Police Story 3: Supercop

Story: Ka-kui (Jacky Chan) goes on a secret mission for Interpol. Toghether with China, which assigns Superintendant Yang (Michelle Yeoh) to help him, he is asked to arrest drug lord Chaibat (Kenneth Tsang). For this he takes on a different identity and helps the right hand of Chaibat, Pao (Yuen Wah), to escape from a Chinese labour camp. Together they manage to flee and they soon get accompanied by Yang as Ka-kui's sister, who can help them out more than once.
Despite initial reservation Ka-kui and Yang can obtain Chaibat's confidence. However, when at a meeting of several drug lords everything goes wrong, it also gets risky for the duo. Anyway, Chaibat plays his cards right and the only thing he needs to control the whole drug market now, is the number of a Swiss bank account, which is only known by Chaibat's wife. Unfortunately she is imprisoned in Malaysia.
Of course, Chaibat wants to get his wife out of prison and for this he needs the help of Ka-kui and Yang. But there is a problem. Of all places in the world, Ka-kui's girlfriend May (Maggie Cheung) works in Malaysia as a tour guide. Will Ka-kui's girlfriend blow his cover?

Review: In Jackie Chan's third installment of the "Police Story" series he hands over the reins to director Stanley Tong ("The Myth") with whom he should in fact make more movies in the future. The result is very pleasing and above all else is about stunts, stunts... and action. We didn't expect anything else! The look changed according to the 90s, which is nothing too bad, especially since the movie is still full of Chan-typical charm. So fasten your seatbealt and be ready for a fun-ride of action and humour.

Actually, one did his best in delivering a better story this time. Nothing special, but at least there are some little aha-moments and some story thread entanglements. It's also nice to see nearly every familiar face from the former parts again, even if a lot of them only have a small cameo appearance. Unfortunataly, this is also the case with Maggie Cheung and one would really have liked to see more of her.
In exchange Michelle Yeoh ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon") stars as the movie's female lead, also staging her comeback here, and a successful one at that. At the beginning she plays the serious Chinese woman who can't take a joke, but in her role as Ka-kui's sister she can let herself go a bit. Of course, she is also involved in a lot of fights, and she shows once again that nowadays there is sadly still no woman who can cope with her as an action-icon. Apart from that it's also astonishing to see her perform a lot of extremely dangerous stunts herself, of which some did not go as smooth as they were planned.

Concerning the humour, there are again some fine jokes to be found, yet "Police Story 3" as it was already the case with the prequel, is a little bit more serious than the original first part of series. In the english dubbing this might have been lost, but if you watch the original dubbing you will notice that the movie is surprisingly harsh and uncompromising. Because this time there is also a really evil villian. This one doesn't show any mercy and therefore the film can be quite brutal at times. That's a welcome change and it also increases the movie's credibility and the tension.
However, there are some logical mistakes. Why are Ka-kui and Yang only interested in Chaibat and not in the actual distributor of the drugs, who they also happen to come across in their investigation? And what's with May at the end? Sure, this is no movie we wouldn't expect everything to turn for the good, but the ending is a little bit too sudden, nevertheless, (as it is often the case with Chan's movies) and leaves us with some unanswered questions. Nonetheless, that's not much of a bother, because "Police Story 3" as the first two parts did, places only value on good and breathtaking entertainment.

The action is sadly not as much about Kung Fu this time, but there are some nice fights here and there. Overall there are more shootouts and explosions, though. Apart from the obvious highlight at the end, there is also one in the middle of the movie, in which the whole base of a drug lord blows up. It is a little bit odd to see Jackie Chan running around with a machine gun, and moreover the whole scenario with the jungle ambience reminds us a little bit too strong of "Rambo", which in the end becomes a bit of a nuisance. At least there are some nice explosions and action, even if in the end Chan isn't responsible for just one of the dead gangsters directly. He's just the same nice guy as always, even if the world around him has become more cruel.

The true highlight is the fight on a driving train and how Chan is flying through the town hanging on a ladder of a helicopter. As in the former parts of the series Chan once again suffered a serious injury when he was hit by the helicopter that was on the passing train. Therefore, as always there has been lot of hard work, blood and bones being involved in the movie's development and you can see it when watching the impressive stunts.
Chan and Yeoh work good as a team, the action is just great at any time, the stunts are breathtaking as always and the movie also doesn't lack the humour. In terms of quality, as it is often the case, the movies might have become worse a bit with every additional installment, but this does by no means include the statement, that the end product is bad at all. On the contrary, "Police Story 3" is a very good action flick, that made a successful jump into the 90s.

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