Police Story III - Supercop
Director: Stanley Tong
Year: 1992
Rating: 9.0
The male and female
action gods of HK action – Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh - team up to create
simply one of the best and most entertaining action films ever to grace the
silver screen. In a film that goes from HK to China to Thailand to Malaysia,
there is a near non-stop torrent of action and stunts.
This film has a much bigger feel to it and
a more international flavor than any of Jackie’s previous films do. One almost
senses that Jackie was trying to send a message to Hollywood – I can do
a Hollywood styled film too – but do it the right way. Even though the film
is fast and furious it never loses its sense of fun and it never gets so
big that the actors get lost. The wonderful chemistry between Jackie and
Michelle is in fact what really drives this film.
This was Michelle’s comeback film. She had
retired in 1987 to marry Dickson Poon, but after divorcing him she was looking
for the right vehicle to come back with. Stanley Tong the director and a good
friend of hers and Jackie Chan invited her aboard. Chan is known for not
giving women a lot to do in his films besides looking helpless much of the
time, but that was certainly not going to be the case here. Considering the
fact that this is a Jackie Chan film, he is amazingly generous in allowing
Michelle lots of opportunities to display her astounding skills. I don’t
know if it was his intention, but in many ways she actually overshadows him
in this film. Her stunts are palpitating and her action fight scenes are
beautifully choreographed and remarkably graceful. Not that Jackie is sitting
around watching Michelle – he does some pretty amazing stuff as well. It’s
incredible though that after five years in retirement, Michelle looks better
than ever. More graceful, stronger, more mature as an actress, lovelier and
a real charisma about her that was not nearly so evident in her earlier films.
Jackie – playing of course the same character as in the two previous films
– gets assigned to help the Mainland police track down a drug gang. His
partner – looking very spiffy in her military uniform is Michelle Yeoh.
Their plan is to go undercover and break the brother – Yuen Wah – of the
head of the gang (Kenneth Tsang) out of jail. They succeed in this and later have to escape
from the Chinese security. This scene was Michelle’s big – hello I’m back
– as she frees Jackie and Yuen with a beautiful display of leg kicks and
punches. Soon they are on there way
to HK and then on to Thailand where there is a great shoot out. This has all been tame though compared to what
happens in Kuala Lumpur where the action goes into hyperdrive. First Jackie,
Michelle and the bad guys run into Jackie’s girlfriend, Maggie Cheung, who
accidentally blows their cover. In the next twenty-minute blur of action there
are three amazing stunts that have you holding your breath.
In the first Michelle leaps onto a moving truck and holds on to the sides
as it goes whizzing through traffic. She eventually is able to flip on to
the top of the truck upon which the bad guys inside start machine gunning
the roof. This forces her to leap backwards – falling off the truck and
on to the top of the car driven by Jackie behind her. There is a great outtake
of this at the end.
Next it is Jackie’s turn – and he admits that he had to come up with something
big to compete with Michelle – so he jumps on a rope ladder dangling from
a helicopter and is taken on the ride of his life above Kuala Lumpur. He
crashes through billboards and skims tree tops until he finally jumps on
a moving train.
The final stunt is performed again by Michelle. It is amazing in it’s own
right – but in particular when you realize that she had never ridden a motorcycle
before this film. So she first had to learn how to ride a motorcycle and
then in the stunt drive it up an incline – jump 20 feet into space – land
it on the same moving train – and stop the motorcycle before it flew off
the train. It’s probably not as easy as it sounds! Again in the outtakes,
a few miscues are shown.
This is just a terrific film and a wonderful introduction to people who
are unfamiliar with HK action. The stunts, the action, the performances from
Jackie and Michelle should win anyone with a beating heart over to HK films.
As a note it should be mentioned that this
was Jackie’s first movie that was filmed with synch sound. This meaning that
the sound was recorded at the same time as the filming was going on. All
of his previous films were dubbed at a later date – but not by Jackie! So
this is the first time in which the audience actually heard Jackie’s voice.
My rating for this film: 9.0