Police Story - Back for Law

It must be said that the anticipation for a Jackie Chan film has changed over the years. Chan himself had announced in last year's Chinese Zodiac 12 to be his last film with major action in it. We cannot go in expecting to be wowed by death-defying stunts or exhilarating fight choreography anymore. Instead of fights, he has chosen to switch into the dramatic.

Police Story 2013 is not a continuation of the original Police Story series, the title is in name only. Chan's character Zhong Wen is not Chan Ka-Kui, Jackie Chan's Supercop character from the original Police Story series. Zhong Wen is not hotheaded, not prone to solving conflicts with violence or even a great hand-to-hand fighter. The only similarity both characters share is their whole-hearted belief of the law and their obligation to do the right thing. Otherwise, Zhong Wen is a dramatic character exploring themes of old age and dealing with the consequences of being a poor father, and therefore it is a role that the older Jackie Chan naturally fits into. In comparison to Chan's dramatic turns in The Karate Kid remake and The Shinjuku Incident, this performance is the most honest.

The fights, which are not choreographed by the Jackie Chan Stunt Team, are shot close and choppily edited. And sadly, there are not that many of them. For Jackie Chan fans that are hungry to watch a good fight or a stunt will be disappointed. Originally there were not going to be any fights in the film.

Director Ding Sheng, who previously worked with Chan on Little Big Soldier, constructs some tense moments and keeps the audience guessing with red herrings. Liu Ye plays the villain in true scenery chewing fashion, the cat-and-mouse game between Liu and Chan is the price of admission. Jing Tian, having been played the most annoying female police officer in Donnie Yen's Special ID earlier this year, fares much better in a more fleshed-out role. I'm curious to see what part she will play in the upcoming Chow Yun Fat-Wong Jing God of Gamblers rehash From Vegas to Macau.

As for the hostage situation itself, the bickering hostages are very annoying and it begs to question how they would be able to yak on the way they do without risking execution. The final reveal in the mystery plot is pedestrian, as one would expect a more epic conflict. Immense effort has been made to shift things to a ground level and while it succeeds at creating a gritty realism, it works against the film in terms of payoff. With a back catalogue full of dangerous stunts and action scenes, who could imagine a Jackie Chan movie made so humbly and low- volume?

Police Story 2013 ultimately is an incidental addition to the Jackie Chan canon and does not hold a close candle to the original Police Story series -though much better than the awful New Police Story-, but I did not expect it to be either. It was entertaining for its running time, but I won't watch it again. The 3D is a shameless cash grab as minimal design has been put in and it is counter-productively dulling down its colorful cinematography. Overall the average Jackie Chan fan might be happier to see it as a rental. Nothing here is worth being angry or disappointed over.

You might be thinking, why am I being so forgiving? Why am I giving Police Story 2013 a pass? The answer: I am not ready to live in a world without Jackie Chan movies in it.

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I have watched many of Jackie Chan's films in the past. I am a fan of how he combines his awesome martial arts skills and stunt work with precise comedic timing. We see a different Jackie Chan in "Police Story 2013", he gets darkly serious here.

Sad to say, I have not seen any of the five other Police Story films of Chan before. Not even the first one, which Jackie himself considers his best in terms of the action. This Police Story is not really related to the other films, so it does not really matter if you have seen the others or not.

The film opens with a shocking scene of Jackie Chan actually pulling the trigger of a pistol to his temple. From there we will get pulled into a tale of Captain Zhong Wen, a man torn between his dedication to his duty as a policeman and his duty as a father.

Zhong's rebellious daughter May introduces him to her boyfriend, Wu Jiang, who runs a very popular avant-garde bar. What was supposed to have been a family meeting turned out to be an elaborately-planned violent hostage-taking drama borne out of a tragic incident that happened five years ago.

Jackie Chan is much older now, but his action skills are not diminished. He gets to fight with a champion mixed martial arts fighter in one very long and brutal one-on-one fight scene. Awesome fight scene. His dramatic acting skills are wrung out here as well because of the dilemmas and tough decisions his character had to face. There was no hint of comedy in this Jackie here. We only see the old Jackie Chan smile and laugh in the outtakes over the final credits.

His daughter May was played by pretty young actress Tian Jing, whom I just saw in "Special ID" just last week. Too bad she did not figure in a fight scene in this film. But she was much better here in terms of her acting because of her character's arc. Tian actually looked a lot like Filipina actress Kim Chiu in this film.

The villain is played by award-winning Chinese actor Liu Ye. He plays his disturbed and vengeful character with much depth, with so many intense confrontation scenes with Jackie.

The direction by Sheng Ding was a little sloppy, with a lot of off-focus shots left in the final print. The story-telling and the script were quite neat in terms of the details, considering this tale went back and forth from previous events interjecting into present scenes. There were some welcome moments of comedy but they were not from Jackie.

Overall, this is a very good action film held together by an excellent dramatic story, with just the right amount of comedy to keep things interesting. Jackie Chan is really still at the top of his game, even at this age (he turns 60 in April this year). He should not be retiring soon. We still expect a lot from this talented man.

