Police Story (Chinese: 警察故事; pinyin: Jǐngchá Gùshì; Jyutping: Ging2 caat3 gu3 si6) is a 1985 Hong Kong action comedy film starring and directed by Jackie Chan, who also wrote the screenplay with Edward Tang. It is the first film in the Police Story franchise, and Chan as Hong Kong police detective “Kevin” Chan Ka-Kui, alongside Brigitte Lin and Maggie Cheung. In the film, Ka-Kui helps arrest a drug lord, but must clear his own name after being accused of murder.
Chan began work on the film after a disappointing experience working with James Glickenhaus on The Protector (1985), which was intended to be his entry into the American film market. Police Story contains many large-scale action sequences with elaborate, dangerous stunts performed by Chan and his stunt team, including car chases, Chan hanging off a speeding bus, parkour-like acrobatics, and a shopping mall fight with shattering glass panes,
leading up to Chan sliding down a pole with exploding electric lights as he falls to the ground. Much of the film was created surrounding the action sequences, which Chan and the filmmakers developed via linear progression.
Police Story was a blockbuster success in Asia and Europe, grossing an estimated US$18,724,000 (equivalent to $47,200,000 in 2021) at the box office. It won the Best Film award at the 1986 Hong Kong Film Awards. According to Chan’s autobiography, he considers Police Story his best action film. In 2016, Police Story was voted the fourth best action film of all time in Time Out’s poll of film critics, directors, actors and stunt performers. Chan’s final action sequence in the mall is considered one of the greatest stunts in the history of action cinema. A 4K restoration of the film had a limited theatrical release in North America on February 1, 2019, along with its sequel Police Story 2.
Plot.
The Royal Hong Kong Police Force is planning a major undercover sting to arrest crime lord Chu Tao. Inspector Chan Ka-Kui (or Kevin Chan in some versions) is part of the operation, along with undercover officers stationed in a shantytown. However, the criminals spot the officers and the shootout ensues between the two groups in which civilians either flee the town or caught in the crossfire as a result of the gunfight. Chu Tao and his men successfully flee in their car by driving through the town but crashes it immediately after going downhill and escapes on foot. Ka-Kui persists in his chase on foot as Chu Tao and his men attempt to escape in a double-decker bus. Ka-Kui manages to get in front of the bus and bring it to a halt by threatening to shoot the driver with his service revolver. Later, Ka-Kui is reprimanded by Superintendent Li for letting the operation get out of hand but subsequently presented to the media as a model police officer. His next assignment is to protect Chu Tao’s secretary, Salina Fong, who plans to testify in court about Chu Tao’s illegal activities.RELATED:
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At first, Salina insists that she does not require protection, but Ka-Kui has a fellow policeman break into her apartment and pose as a knife-wielding assassin. Ka-Kui and Salina fight him off and she agrees to be more cooperative. The two drive away in her car, but are ambushed by Chu Tao’s actual hitmen, who are scared away when Salina threatens them with Ka-Kui’s revolver.
When Ka-Kui arrives at his apartment with Salina, he is surprised to find his girlfriend, May and her friends throwing a birthday party for him, but May becomes angry with Ka-Kui after seeing Salina only wearing lingerie and Ka-Kui’s jacket. Ka-Kui eventually explains to May that Salina is a witness, but only after much bumbling and embarrassment. While he tries to apologize to May, Salina discovers that the attack at her apartment was a sham, and decides to record over her taped confession about working for Chu Tao that took place in the car ride there. She sneaks away while Ka-Kui is sleeping and is not present at the trial the next day, which ends with failure for the prosecution because of Salina’s absence and tampering with the recording.
Production.
The film contained many large-scale action scenes, including an opening sequence featuring a car chase through a shanty town, Chan dangling from a speeding double-decker bus before stopping it with his service revolver, and a climactic fight scene in a shopping mall. This final scene earned the film the nickname “Glass Story” by the crew, due to the huge number of panes of sugar glass that were broken. During a stunt in this last scene, in which Chan slides down a pole from several stories up, the lights covering the pole had heated it considerably, resulting in Chan suffering second-degree burns, particularly to his hands, as well as a back injury and dislocation of his pelvis upon landing. Edward Tang, the screenwriter for this film and many others, said that he did not write this film the way normal Hollywood screenwriters work. Chan instructed Tang to structure the film around a list of props and locations, e.g. a shopping mall, a village, a bus, etc. In contrast to this production, most Hollywood films rely on the creativity of the screenwriters to create the plot elements of a film, which are then forwarded to the director for actual filming.
Box office.
The film grossed HK$26,626,760 at the Hong Kong box office, becoming the third highest-grossing film of the year. In Taiwan, it grossed NT$20,549,670 between 1985 and 1986, becoming one of the top ten highest-grossing films of 1986. In Japan, it was the eighth highest-grossing foreign film of 1986, grossing ¥1.9 billion at the Japanese box office. In South Korea, it was the third highest-grossing film of 1988, with 192,327 ticket sales in Seoul City. In Europe, the film sold 245,452 tickets in France (released 1987), 846,700 tickets in Hungary (released 1988) and 65,700 tickets in Romania. In the United States, the film was screened in 1993 at the Hogg Memorial Auditorium in Austin, Texas, along with Police Story 3: Supercop, with both films well-received among Austin audiences at the time. The film later had a limited US release in 2019, grossing US$113,164.