Jackie Chan - Project A [VHS] [1985]

Jackie plays Dragon Ma, Sergeant of the local coast guard in late 19th Century Hong Kong, whose job it is to seek out and rid the area of pirates (Project A was a real-life plan devised for this very purpose). Unfortunately the miserable attempts of the inept Coast Guards to actually find the pirates' lair, never mind capture them, cost the government lots of funds, which in turn angers Captain Chi of the Police Force, who complains that the police are not getting enough funding.

Things come to a head when the Coast Guard and the Police brawl (led by Tzu, played by Yuen Biao) in a bar the night before the former are to set sail, plus just as the Coast Guard are about to embark on their mission their ships get blown up. Because of this the Coast Guard is disbanded and its members forced to join the police force, where Tzu puts them under torturous and seemingly unfair training regimes.

Meanwhile, the men who blew up the ships, who are working for head pirate San-po (played with brilliance by Dick Wei), are asked to get hold of 100 police rifles, so they hire Fei (Sammo Hung), a thief for hire.

Back at police headquarters, Tzu gives orders to arrest criminal Chiang, tipped to be hiding in a local high-society club. Unfortunately this causes disturbance with the club's members and this disgraces the force, so Dragon quits in disgust after bringing Chiang to justice.

Fei witnesses this and recognises Dragon as being an old friend, although Dragon won't trust Fei because of his usual thieving ways. Fei lets Dragon know that someone in the police force is leaking information to the pirates, and in the end Fei, Tzu and Dragon must join forces to overcome the common foe San-po!

This movie is still an absolute classic after almost 20 years. It has many things in its favour:

(1) The chemistry and unique connections between Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao,
(2) Some truly awesome, ground-breaking (and sometimes body-breaking?) fights and stunts (look for Jackie Chan's infamous clock tower sequence!)
(3) Jackie's love of the silent comedians such as Harold Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton are parodied in some bits to great effect (the bike chase in the alleys is masterful!)
(4) Great villains played by the likes of Lee Hoi-San ('Magnificent Butcher') and Dick Wei ('Heart Of Dragon', 'My Lucky Stars' and 'Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars')

As for the DVD extras, being a Platinum Edition there is no shortage of it - over four hours of extras here! As examples, there's the usual Hong Kong Legends choice of either dubbed or subtitled; an audio commentary with Bey Logan (who does brilliantly as usual); interviews with Lee Hoi-San, Yuen Biao, Mars and Dick Wei, which are super (Lee even does a Wing Chun form!); an essay on Chan, Hung and Biao; a photo gallery; and trailer archive. The best one by far is the documentary 'Project A: A Classic Revisited', hosted by Bey Logan! He actually visits some of the sites where key movie bits were shot, and the whole documentary is stunning!

An essential purchase for action fans!