (Daniel Wu) and Wing in a gun-assemble challenge!

This time, our Super Cop faced 5 problem kids whose police-killing fetish may had gone way beyond comprehension but would wimp at the sight of their angry parents. We see no endless numbers of baddies in nice black suits coming after Jackie Chan, only to be wittily brought down by him, always in an hilarious fashions. There are no cyborg-looking, bad Chinese accent Caucasians with neck-breaking punches and chest-bursting kicks. Most importantly, there are no memorable death-defying, mission-impossible stunts. Even the NGs shots during the rolling credits were not enticing, featuring merely wrong diction of the scripts from the cast.

What you are getting is a plot-heavy, acting-focus movie that is emotionally geared and suavely choreographed - trademark of Benny Chan's previous works. If you are one of those die-hard "Police Story" fans, expect only Jackie's much-improved acting talents. Maybe Jackie Chan wanted to break free of his stuntman cum action hero image. Or maybe the Dragon had catch on with age and needs a subtler action movie. Whatever the reason may be, this Jackie "come-back" movie had fallen short of expectation.

The movie is still ticket-worth but higher points could had been added to this reviews if there are more savvy kicks, punches and dare-devils stunts.

Movie Rating:

Review by Leosen Teo