‎Police Story (1985) directed by Jackie Chan • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

Police Story

1985 ‘警察故事’ Directed by Jackie Chan

You may know the name, but the game has changed.

A virtuous Hong Kong police officer must clear his name after he is framed for murder.

Jackie Chan Brigitte Lin Maggie Cheung Bill Tung Chor Yuen Charlie Cho Mars Lam Gwok-Hung David Lau Kam Hing-Yin Wan Faat Fung Hak-On Kent Tong

101 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Arielrocks5 ★★★★★ 11

ngl i've never seen a proper Jackie Chan movie before and after only knowing him as a super old dude in random family movies and the animated show he did for Kids WB I caught reruns of on Cartoon Network it was super surreal seeing him so young and brutally beating and flinging people around like this

Edit: decided to bump this up to a full five because I can't remember the last time I thought about how good a movie is like this.
Review by ScreeningNotes ★★★★ 4

Police Story, as its title may suggest, is a police procedural which keeps its story basic in order to better serve as a vehicle for Jackie Chan's truly superlative fight scene choreography. It is literally a lean, mean fighting machine.

The success of Jackie Chan's technique emerges from the lesson of two cinematic masters: Chaplin and Hitchcock. Chaplin taught us that we love to root for the underdog, to see someone on the bottom work hard and be rewarded for his success (this is the simplest distillation of the Tramp character). Chan's protagonist is an average cop taking on a giant drug cartel, and we see his struggles (he takes as much punishment as he dishes out) and rejoice with…
Review by Timcop ★★★★ 3

There's a moment where Jackie Chan does the moonwalk in order to scrape off some cow poop from his shoe, so you know you're in a safe space. I'll never go to a mall the same way again.
Review by Kristen Yoonsoo Kim ★★★★

U PUSH MAGGIE CHEUNG DOWN THE STAIRS I FIGHT
Review by Edgar Cochran ★★★★★ 4

A poem for Police Story:

Action submerges the humankind's senses
In fantastical extensions of our defenses
The true art of action relies in exploiting
Human's abilities up to a point of rejoicing

The comedy/action mix finds its rhyme
When the proper circumstances gathered by time
Explode in a sea of action and mayhem
Contrasted with a heart of slapstick placed in
The middle of false accusations and framings

The greatest action star born in Hong Kong
Orchestrates mayhem like it was a song
With bullets, kicks, punches and stunts galore
Excrement moonwalking and then so much more

Are you a woman? A man? Jackie's lens says
That your share of action will hit you there
Regardless of your gender, beliefs…
Review by 🎃 Steve of the Dead 🎃 ★★★★ 9

The first 15 minutes of Police Story are probably not the wisest thing to watch when you're in the middle of a dodgy spell with your asthma.

With one of the most dangerous and insane car chases ever filmed, making The Blues Brothers look like Herbie Goes Bananas, ploughing through a shanty village with no regard for life, limb or automobile and then progressing on to an utterly astonishing fight and stunt scene in and around a moving bus, it is one of the greatest openings to an action film of all time.

Police Story is a film I've seen several times although not for quite a number of years and it really does stand up beautifully. I'm not even…

Recent reviews

Review by Irwan Nur Rizqi ★★★★

This movie reminds me about my younger self asking my parents permission to stay up a little late to watch kung fu movie on tv.
Review by NebulaBlues ★★★★

Oh buddy this is a good start to this franchise
Review by rick29 ★★★★

I wish I had access to Jackie Chan’s 80’s films when I was growing up. So much fun
Review by Pekka Sakari ★★★★½

Bad Boys II and Commando eat your heart out
Review by Austin Kimball ★★★★½ 2

A few things really surprised me in this, especially because I remember not liking this when I first saw it because it wasn’t as silly as my childhood favorite Rumble in The Bronx. The first one is how funny Jackie Chan is. The telephone scene and the car with the missing e brake both make for some pretty good comic moments, almost like a Buster Keaton or Chaplin performance. The other is that Jackie Chan as a director really knew how to film his action, which the style got taken for the rest of his career. The movie feels very late seventies in its style even though it was made in the mid eighties. Jackie Chan sings the theme song and it’s a real good hero song.

The opening sequence and ending sequence are magical. The fact that they took so many risks to put it on film is insane but makes it spectacular.
Review by raddude ★★★★½

Jackie’s action and charisma is only outmatched by his theme song singing abilities.
Review by K Gopal Krishna

Glass Story.
Review by Niklas Bergljung ★★★★

Visst är det lite fånigt ibland men jösses vad jag skrattar. Det tillsammans med fantastiska stunts gör det här till en utmärkt actionkomedi. Grym underhållning.
Review by Tyler ★★★★

Man this movie is so so good. Great action set pieces, great stunts, awesome fighting, and deceivingly funny.