Police Story 3: Supercop (1992)

Stanley Tong

Hong Kong

95 min, color, Cantonese (English subtitles)

The third police story, this one teams up Jackie Chan (the fearless HK police officer Ka-kui) with the fiery Michelle Yeoh as the equally fearless no-nonsense mainland Chinese cop. Jackie is asked to help bring down a particularly powerful drug lord, for which purpose he has to travel to the mainland and infiltrate his organization. He lies to his girlfriend May (Maggie Cheung) that he's going on a training camp, and goes off.

Michelle meets him there and puts him through some preliminary preparation, mostly to Jackie's embarrassment. For some reason, Ka-kui comes off as a stupid chauvinist and it's funny to watch Michelle straighten him out with quotes from Chairman Mao. To gain the confidence of the big boss Chaibat (Kenneth Tsang), Jackie "rescues" his brother Panther (Yuen Wah) from labor camp. He quickly sees to sordid underbelly of the sordid underworld, and Panther wastes no time in making himself totally odious by killing a bunch of people.

The operation almost hits a snag when the new friends decide to visit Jackie's family in some village where he's supposed to have a family. Thankfully, the thorough Chinese police has prepared everything, including aunts, nephews, a mother (impersonated by Jackie's superior HK officer played by Bill Tung), and a sister... Michelle herself. The careful plot almost ends in disaster when overzealous local cops try to apprehend Panther, but Michelle's excellent martial arts and quick wits save the situation. She even manages to insinuate herself into going to HK together with the bandits.

Finally, they reach HK and witness how bad the drug lord really is. And he is truly bad: on the very day he employs Jackie and Michelle, a girl overdoses and a guy gets drowned at his house. An average day in the life of a drug czar. Jackie's films are not known either for subtlety or confusing attachments, and this one is no exception. There is no danger in finding any of the bad guys even remotely attractive as a human being, and therefore there is no problem with conflicting allegiances. In other words, this film is not going to be a drama one way or the other.

But what the script is missing in terms of emotions, it makes up for in extreme adrenaline rush. The final third of the film sees everything from machine guns, acrobatics, grenades, explosion upon explosion, hand-held mortars, and what have you. And that's just one scene! Jackie, of course, runs into May in Malaysia where she is touring with a group as a guide. She nearly spoils everything, then does not, but finally does by blabbing in the elevator where one of the gangsters overhears her. Jackie and Michelle's cover is blown, and they are forced to cooperate with Chaibat in rescuing his wife from prison, where she is sentenced to death.

The final sequence is stunning and easily the most memorable. Jackie dangles from the end of a rope attached to a helicopter, then fights two guys on the roof of a moving train. Michelle, no slouch herself, rolls from the roof of a moving truck onto Jackie's car, then leaps with a motorcycle on the roof of said moving train. It's all amazing stuff and the credit blooper sequences show just how dangerous these stunts were. Although the movie ends a bit suddenly without any warning (and the ending is a bit cheesy), it is among the most satisfying Jackie Chan action films.

The Deltamac DVD is pretty lame but is much better than the chopped and dubbed US version. The picture is letterboxed at 1.85:1 without anamorphic enhancement. The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks (Cantonese and Mandarin) sound hollow and have occasional total drop-outs, but are not too distracting. The English subtitles are quite serviceable. There's only one trailer (for the film itself) on this bare-bones DVD. Still, to be preferred to the domestic release, and at $5.00 it's a steal.

November 24, 2003