Police Story () is a 1985 Hong Kong action 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 . 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 Outs 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.
Plot The Royal Hong Kong Police Force plans Operation Boar Hunt, an undercover sting to arrest crime lord Chu Tao. It involves undercover officers stationed in a shantytown. However, the criminals spot them, and a shootout ensues between the two groups. Civilians either flee the town or are caught in the crossfire. Chu Tao and his men flee in their car by driving through the town. However, they crash the car immediately after going downhill and escape on foot. Undercover officer Sergeant Chan Ka-Kui persists in his chase on foot as Chu Tao and his men attempt to escape in a double-decker bus. Ka-Kui gets in front of the bus and brings it to a halt by threatening to shoot the driver with his service revolver.
Later, Ka-Kui is reprimanded by Chief Inspector Raymond Li for letting the operation get out of hand, but is subsequently presented to the media as a model police officer to please the police brass. His next assignment is to protect Chu Tao's secretary, Salina Fong, who is pressured to testify in court about Chu Tao's illegal activities. At first, Salina insists that she does not require protection, but Ka-Kui has a fellow policeman break into her apartment and pose as a knife-wielding assassin. After Ka-Kui and Salina fight him off, she agrees to be more cooperative. The two drive away in her car, but are ambushed by Chu Tao's actual hitmen, who are scared away when Salina threatens them with Ka-Kui's revolver.
When Ka-Kui arrives at his apartment with Salina, he is surprised to find his girlfriend May and her friends throwing a birthday party for him. May becomes angry with Ka-Kui after seeing Salina only wearing lingerie and Ka-Kui's jacket. Ka-Kui eventually explains to May that Salina is a witness. While he tries to apologize to May, Salina discovers that the attack at her apartment was a sham, and decides to record over her taped confession about working for Chu Tao. She sneaks away while Ka-Kui sleeps. She is subsequently not present at the trial the next day, which ends with failure for the prosecution because of Salina's absence and tampering with the recording.
Though Chu Tao is released on bail, he wants revenge against Ka-Kui. He captures Salina and threatens to kill her to ensure her silence. Ka-Kui finds and frees her, but is attacked by Chu Tao's men. Fellow Police Inspector Man eventually arrives and reveals that he had been working with Chu Tao; Salina's capture was merely a ruse to trap Ka-Kui. To Man's surprise, the plan is also to include Tao's men killing him with Ka-Kui's gun to frame him for murder. Now a fugitive cop killer, Ka-Kui wants to catch Chu Tao and clear his name. He returns to the police station to plead his case, but the Chief Inspector orders him to be arrested. Ka-Kui takes the Chief Inspector as a hostage to escape custody, but soon lets his co-operative superior go free to continue his investigation.
Salina goes to Chu Tao's office at a shopping mall to download incriminating data from Chu Tao's computer system. Chu Tao notices this and rushes to the mall with his men to intervene. Ka-Kui and May, who are monitoring Chu Tao's activities, follow. In the ensuing carnage, Ka-Kui defeats all of Chu Tao's henchmen, destroying a good portion of the mall in the process. The briefcase containing the computer data falls to the bottom floor of the mall, but Chu Tao and his men retrieve it after attacking May. Ka-Kui, at the top floor, slides down a pole wrapped in light bulbs to the bottom floor and catches Chu. The rest of the police force then arrive and prevent him from further taking matters into his own hands. Salina attests to them that Chu had Sergeant Man killed and that evidence of his crimes is in the briefcase. Chu's defense attorney shows up and accuses the police of misconduct, prompting a beating from an at-wit's-end Ka-Kui, who goes on to extend the beating to Chu Tao before being stopped by his friends. Cast Jackie Chan as Sergeant "Kevin" Chan Ka-Kui (or himself in new second, new third, and fourth English dubs), but in old English dubs of second and third movies, the Kevin name was used. Brigitte Lin as Salina Fong, Chu Tao's secretary aka Selina Fong (all English dubs) (as Brigette Lin) Maggie Cheung as May, Ka-Kui's Girlfriend Chor Yuen as Chu Tao, Crime Lord aka Tom Koo (first and second English dubs) / Joe Chu (third and fourth English dubs) Charlie Cho as John Ko, gangster aka John Chow (second English dub) Fung Hark-On as Danny Chu Ko / Danny Koo (first and second English dubs) Lam Kwok-Hung as Chief Inspector Raymond Li Bill Tung as Inspector "Uncle" Bill Chou / Inspector Wong (first and second English dubs) / Inspector George (third and fourth English dubs) Kam Hing Yin as Inspector Man / Sergeant Mao (first and second English dubs) / Sergeant Ming (third and fourth English dubs) Mars as Kim Lau Chi-wing as Lawyer Cheung Tai Po as Lee / Snake Eyes (first and second English dubs) / Sharkey (third and fourth English dubs) Kent Tong as Tak / Tom / Francis Tong (Japanese release version) Wan Fat as Mad Wing / Jacknife (1st and 2nd English dubs) / Crazy Wing (third English dub) / Psycho Wing (fourth English dub) Bowie Wu as Sha Tau Kok police officer Clarence Fok as Photographer Money Lo as TV reporter
Jackie Chan stunt team Chan Tat-kwong Johnny Cheung Danny Chow Fung Hak-on Benny Lai Rocky Lai Sam Wong Ben Lam Chris Li Mars Pang Hiu-sang Paul Wong
Production The film contained many large-scale action scenes, including an opening sequence featuring a car chase through a shanty town, Chan dangling from a speeding double-decker bus before stopping it with his service revolver, and a climactic fight scene in a shopping mall. This final scene earned the film the nickname "Glass Story" by the crew, due to the huge number of panes of sugar glass that were broken. During a stunt in this last scene in which Chan slides down a pole from several stories up, the lights covering the pole had heated it considerably and resulted in Chan suffering second-degree burns, particularly to his hands. Chan also suffered a back injury and dislocation of his pelvis upon landing.
