Police Story 2

In Jackie Chan’s sequel, while nothing much happens at least another mall gets destroyed.

“I wish they’d blown me up.”

Over the years, we’ve seen a few variations on the films that brought Jackie Chan to superstardom. Police Story was, and still is, an icon of Hong Kong action cinema filled with memorable moments and incredible stunts. New Police Story was dark and brooding, Lockdown (aka Police Story 2013) was a worse Die Hard, and Supercop was given a shout-out by Edgar Wright. They all offer something new, except when they don’t.

Not long after the events of the first Police Story, hot shot supercop Chan Ka-kui (Jackie Chan) has been demoted to traffic duty thanks to the carnage he inflicted in the first film. However, trouble has a habit of finding him and before long his superiors (Bill Tung and Lam Kwok-Hung) are calling on him to help with a terrorist group holding a large property company hostage, in exchange for tens of millions.

Like its predecessor, this film is a bit light on the plot, never getting particularly complex with its storytelling at any point. In fact, for a good chunk of the film, Ka-kui is dealing with Chu (Chor Yuen), the villain from the previous film, who is mostly there at the beginning with his subordinate John Ko (Charlie Cho chewing every inch of scenery as usual), and only tangentially ties into the larger plot. Maggie Cheung also returns as May, Ka-kui’s love interest, and she does most of the same stuff from the same film. It’s safe to say that the sequel isn’t exactly trying to break new ground here.

A curious decision, though, is that before the film even starts Police Story 2 decides to recap the events of the first one. This seems at first to be just in order to get everyone up to speed, but it becomes apparent that this trick serves another purpose. Those opening minutes are as exciting as Police Story 2 gets for about 45 minutes. For a Chan action-comedy, the film is shockingly in short supply of stunts and fight scenes, and this seems largely thanks to the fact that it writes itself into this corner almost immediately.

From the first scene, Chan’s superiors chastise him for doing all of the cool things we saw in the opening montage. This makes sense in the real world, of course, but it doesn’t really benefit the movie that each of its major fights are made into headlines, with Chan further reprimanded for simply providing the audience with what they came into a martial arts action movie for. This just means that Ka-kui only gets into fights when he has no choice, and that most of the movie ends up as a cop thriller rather than with any focus on action.

There are some enjoyable moments, and many of them have to do with the returning supporting cast. Maggie Cheung is perfect, no notes, and Bill Tung is never not having fun in his countless Uncle roles. There’s even some creativity in the action: For example, Ka-kui battling two villains as another throws firecrackers at him is the sort of inventive design I go into these movies for. It’s just a shame that there isn’t a lot of new stuff, but tonnes of elements borrowed from the first film.

I think that’s the biggest issue I have with Police Story 2. It doesn’t feel remotely as iconic as the first. Instead, it suffers hugely from a big case of sequelitis. It’s telling that the most memorable villains are the returning ones from the first movie. The deaf guy is interesting enough, but his characterisation is borderline offensive and his monkey-like screeching is truly unpleasant to listen to.

That’s a lot of words just to say that Police Story 2 isn’t actually all that bad by any stretch of the imagination, it’s just sort of rote. It’s entertaining at the time, but hugely forgettable. It’s Chan playing it safe, with less of the creative energy he brought to Police Story, or any of the brilliant films he made with Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. If it was making a point about police violence that would be one thing, but in a lot of ways, the film’s slower approach to narrative feels more like Chan just coasting. As I mentioned earlier, the Police Story series will see a lot of variation in tone over the years, but it’s really something that I remember the most recent, and technically worse, entry (Lockdown, the first review on this site) more than I do this one.

Verdict: Despite the many explosions, Police Story 2 fails to make a mark.

Overall entertainment: 6/10
Violence: A surprisingly low 4/10
Sex: 0/10
Bill Tung: Sure is in the bathroom a lot
Ending: Movie just sort of stops, huh
Bloopers: 5/10. Even they feel a bit so-so.
Bomb squad ladies: Where were they for the rest of the movie? They ruled

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Police Story 2 (1988)
Also known as:  警察故事續集
Cantonese

Director: Jackie Chan
Writers: Jackie Chan, Edward Tang, Paul B Clay

CAST
Jackie Chan – Ka-kui Chan
Maggie Cheung – May
Bill Tung – Inspector “Uncle” Bill
Lam Kwok-Hung – Chief Inspector Raymond Li
Lisa Chiao Chiao – Aunt
Chor Yuen – Chu Tu
Charlie Cho – John Ko
Benny Lai – Dummy
Mars – Inspector Kim
Johnny Cheung – Cheung
Ben Lam – Polar Bear
Chi Fai Chan – Ngor
Shan Kwan – President Fung
Isabella Wong – Miss Wong
Ann Mui – Karen