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Police Story 2

Police Story broke new ground for Hong Kong Action cinema and affirmed Jackie Chan's place at the top of the action film genre.

But how do you follow up a film of Police Story's magnitude. Well for JC it was simple after starring in ''Heart of the Dragon'' with Sammo Hung and two of the Lucky Stars movies ,he made Police Story 2 in 1988.

Returning to the role of Chan Ka Kui of the Royal Hong Kong Police force., now we all know the old adage that sequels usually never are as good as there forbears and in most cases are pretty dire.

But what's amazing about Police Story 2 is that JC managed to nearly match the originals pace and edge of your seat action, all this was by taking the tried and tested formula JC had in the original and adding more, with the added usage of pyrotechnics in the form of bombs and exploding devices ,and all at the expense of injury to JC himself.

The film follows straight on from the first ,with Chan Ka Kui demoted and put on patrol for basically destroying a shopping mall at the end of the first..

what was good to see that the original cast all reprised their roles which gave the film a familiar feel to the original ,it was great to see Bill Tung back as Uncle Bill and Maggie Cheung back as May .

Anyway's with Ka Kui on patrol duties ,it looks like his life might be a bit more peaceful, but when Chu Tu turns up out of prison because of ill health he vows revenge on Ka Kui.

As with the first film it's not long before where treated to some high octane action from JC , when Chu Tu's men led by John Ko ( Charlie Cho) begin harassing Ka Kui and May and her mother ,there seems no other way to deal with it then attack and ask questions later. This results a destroyed restaurant and more blame on poor Ka Kui.

Ka Kui ends up resigning and decides to take May on Holiday to Bali. Whilst booking the holiday at the shopping mall ( no another mall ,not the one he destroyed up in the first) the local Police in the mall get a bomb threat , upon seeing Ka Kui they ask his advice. Even though he has resigned.

Ka Kui ends up being responsible for a complete panic and evacuation of thousands of people ,with the fire department and bomb squad on call ,they believe it's a hoax.

But once the place is clear and all seems well ,a huge explosion happens flattening the mall. Again Ka Kui is a hero .

The bomb is part of a blackmail case a against a organisation that owned the mall,their other properties are at risk if they don't pay a ransom of 10 million dollars.

Now with such a high profile case they will need someone who can handle the job ,Uncle Bill and his superior Raymond Li Shanghai Ka Kui as he is about to leave for Bali, getting him of the plane they persuade him to take the case and be reinstated by acting as if they not what to do I such circumstances. Poor old May gets taken to Bali with out Ka Kui and with out her passport ,after being held in a cell she is returned to Hong Kong.

Not pleased with her holiday she berates Ka Kui in front of his colleagues.

Things are tough for Ka Kui ,he must now and concentrate on the case to catch these bombers before any-more bombs go of.

With a huge team they try and trace where the explosives came from, tracking a dealer Ka Kui goes undercover to find the source . This leads the team to find out who there dealing with, this leads them a warehouse where they survey the suspects ,when they leave they go for investigation only to find a deaf Mute guy who seems to be living their with his toys.

But when the deaf Mute turns out to be a explosives expert and fighter and gets away they have to find other means of catching the guys.

Meanwhile John Ko have followed Ka Kui who is trying to amend his relationship with May, cornered in the local park Ka Kui must fight to stay in one piece.

Again he gets reprimanded when the press get hold of the story and plaster it over the papers.

But Ka Kui's troubles are not over ,the bombers decide the best way to collect the cash is have a cop do it for them , they kidnap May , this results in Ka Kui attacking the home of Chu Tu as he believes he and John Ko are responsible when this turns out false and he gets a phone call from the bombers Ka Kui must meet them to take action.

Things get a bit worse as Ka Kui is taken hostage , Tormented and made to pick up the ransom to free May, Ka Kui knows critical timing is needed if he is to outwit the bombers and free May .

Police Story 2 is quite a amazing as Jackie achieves to deliver a film which entertains on the same level as the original, the fight action is fast and furious with some really mesmerising exchanges between combatants. But then there's the stunts , there seems no let up as Jackie performs some crazy shenanigans, like leaping from the tops of moving vehicles on a high street to eventually smash through a window and get injured for real in the process.

The idea of being set on fire whilst fighting is a brave idea ,and one we see go wrong in the out takes.

Benny Lai is awesome as the deaf mute criminal, performing a fantastic triple mid air front kick on Jackie .Even Maggie Cheung's role is bigger here ,she even did her own stunts and in the process got severely injured when a series of metal frames she had to run through while they where falling down hit her on the head and sliced it open. After a stint in hospital she was OK.

Police Story 2 is another must see movie for Chan Fans , it may not take you back as when viewing the first Police Story but it delivers solid action with great stunts .

Now the version reviewed is the Hong Kong Legends version ,which reinstates some key scenes which where omitted from the original VHS release in the UK. The HKL version runs approx 101 minutes while the original was around 92 minutes in the UK on VHS.

There is a longer Japanese cut of the film at 122 minutes , in 2007 Dragon Dynasty released adisc which featured the 122 Minute cut of the film, I don't know for sure what extras are on the disc ,but if I manage to track one down I'll add a side note to this review.

Score out of Ten = A Pyrotechnic 9

Review Date : February 2013

Reviewer : Sertes Nake

 Cast and Characters

 source : wikipedia

New Police Story - 2004 - Jackie's reboot of the series directed by Benny Chan

Police Story - 1985 - The original film that started it all