Police Story 2 [Ging chaat goo si juk jaap] **** (1988, Jackie Chan, Maggie Cheung, Kwok-Hung Lam) – Classic Movie Review 11,350

Jackie Chan stars in Police Story 2: ‘Dynamite is a controlled substance. There’s only two ways you can get it; legally for industrial use, or, it has to be smuggled in.’

Director Jackie Chan’s 1988 Hong Kong comedy crime action thriller sequel Police Story 2 [Ging chaat goo si juk jaap] stars Jackie Chan, Maggie Cheung, Kwok-Hung Lam, John Cheung and Charlie Cho.

In Jackie Chan’s exciting, stunt-filled, all-action sequel to his 1985 hit Police Story, he again plays maverick Hong Kong supercop Kevin Chan [Chan Ka Kui] and is reunited with Maggie Cheung as his girlfriend May, investigating a case of bombing extortion by an organised gang, while the crime boss villain of the original Police Story (1985) is out for revenge.

Once again, the fight sequences are thrillingly choreographed, and the simple, rather silly, sense of humour is engaging, but, in a welcome development, there is slightly less of the comedy this time, concentrating more on the police story. This time round, though, the story is not quite so well organised – and nor it seems were the fights, since Maggie Cheung was badly hurt in one of the stunts, causing her to be replaced and always shown from a distance by a body double, Crystal Kwok, who plays a policewoman in the movie.

Chan, astonishingly acrobatic doing most of his own stunts again, is also his own director and co-scriptwriter, and he keeps it all moving along at top speed. As before, stay tuned at the end for the out-takes, as Maggie Cheung tries to outrun the falling metal frames, Jackie Chan smashes into the wrong glass pane, a stuntman crashes through the glass, and Jackie Chan sings the theme song, etc.

Police Story 2 is a Hong Kong film and dubbed into English for the international version. The American New Line release is completely re-dubbed, with Ping Wu dubbing Jackie Chan and using J Peter Robinson’s music from First Strike and Rumble in the Bronx.

There are several versions: running 101 minutes, 98 minutes, (American New Line version, 122 minutes (Japanese extended version) or 121 minutes (director’s cut).

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,350

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