Police Story 2 (1988) December 26, 2007
Posted by Cal in : Comedy, Action, 1980s films , trackbackDirector: Jackie Chan Cast: Jackie Chan; Maggie Cheung; Bill Tung; Benny Lai Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Golden Harvest; Golden Way
Following the events of Police Story, Chan Ka-Kui (Jackie Chan) is demoted and hauled over the coals by his superiors. The crime lord Chu Tao (Chor Yuen) has been released due to failing health and is once again making Ka-Kui’s life a misery by getting his lackeys to constantly harass his long-standing (and long-suffering) girlfriend May (Maggie Cheung). However, Ka-Kui faces a new threat in the form of a gang of blackmailers intent on blowing up most of Hong Kong.
Police Story 2 is probably my least favourite of Jackie Chan’s starring features from the eighties. The tone always seemed too dark for a Jackie Chan film and it had a tendency to be overly dramatic and not a little melodramatic. Certain scenes always bugged me – such as the scene in a shopping mall under threat from a bomb attack, which I’ve always thought seemed heavy-handed and the people’s reactions unrealistic (and that attempt at tension with the bouncing ball is horrible passé). What I’ve always liked in Jackie’s films is the lightness and good-natured humour as well as all the physical stuff, which is why I’ve given it a miss for a few years. Watching it again reveals that the film does have some great comedy moments which I’d completely forgotten about, and I was surprises how much I enjoyed it.
Like the first film, a lot of the comedy is provided by Maggie Cheung in the role of May, and she still bears the scars of Police Story 2 to this day thanks to a gag with some toppling metal frames going wrong. It’s hard to imagine her taking such a role now, either from a comedic or physical angle, but she did have quite a flair and watching something like this does remind you of the fact. You’ve got to love the scene where she furiously shouts at Ka-Kui into the showers at the Police Station following their aborted holiday to Bali. She is oblivious to the embarrassed nakedness of the cops (and Bill Tung having a private moment in the toilet stalls) to rip into Ka-Kui, and then has another unfortunate incident with her scooter outside. Other comic moments involve Jackie going undercover wearing a fake moustache and glasses to get a lead on the explosives and the usual misunderstandings with his superiors Raymond (Lam Gwok-Hung) and the fantastic Bill Tung. Sadly, Mars, though present, has a much reduced role in this, which is a shame as he always had good comic scenes when sharing the screen with Jackie.
Regular member of Jackie’s stunt-team, Benny Lai comes out of the shadows to play the role of a deaf-mute explosives expert. Although he took one of the pirate roles in Project A Part II, he was usually only a background player in Jackie’s films and usually heavily in disguise. In this he really gets a chance to shine and his physical feats are great. He also apparently spent an inordinate amount of time preparing for the role and consulted a specialist to learn to use sign language, and I have to admit I thought he was for real until I saw him in other roles.
Police Story II does have a tendency towards incoherence and lack of direction, but no more than other films from the era. For example, the return of veteran director Chor Yuen in the role of Chu Tao turns out to be more a red herring than a genuine plot point. It’s as if the filmmakers originally intended to have him being the main bad guy again but changed their minds about a third of the way through. More of a presence is Charlie Cho as Chu Tao’s sleazy PA, John Koo. If you remember, at the end of the first film Ka-Kui punches him in the face and breaks his glasses. This gag obviously proved popular, as in every scene in which he appears in this sequel results in the same result. As a running joke, I suppose it works but on repeated viewings it gets a little tiresome.
However, nothing leaves such a bad taste in the mouth as the disgraceful product placement that goes on. You can’t go ten minutes without some blatant plug for Canon, Citizen and (inevitably) Mitsubishi. The worst offence occurs when a shopping mall is destroyed by an explosion – a Mitsubishi 4X4 (which I’m sure, if memory serves correctly, has adverts for Citizen emblazoned on its side therefore killing two birds with one stone) rolls away from the devastation without the aid of a driver and stops safely outside having smashed a plate glass window in its escape. I’m not sure what they were trying to say – that Mitsubishi cars are sentient? That they can smash windows without losing tyre pressure? It may even be a sly reference to some jokey TV advert at the time or something that I’m not aware of, but otherwise it’s terribly distracting and ruins the illusion of the movie.
On a lighter note, Jackie’s action sequences are as phenomenal as ever from the eighties. He takes on the bad guys single-handedly and comes away a winner as is demanded from the audience. I’ll always remember the first time I watched the stunt with the refuse chute exploding with Jackie still inside it. I literally gasped in shocked surprise, and how many times can you say that about a scene in a movie? I’d say it’s one of his most underrated of stunts and deserves to be seen by all. Also noteworthy are the film’s explosion effects. A shopping mall gets a spectacular bang and a fireworks factory gets blown to smithereens. There was obviously a higher budget following the success of the original film and it looks like it all went on the pyrotechnics.
So while Police Story II does have some major flaws it is still a film very much from his golden age and has much to recommend it.
Comments»
Hey what’s wrong with Mitsubishi anyway?!? I take it you weren’t aware of the AI chip they were trialling during the 80s…? (they had to remove it following several incidents where the cars autonomously ramned Toyotas off the road)
Actually, that wouldn’t surprise me too much!
I’m so used to product placement in HK movies that I tend to tune it out (though Pepsi in Rob-B-Hood was a bit much though quite hilarious when I’m thinking “can you be that obvious”; though I will think about it next time I watch it
).
I’ve been wanting to do a review on this for quick a long time (I’ve been waiting to actually listen to the Bey Logan commentary from the DD version; though I took tons of notes for Rob-B-Hood that I might do that review first).
RE: Police Story 2 is probably my least favourite of Jackie Chan’s starring features from the eighties.
I would probably put it above “The Big Brawl”, “Heart of Dragon”.
I was surprised too how much I liked it (though it was my first time watching when the DD version came out).
Good review.
Haha! I forgot all about Big Brawl! You’re right, of course, but both are FAR better than THE PROTECTOR (another one I’d forgotten), surely?!
As for HEART OF DRAGON…I dunno, I quite like it. Sure, Sammo can be annoying at times and there’s a touch of melodrama and schmaltz that I don’t like, but I like the fact that it dares to be different. However, if I was stuck on a desert island and I could only take PS2 or HoD, I’d have to be honest and go for POLICE STORY 2.
Product Placement is out of control in HK films, and it’s a sad fact. Brian did a good piece on it in his blog actually.
With Heart of Dragon, I’ve never been quite sure of how I feel about it (Jackie is quite proud of it). We both gave it 7/10 at HKMDB and we both liked Sammo’s performance.
One of the favorite use of product placement was the coke/pepsi in THree O’Clock High where the lead just used the drink to clean out his mouth and spit out toothpaste.
Definitely better than the American version of THE PROTECTOR (I have not seen the HK version). I forgot about that since I do not have it on DVD
. But yes, definitely better 
.
“Brian did a good piece on it in his blog actually.”
Me?
Geez, now I gotta go look again. I know I’ve done a couple entries about the blatant J&B placement in CITY OF VIOLENCE and, more recently but to a lesser extent, NO MERCY FOR THE RUDE
http://persistentvisions.blogspot.com/2008/01/shin-ha-kyun-no-mercy-for-rude-2006-d.html
It is pretty heavy in HK cinema sometimes. The most unique example I’ve seen recently has got to be LOVE @ FIRST NOTE, a cantopop romance that’s really just one big advertisement for an entire label’s worth of young sexy pop singers! If you go back a ways on my blog, there’s a review. Of course, the music makes it so much easier to take.
Yeah, that was the piece I was thinking of. It’s a worrying trend, this product placement - and sadly HK films tend to lack subtlety at the best of times. I absolutely LOVED Johnnie To’s EXILED but felt the film was nearly ruined by the Red Bull stuff at the end.
It’s such a fine line, isn’t it? I think I’d have a bigger problem if products took the form of the “generic groceries” that were often created for U.S. TV shows way back when were used instead of actual products in movies. Despite the fact that we know we’re watching product placements, there’s still a sense of realism that it engenders. If someone DID happen to toss a can in the air in a room full of armed hitmen in real life (
), it’s safe to assume that can would be branded, and at some point, someone in the room (much like the camera in the movie) would see the label facing out. It’s a bit of work to accept it sometimes, but when the placement is spare, it’s OK. CITY OF VIOLENCE was almost offensive, on the other hand. Fortunately, it was a good movie in spite of it. 