Dragon Dynasty

Internationally famed action star Jackie Chan tones down his usual martial arts pyrotechnics for a more traditionally dramatic role in this police drama. Crime Story finds Chan portraying a Hong Kong police detective, an honest cop guilt-ridden over his participation in a recent shoot-out. He is absolved of wrong-doing by the force, however, and assigned to protect a major real estate developer. Despite Chan's best efforts, though, the man under his care is soon kidnapped. The criminals demand millions in payment from the developer's wife, and Chan takes it upon himself to try and foil their plot and rescue the developer. His job is made more difficult by the fact that his new partner on the case, an esteemed detective, is secretly in cahoots with the criminals. Though there are a number of martial arts sequences near the film's climax, much of the action is more typical of Hollywood than Hong Kong, consisting of shoot-outs, explosions, and extended car chases. The ample amount of blood and the overall gritty tone combines with Chan's restrained performance to create a darker experience than most other Chan films familiar to American audiences. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

Tsui Hark (The Blade) adapted his massive martial arts epic Seven Swords (AKA Qi Jian) from Liang yu-Sheng's ravenously popular novel Seven Swordsmen from Mount Tian. The story opens in the 1660s, following the implementation of China's (Manchu) Qing dynasty. To quell possible nationalist uprisings, the emperor issues a decree forbidding the use of martial arts, and guarantees decapitation for anyone who violates that order. A class of bounty hunters quickly formed to enforce the law and collect 600 pieces of silver for each violator; the most massive and domineering of the warriors is the bald, muscular Fire-Wind (Sun Honglei), a bellicose and volatile creature who lives in an elephantine tentlike dwelling on a hill. This walking terror selects Martial Village, a hamlet in northwestern China, as his next assignment. Meanwhile, in Martial, two young adults, Wu Yuanyin (Charlie Young) and her ex-beau, Han Zhibang) rescue an old executioner, Fu Qingzhu (Lau Kar-leung) who foresees the coming wrath and acknowledges the necessity of pulling in the mythical 'Warriors of Mt. Tian' to fight Fire-Wind and his cronies. The four warriors summoned by Fu include Chu Zhaonan (Donnie Yen), and Yang Yunchong (Leon Lai), who dramatically increase the tension and bloodshed when the former develops a crush on one of Fire-wind's hostages, Green Pearl (Kim So-yeon) and decides to kidnap her - sending Fire-wind through the roof. The critically-worshipped Hark reportedly cut two versions of this film (including a 2 1/2 hour cut and a 3-hour cut) and demonstrated incredible confidence in Qi Jian by planning it as the initial installment in a massive series of multimedia sequels, including a 74-part television series, an online video game, comics, and five additional films. The picture itself testifies to this, with the setup for a sophomore installment in its conclusion. Qi Jian, however, did lackluster box office when it opened in the Far East in July 2005, making the follow-ups less than certain. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

This was internationally famous Jackie Chan's breakthrough action film, the work that got him past the ethnic boundaries of Hong Kong and into competition at the New York Film Festival in 1986. It also got him into the hospital after performing a stunt in which he fell through a glass canopy -- and stopped breathing. The story itself is not particularly profound. Kevin (Ga-kui) (Chan) is an honest, self-effacing cop who manages to capture drug lord Cho (Cho Leung) almost single-handedly. A reluctant Kevin is then assigned the job of protecting Cho's secretary Selena (Brigitte Lin) who is going to testify against him. Sure enough, the trial date comes, and Selena disappears, while Cho has to be set free for lack of evidence. The next thing he knows, Kevin is framed by Cho for the murder of a fellow (dirty) cop and is running like heck from the bad guys as well as the police. Some incredible stunts in this film include Chan being dragged behind a double-decker bus. One of Jackie Chan's trademarks are hilarious outtakes shown during the end credits, and they are among the best here. This feature is repeated to great advantage at the end of his 1998 hit Rush Hour as well. Police Story picked up "Best Picture" and "Best Action Choreography" at the 1986 Hong Kong Film Festival and was nominated for several other awards that year. Sequel after sequel followed. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide