Police Story III - Supercop [dir. Stanley Tong]

In which I discuss Police Story III: supercop and its UK blu-ray release from Eureka Entertainment (for those that prefer to read, see the transcript below the video):

In their feature commentary on Eureka Video's blu-ray of Police Story 3: Supercop, Hong Kong movie experts Frank Djeng and FJ DeSanto talk about the expansion of the scope of the films and the changes in Jackie Chan's character across the Police Story (PS) franchise. The first two installments were entirely set in Hong Kong and featured Chan as hot-headed inspector Ka-Kui, who is constantly reprimanded by his superiors. The 3rd feature goes international rushing off to China and to Malaysia. Also, Ka-Kui as a character now appears more mature and less inclined to go renegade. In fact in PS3 he is regarded as the "Supercop", fit to be entrusted with a covert mission to capture an important drug runner in cooperation with the authorities in Mainland China.

The first two PS films followed a similar pattern. Chan's law-enforcer is a passionate but unruly character, whose antics get him into trouble with both the authorities and his long-suffering airhead girlfriend played by Maggie Cheung. But a lot happened in the four years between PS2 (1988) and PS3 (1993). In 1990, Chan made a major bid for international stardom with Armour of God 2: Operation Condor, directly competing with the James Bond and Indiana Jones franchises in the exotic adventure genre. And with her work in the films of Wong Kar-Wai and Stanley Kwan, Maggie Cheung was also developing a reputation as a powerhouse performer.

The other major novelty in PS3 is the introduction of a partner for Jackie in the form of the incredible Michelle Yeoh. Like Chan himself, Malaysian origin Michelle had gained fame in the 80's as a bona fide action star that did all her own stunts. But after that she had taken a break from films for almost 5 years; PS3 would be her return to reclaim the title of action queen, and boy, she seems totally determined to do that. In the film, Yeoh plays a Chinese policewoman assigned to help Chan with his mission of infiltrating an international crime gang. Like all good chauvinists, he at first considers her a liability, so she has to show him what she's made of. There's a continuous game of one-upmanship between the two stars that works wholly in the film's favor.

PS3 is part of Jackie Chan's golden run, and successfully continues his trademark blend of action and humor. Unlike the previous films which were directed by Jackie himself, the third film is helmed by Stanley Tong. This was only Tong's second feature, and the first one of such huge scope. To his credit, PS3 equals and even exceeds the thrills of 1&2. There are a number of decent skirmishes sprinkled throughout the feature, but its tour de force is the extended climax, which ranks as one of the most ambitious action sequences ever.

Starting as an attempt to ambush a prison van, it becomes a major vehicle chase. Michelle Yeoh dangling by the side of the van as it hurtles through rush hour (ha!) traffic brings to mind Jackie's acrobatics outside the bus from the first PS. Michelle has the grace of a ballet dancer married with the physicality of a fighter and, to top it all, an absolute no-shits-given attitude towards risky stunts. On the other side you have Jackie hanging for real from a rope ladder attached to a helicopter as it flies across the city. After this the helicopter crash-lands atop a train, and there's a free-for-all between these two supercops and the villains on the train roof, while they all struggle to keep themselves from falling off. It's possibly just my impression but in these scenes Jackie seems to be aiming for a crazier take on Buster Keaton's stunts in Sherlock Jr and Steamboat Bill. Mind you, all this is done on location, no optical tricks or green screen computer wizardry. This portion of the film was done in Malaysia apparently because they would have never got permission for such stunts in Hong Kong.

Suffice to say that it all makes for an immensely thrilling experience that you will want to revisit multiple times, purely to convince yourself that you really saw all these crazy scenes. For fans of badass Hong Kong style action, this is a landmark motion picture experience.

This is the 1992 trailer for Supercop:

A few words now about the blu-ray presentation from Eureka Video:

Newly restored in 4K resolution, PS3 is also available as a 4K blu-ray, but since I don't have a 4k setup at present, I was content to go with the 1080p version. I'm not an astute videophile, but I was quite pleased with the presentation, which looked lush and organic, without any undue digital scrubbing. There's a healthy color spectrum that doesn't seem to be influenced by any yellow/teal push, a common complaint in modern restorations. The Chinese audio defaults to lossless mono (which I assume was the theatrical mix), with options given for stereo and even an Atmos track. There's also a lossless English mono track. The Chinese mono is a robust track with no distortions or other weaknesses. PS3 was shot in sync sound using the actors' original voices, because of which the dialog comes across better than in the HK films that were wholly dubbed in post.

There are so many bonus features crammed onto this disc, it's only the magic of fan favorite encoder David Mackenzie which ensures that everything is presented as best as it can be. First off, there's the alternate shorter US version called Supercop. This one seems to have been sourced from the same restored master, but has a much lower video bitrate and a slightly filtered look compared to the main feature, but it is still quite watchable; given it's a bonus feature I wouldn't pick any nits with it. Apart from the Frank Djeng commentary, there's a second full-length commentary from Mike Leeder and Arne Venema. These guys, like Djeng, are regular contributors on a lot of HK martial arts blu-rays. It is again an enthusiastic and trivia laden track that fans will find entertaining.

There's a video piece with a guy called John Kreng, who is described as a stuntman and choreographer. Initially I thought he might have worked on Supercop, but he's just a fan, who was inspired to get into the business. His piece is pleasant, but a little rambling (like this review, maybe). The best extras for me were the archival interviews with Jackie, Michelle and Stanley Tong. They have many recollections from the making of the film, especially it's thrilling action sequences. There are some special interest featurettes, including one about Jackie Chan video-games and a Hong Kong city location guide for various scenes from the first two PS movies. There's also almost an hour's worth of out-takes from the shoot and just about every flavor of trailer you might want. If you're still not sated, the first run of copies carries a booklet with an essay from James Oliver, who is frankly not one of my favorite writers, you also get a set of postcard stills.

In all, a comprehensive package that does justice to one of the most thrilling action films of all time.