Police Story (1985)

Original title

警察故事

Directed by

Jackie Chan

Genre

crime film, martial arts film, police film, action comedy film

Country

Hong Kong

Runtime

1h 36m

Rated

PG-13

Rating

7.5 of 10 from 1,059 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A Hong Kong police detective arrests a drug lord but is framed for murder. He must prove his innocence while taking down the criminals.

high-energyfranticcomedicintenseplayfuldangerousfast-pacedwittychaotic

What happens

Police Story (Chinese: 警察故事; pinyin: Jǐngchá Gùshì; Jyutping: Ging2 caat3 gu3 si6) is a 1985 Hong Kong action comedy film directed by and starring Jackie Chan, who co-wrote the screenplay with Edward Tang. It is the first film in the Police Story franchise. It features Chan as Hong Kong police detective "Kevin" Chan Ka-Kui, alongside Brigitte Lin and Maggie Cheung. In the film, Ka-Kui helps arrest a drug lord, but must clear his own name after being accused of murder. Chan began work on the film after a disappointing experience working with James Glickenhaus on The Protector (1985), which was intended to be his entry into the American film market. Police Story contains many large-scale action sequences with elaborate, dangerous stunts performed by Chan and his stunt team, including car chases, Chan hanging off a speeding bus, parkour-like acrobatics, and a shopping mall fight with shattering glass panes, leading up to Chan sliding down a pole with exploding electric lights as he falls to the ground. Much of the film was created surrounding the action sequences, which Chan and the filmmakers developed via linear progression. Police Story was a box-office success in Asia and Europe, grossing an estimated US$18,724,000 (equivalent to $56,100,000 in 2025). It won the Best Film award at the 1986 Hong Kong Film Awards. According to Chan's autobiography, he considers Police Story his best action film. Since its release, Police Story has been frequently listed as one of the greatest action films of all time. It is also considered one of the best martial arts movies of all time. In 2016, Police Story was voted the fifth best action movie of all time in Time Out's poll of film critics, directors, actors and stunt performers. Chan's final action sequence in the mall is considered one of the greatest stunts in the history of action cinema. A 4K restoration of the film had a limited theatrical release in North America on 1 February 2019. A sequel, Police Story 2, was released in 1988. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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