Chan Tastic

Hey did you know Jackie Chan can act?

Well sort of.

I am a big Jackie Chan fan. My first Chan movie that gave me pause to take notice was Rumble In The Bronx. At that time I had never seen that type of action. Martial arts using every day objects and a bit of slap stick mixed in. Since Rumble we have seen a bunch more of Jackie Chan with movies like Shanghai Knights and Rush Hour.

Over the past few years I've taken the time to seek out Chan movies that are not "Chinese guy teams up with obnoxious American side kick" movies.

I recently found a 2004 movie called New Police Story.

This is the fifth film in Jackie's Police Story series and was meant to be a reboot. As with other films in the series, you can watch this with out ever having seen the others. All the films in the series are like that, which is why they often get retitled when sent here to America. Like Police Story 3 is often called Supercop here.

2004's (not 1993's) New Police Story is the furthest departure from the first 4 films and I feel it was a mistake to call it New Police Story. When you add words like New or Part 2, us Gweilo ask, "Where is the old? Is this a sequel? If I see this one first I won't know what's going on. Besides, sequels always suck."

New Police Story has Jackie playing a cop by a different name then the first 4 movies. Who I missed most in this venture was Uncle played by Bill Tung who died in 2006. He brought a lot of levity and dare I say cute to the other movies. Of course cute wouldn't have fit in this film. This is by far the darkest Chan movie I have seen. Not on a visual level, except in the instance of gore, but in subject matter and character tone. Jackie's character is a deeply conflicted man and gives him a chance to show a bit of range. If you want to see slap stick Jackie Chan martial arts hi-jinx, stay clear of this one. If you want to see good modern martial arts action drama made better by Chan's presence, seek this out.

Jackie Chan plays a disgraced police inspector who falls into a drunken stupor when his team is murdered in front of him by a sadistic punk gang. A young inspector played by actor/singer Nicholas Tse Ting-Fung takes it upon himself to rehabilitate Chan. His motivation isn't revealed until the twist at the very end of the film. I have to admit I wasn't expecting this type of twist in a Jackie Chan movie and I thought it was a great and subtle way to tie it all up.

There are times you may think Jackie is being a little melodramatic. But you have to keep in mind this isn't an American film. So you need to throw out YOUR OWN perception of what melodrama is. Because in the end it's not really melodrama as much as it is a perception created by our culture.

Other than Jackie Chan still doing his own stunts at almost 60, what makes his movies unique in this day and age is the amount of NON computer generated bang for your buck. Even though Jackie plays his character dark, there is still plenty of real world Jackie Chan action to satisfy any Die Hard junkie.