Police Story III: Heroin and Train Tracks

[THE CHALK-OUTLINE]

Police Story III: Super Cop a.k.a. Ging chat goo si 3: Chiu kup ging chat (1992): Breakdown by Rantbo

Jackie Chan is now a SUPER cop, yet needs help from Michelle Yeoh to fight SUPER crime.

[THE EXECUTION]

The Royal Hong Kong police are having trouble with drug trafficking. Most of the shit coming through is from a drug lord named Chaibat. And thus, if he is arrested, “the drugs on the market would be reduced by half.”

And there’s your god damn plot right there. Well, pretty close. Due to the level of intricate danger (and a need to spice up the formula), Chan is teamed up with INTERPOL agent, Yang Jian-hua. Played by the stunning Michelle Yeoh.

Putting together Chan and Yeoh is a no-brainer, and placing them together in a buddy-cop version of POLICE STORY is genius.  Their combined talents make for one hellova fun time. The duo infiltrate the drug cartel, by impressing them (and the audience) with their clever maneuvers, daring initiative and exquisite martial arts, before turning all of these skills against the poor bastards and shutting them down for good.

Keeping with the tradition of the series, SUPER COP is packed with Action and clever bits of comedy, while managing to keep its overall serious tone. All without beating me over the head with the drama, like I felt part two did. And it’s this blend of Action, Comedy and Drama that easily makes this my favorite entry of the series, more so, I’ll even say it sits in my top 5 Jackie films of all time. I highly recommend it.

[HOW BAD-ASS ARE THE MAIN CHARACTERS?]

Jackie Chan is Super Cop Chan Ka Kui

“Chan ka-kui parenthesis super cop” – “You’re too macho.”
-Fights off 5 or so prison labor camp guards and runs up an almost 50° angled hill in a prison break.
-Machine guns 2 soldiers of fortune.
-Wields a gun the size of himself, and actually kills 2 guys with it.
-Dive jumps out of building a second before it explodes.
-Beats up more police officers.
-Jumps off a building onto a helicopter’s rope-ladder. And hangs on as they fly him over the city into stuff.
-Fights drug lord commandos on the top of a speeding locomotive. For Real.

Michelle Yeoh is INTERPOL Superintendent Yang Jian-hua

-Beats up a bunch of unaware cops in order to remain an undercover criminal.
-Slaps Jackie ‘He-Man Woman-Hater” Chan.
-Scorpion kicks a dude in the face.
-Cunt punts a bitch.
-Gets shot twice in the chest. Has on a bullet-proof vest, but still, that’s gotta bruise the dirty-pillows.
-Vaults onto a speeding bus and clings to the outside of it during a high-speed chase. Eventually rolls off the back of it, falling onto another car, which slams on it’s breaks, sending her flying onto the asphalt.
-Commandeers (steals) a motorcycle, uses it to jump onto a speeding locomotive and helps Chan defeat the commandos.

[THE BODY COUNT: 50ish]

People are shot, run over, exploded, run over then exploded, overdose, drown, thrown off buildings and smashed into toothpaste with flaming helicopter wreckage. Jackie caps 4 fools by himself, which is pretty impressive (for him), and also throws a guy off a building. Cool.

Yang also pops some poor bastard, but the rest of the deaths are all Bad-Guy on Bad-Guy. And it’s a shitload, at least for this series. There is even this one sequence straight out of a MISSING IN ACTION movie, where a fucking fire-fight breaks out at a military camp. Rockets, grenades and machine guns, oh my! All-in-all, it’s a pretty damn good time.

[MOST SATISFYING DEATH]

Chaibat finds out one of his associates fucked him over, so he smashes his face into a drinking glass and crushes his skull with an exotic fruit. Bonus points for originality.

[DUDESWEAT AND MACHISMO]

Jackie remains fully clothed the whole time, but Uncle Bill’s got our back (ass). Dressing in drag to pose as Chan’s mother.

Then there was this guy… ~Shudder~

[EXPLOITATION AND MISOGYNY]

Chan just can’t stop smackin’ the ladies…

On top of that, Yang gets punched, kicked and strangled by various men throughout the picture. Which is the least of the misogyny, as the lovely Miss Maggie Cheung returns, once again, as Chan’s better and berated half. For starters, Chan is forced to lie to her about his latest mission. She thinks he is away for a month at a police school, which makes for some comedy gold when he accidentally bumps into her with Yang at a hotel poolside. Wondering what he is doing vacationing with another beautiful woman, Chan is forced to pretend his girlfriend is a local whore, attacking him for money, in order to remain undercover. When his vocal assault doesn’t put her at bay, Yang puts her into one by shoving her into a pool. For the rest of her stay, everyone thinks she is aggressively soliciting sex. Not enough? There’s more…

Chan finally convinces her that he is on a mission and she helps cover for him. Proud with helping her man retain his rouse, she gives her co-worker the downlow. Too bad it happened to be within earshot of one of Chan’s targets, which leads to his blown cover and her kidnapping. To cap it all off, at the exchange, she is thrown out of a low flying helicopter and smashes into a parked car, then the ground. Yeah. Kinda makes you wonder why she doesn’t make an appearance in part four…

[EPIC MOMENT AND BEST ONE-LINER]

[flashvideo filename=videos/PS3SC.wmv.FLV /]

Goon: “Boss, that woman died after her shot [of Heroin].”
Chaibat: [Laughing] “That’s fine, Johnny is an expert in putting
[smuggling] drugs  into corpses…”

[THE MORAL OF THE STORY]

“A pretty hooker is a sign of trouble.”

[THE GIST OF JACKIE: 4 outta 5]

[X] Breaks Into Someplace Or Escapes By Way Of Acrobatics
[X] Has An Annoying Tag-Along Companion
[X] Makes The ‘OW!’ Face And/Or Rubs A Soar Spot
[X] Performs A Ridiculously Dangerous Stunt
[  ] Uses A Random Object To Defend Himself

[THE USES OF YEOH: 3 outta 3]

[X] Kicks A Man’s Ass
[X] Plays A Cop Or Law Enforcement Agent
[X] Performs (an) Impressive Stunt(s)

[THE CHECKLIST: 18 outta 25]

[X] Athlete(s) Turned “Actor”
[X] Clinging To The Outside Of A Moving Vehicle
[X] Crotch Attack
[X] Dialogue Telling Us How Bad-Ass The Main Character(s) Is/Are
[  ] Ending Featuring An Ambulance, A Blanket or A Towel
[X] Factory/Warehouse
[X] Giant Explosion(s)
[X] Heavy Artillery
[  ] Improvised Weapon(s)
[X] Macho Mode(s) Of Transportation
[X] Main Character Sports Facial Accessory(s)
[X] Manly Embrace(s)
[X] Notorious Stunt-Man Sighting
[  ] Passage(s) Of Time Via Montage
[X] Politically Fueled Plot Point(s)
[X] Senseless Destruction Of Property
[X] Shoot Out(s) and/or Sword Fight(s)
[  ] Slow-Motion Finishing Move(s)/Death(s)
[X] Stupid Authoritative Figure(s)
[X] Substance Usage and/or Abuse
[  ] Tis The Season
[  ] Torture Sequence(s)
[X] Unnecessary Sequel
[Police Story 3: Supercop 2 and Police Story IV: First Strike]
[X] Vehicle Chase(s)
[  ] Vigilante Justice