Jackie Chan is back in what I would consider his best serious role to date.

New Police Story (2004) was a disappointment for many. It did not feature the same character nor have any continuity to the previous Police Story movies and left people wondering why it even carried the Police Story name. In hindsight, however, I think it wasn't actually that bad. It's on TV fairly frequently over here in Singapore and regardless of how many times I've seen it, I still find myself watching it to the end. Of course it pales in comparison to the gold standard set by the first 2 Police Story movies, but those 2 classics put most action movies to shame. But what New Police Story does deserve credit for is that it set the ground and expectations for subsequent Police Story movies. I went into Police Story 2013 not expecting Police Story 1 or 2 but something darker, grittier and more serious and that's exactly what I got.

Jackie has been hit and miss with his serious roles. Shinjuku Incident was just not that good a movie and although Little Big Soldier was good, it was not here nor there in terms of its dramatic tone – it still felt part serious and part comedy but never really embraced either genre completely. Police Story 2013, from Ding Sheng, the director of Little Big Soldier, hits the proverbial nail on the head and destroys it! This movie is badass!!

The movie starts with Jackie, a decorated police veteran, on his way to meet his estranged daughter in a nightclub in China (that's right – not Hong Kong). Ever since the loss of his wife, things have clearly been turbulent between the pair and his daughter (Tian Jing) appears to have become quite rebellious against the father she felt was never there for her.

Things take a quick and unexpected turn for the worst when the nightclub is locked down and Jackie, as well as other patrons in the club, are taken hostage.

Henceforth, the movie turns into a gritty cop thriller as we join Jackie in his efforts to try and figure out who the bad guys are and what their motives are. The plot is twisted and turned and intertwined, making for some pretty good and dramatic cinema. This is definitely not the Police Story we have come to know and love. It is, however, a darn good story about police.

Those expecting Jackie's trademark brand of ultra fast perfectly choreographed fighting will be left disappointed. This is definitely not a kung fu / martial arts movie. There are only a handful of fights and they are kept very real and visceral. Jackie, possibly for the first time in ages, looks like he can do serious damage. A cage fight in particular is very brutal but fits the tone of the movie perfectly.

Remember, first and foremost this is a cop thriller and it's a tense one at that, especially as the story turns into a 'who done it' sort of detective movie.

I enjoyed this movie a lot. A great story, a fine thriller and characters we grow to really care about as the story unfolds. Sure it's not for everyone. If you're an action junkie or have traits of ADHD then you should probably look elsewhere. Also noted that replay value is probably not that great.

But those looking for a tense thriller to sink their teeth into, something that will keep you thinking and on the edge of your seat, then you need not look any further.

A great night at the movies and Jackie's best performance in a serious role to date! Highly recommended! Check it out!

Rating 8 out of 10

Jackie is back!

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This movie was great! Bottom line it is nothing groundbreaking but it kept me entertained the whole way through! I'll start with the positive first! The story I thought was great, the characters were awesome, the setting was awesome, action was awesome (although its nothing as crazy what were used to from Chan for the type of film the fight scenes are very well suited) and best of all I thought Jackie did an amazing job at being serious and exploring different areas.

the only things that were negative about it was surprisingly THE EDITING.

The editor tried way to hard to make it fast and crazy (this was only for the action scenes, most notably in the car chase scenes), but the truth is, it is just way to damn fast, the cuts are incredibly fast and also you can notice tons of jump cuts (look that up if you don't know what that is) which as many filmmakers know is a no no, on top of that too I love the fact that things happened throughout the film that trick you and it turns out its just an alternate scenario, but there are some pretty cheesy editing going on here sometimes for example when they freeze the frame (to me this felt extremely amateurish.

My final conclusion I cannot stress enough how much the editing bothered me, and about 10 percent of the special effects shown. I am literally serious but if the editing was great then this would be an easy 10/10 for me, there honestly isn't anything at all I didn't like about it other than the editing overall.

The reviews I have seen that rate this really low mostly have the same complaints. "Not enough action," Not enough humor." Personally I liked the fact that Jackie is going in a different direction. He is admitting that he's getting older. Instead of pretending he can still kick ass like when he was 30 ( *cough* Stallone, Schwarzenegger *cough* ) he is following more in the steps of Clint Eastwood.

In a way he reminded me of Robin Williams. When Robin gives up his clown persona and makes a movie like One Hour Photo, he shows he can really act. Well Jackie is moving away from his Kung Fu Clown persona and relying more on his acting. And he's showing that he has the chops.

I originally rated this movie higher, because I was unfairly judging it as a Jackie Chan movie.But I changed my score to a seven because I think that is a more objective rating. The movie does have some problems with the script, directing and editing. But it is by no means horrible. Perhaps some of the problems could have been fixed with a bigger budget. But then again, Hollywood size budgets are certainly no guarantee of quality either.

In short. If you do not require constant impractical martial arts action, or silly slapstick, then you will enjoy this for what it is. An action-drama, with enough action to satisfy your blood lust, but also an attempt at telling an interesting story.