A sequel to Project A, the "Jackie Chan fights pirates" movie that involved surprisingly little of Jackie Chan fighting pirates*. This time, Dragon (that'd be Jackie Chan) gets transferred from the Naval Infantry to the police to expose an inspector who's been paying people to commit crimes for him to stop so he looks good. Then he busts out the old ley de fuga** on them afterward so there's no chance of anyone finding out.
Except, the movie is not content with that. Or it doesn't think that's enough plot to provide opportunities for good fight scenes and chase sequences. Dragon not only finds the entire precinct, save one rookie, is crooked, he also gets tied up in the plot of a group of people looking to end control of the Manchu Dynasty over Hong Kong. Meaning there are also agents of the Empress running around, mostly in suits and bowler hats, looking for a book that would outline the rebel network. Plus, a small group of survivors from the pirates he took down in the first movie are moving around, trying for revenge on the guy they hold responsible for killing their captain.
In practice, the pirates are mostly comic relief, as the one time Dragon fights them, he's handcuffed to the bent cop. So there's a lot of gags about them getting tangled up taking different route around obstacles, or Dragon throwing a punch, but it causes the inspector's hand to punch Dragon, that sort of thing. There's also a brief scene where Dragon helps them out, which the pirates have to decide how to interpret.
The movie is rather open that a lot of the populace don't trust the cops, believe them to just be bullies who abuse their authority. Of course, the movie also takes the "few bad apples" approach, that this is due to guys like Inspector Chun and his precinct accepting bribes and overlooking crimes. This seems difficult to argue when the bent cops in the precinct outnumber the honest ones at least 2-to-1 (and that's counting Dragon and his four buddies from Naval Infantry on the good side, otherwise it's closer to 10-to-1).
But it does feel like Dragon's assignment gets lost in the shuffle for a long stretch in the back half, once he gets tangled up in the rebel stuff. It's initially related to his job, since the rebels work with Chun to discredit Dragon because it gets them money, but you could be forgiven for forgetting how Dragon got tangled up in this in the first place.
Let's talk interesting fights or chase sequences. I don't think there's anything on par with the bicycle sequence in the alley from the first movie, but the ending is an extended, running battle between Dragon and 3 of the Empress' agents across a series of bamboo scaffolds. This includes a part where Dragon, in desperation, chews up a bunch of hot peppers, then smears the juice on his hands so he can fight by smacking the guys across the eyes with it. Gross, and not hygienic, but creative. Early on, when Dragon decides to start cleaning up the precinct by hitting the biggest crime boss, there's a lengthy fight in the guys gambling hall that involves some long odds. So long that even Dragon trying to use a ladder doesn't help! When Jackie can't triumph, even with a ladder, you know it's trouble.
On the negative, there's a long bit in the middle of the movie where Dragon and the rookie visit a girl they know who's cousin is supposed to be missing, and who is connected to the rebels. In fact, one of the rebels is there at the same time. Along with two of the Empress' guys. And the bent inspector. And the Commissioner. So it's a whole thing of people scrambling around, trying to hide from each other under beds or inside closets while the Commissioner is trying to be charming and fix a leaky faucet. Yeah, I don't know. It can't all be backflips and face kicks, I guess.
* I tried looking up "hong kong pirate movies" online, and all I could find was one called "The Pirate" from 1973. There's gotta be something other than that, right?
** Shot while escaping, essentially. Or rather, "escaping". I'm reading another book on the Mexican Revolution, the phrase comes up a lot.
2 comments:
Huh. I love the first film but I've (a) not seen this one, (b) forgotten all about it, or (c) both. Weird.
I only knew about it because it was part of the same 2-disc, 8-movie thing as the first Project A. I don't think there's a lot of about this one to really distinguish it from a lot of other Jackie Chan movies.
He's generally just fighting bent cops and gangsters, essentially, without the novelty of the pirates. And since he gets transferred to the cops right at the start, you don't get the unusual visual of him in the naval uniform like in the first one. I don't think Sammo Hung is involved with this one, either, which might explain why the action set pieces aren't quite as clever.
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