Screenwriter Edward Tang said that he did not write this film the way normal Hollywood screenwriters work. Chan instructed Tang to structure the film around a list of props and locations, e.g. a shopping mall, a village, a bus, etc.
In an interview with Chan, he discusses the stunt of sliding down the pole covered with lights. As with the clock tower stunt from Project A (1983), Chan described his fear at the thought of performing the stunt. During the filming of Police Story, there was the added pressure of strict time constraints, as the shopping mall had to be cleaned up and ready for business the following morning. One of Chan's stuntmen gave him a hug and a Buddhist prayer paper, which he put in his trousers before finally performing the stunt.
Stuntman Blackie Ko doubled for Chan during a motorcycle stunt in which his character drives through glass towards a hitman. In the double decker bus scene, Jackie used a metal umbrella because a wooden one kept slipping when he tried to hang onto the bus.
Box office The film grossed at the Hong Kong box office, becoming the third highest-grossing film of the year. In Taiwan, it grossed between 1985 and 1986, becoming one of the top ten highest-grossing films of 1986. In Japan, it was the eighth highest-grossing foreign film of 1986, grossing at the Japanese box office. In South Korea, it was the third highest-grossing film of 1988, with ticket sales in Seoul City.
In Europe, the film sold 245,452 tickets in France (released 1987), 846,700 tickets in Hungary (released 1988) and 65,700 tickets in Romania. In the United States, the film was screened in 1993 at the Hogg Memorial Auditorium in Austin, Texas, along with Police Story 3: Supercop, with both films well-received among Austin audiences at the time. The film later had a limited US release in 2019, grossing US$113,164.
Market Year Box office gross revenue Ticket sales Local currency US dollars Hong Kong 1985 () Taiwan 1985$578,048 Japan 1985 () France 1987 () () 245,452 South Korea (Seoul City) 1988 () () Hungary 1988 () () 846,700 Romania 1996 () () 65,700 United States (limited release) 2019 $113,164 () Worldwide 5,174,984 ()
Critical reception Upon release, the film received critical acclaim in Hong Kong. At the 5th Hong Kong Film Awards in 1986, it won Best Picture and Best Action Choreography, out of six nominations.
Overseas, the film initially received a mixed reaction in contemporary English-language reviews. Kim Newman wrote, in the Monthly Film Bulletin, that Police Story starts well with its car chase described as an "astonishing set-piece", but that "once the mix of realistic settings and fantasy action seems to have been established, the film falls back on Chan's clowning and turns into a slapstick comedy heavily dependent on cake-in-the-face jokes". The review concluded that the film "still lacks much of the aesthetic appeal and occasional comic grace of the more traditional period kung fu films such as Project A, Drunken Master, Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and Dragon Lord". Vincent Canby wrote in The New York Times that at a screening of the film at the New York Film Festival Chan was promoted as a hybrid of Buster Keaton and Clint Eastwood, with Canby noting that Chan was "more like a scaled-down, oriental Sylvester Stallone, with energy and a willingness to smile fondly at himself". Canby also noted the excessive pie-in-the-face gags, and that Chan "participates in several elaborately staged gun fights and car chases" which were "mildly amusing" but not as amusing as the dubbed dialogue. Canby concluded that the film "is of principal interest as a souvenir of another culture".