Police
Story
IMDb Rating
55K
IMDb Votes
96%
Rotten Tomatoes
$11M
Box Office
Synopsis & Review
Directed by and starring Jackie Chan, Police Story (1985) follows Chan Ka-Kui, a dedicated Hong Kong supercop tasked with protecting Selina Fong (Brigitte Lin), the key witness in a drug case against powerful crime boss Chu Tao (Chor Yuen). After a staggering opening sequence — in which Chan pursues gangsters through a hillside shantytown, bringing down an entire village in a blaze of stunt-fuelled carnage — the story tightens into a conspiracy of framed evidence and desperate escapes. Ka-Kui must clear his name, protect the witness, and dismantle the syndicate, culminating in one of the most celebrated and terrifying action finales in cinema history: a full-body descent down a four-storey pole wrapped in electrified fairy lights inside a Hong Kong shopping mall.
Police Story is not merely a great action film — it is the definitive statement of what Jackie Chan's cinema represents. Made in direct response to his disappointing Hollywood experience on The Protector (1985), Chan returned to Hong Kong and made a film that was entirely his own: writing it, directing it, and performing every stunt himself, many of which put his life in genuine danger. The mall finale alone resulted in burns to Chan's hands and a dislocated pelvis. What the camera captures is not the illusion of danger but the real thing, and the audience feels every impact. Comedy is never absent — Chan's genius is that pratfalls and death-defying leaps exist in the same breath — but Police Story is the film where the stakes feel real, the chaos is total, and the craft on display is without peer. It was named the best film of the year by the Hong Kong Film Awards, won Best Action Design, and sits at the absolute apex of the action-comedy genre. Nothing before or since has quite matched it.
Why Watch This Movie?
The Greatest Practical Stuntwork Ever Committed to Film
There are no wires, no CGI, no camera tricks. Every stunt in Police Story is real, performed by Jackie Chan and his team in a single take or fewer. The opening shantytown chase destroys an entire film set built on a hillside. The bus sequence involves Chan hanging from a pole on a moving vehicle through actual Hong Kong traffic. The mall finale ends with Chan sliding down a pole through Christmas lights to land on glass that shatters beneath his feet. End credits roll over footage of the injuries sustained. If you want to understand what human courage looks like on camera, this is the film.
Action-Comedy at Its Most Perfectly Balanced
Chan's genius — and it is genius — is the seamless interweaving of physical comedy with lethal danger. A scene of Ka-Kui juggling multiple phone calls on a tiny desk transitions directly into a rooftop pursuit. A girlfriend misunderstanding plays out in parallel with a witness-protection disaster. The comedic timing never blunts the action; the action never overwhelms the laughs. Few filmmakers in history have managed this balance with such apparent ease, and Chan does it while also performing every stunt in the frame.
The Shopping Mall Finale Is Cinema History
The final twenty minutes of Police Story — set across multiple floors of a glass-and-steel shopping mall — is as good as action filmmaking gets. Chan choreographed every moment, using the architecture of the building itself as a weapon, a playground, and a death trap. The sequence escalates with the logic of a fever dream, building from glass-smashing brawls to the iconic light-pole slide that left Chan with burned palms and a dislocated pelvis. It has been referenced, studied, and imitated for forty years. Nothing has bettered it.
Cast & Crew
Director
Jackie Chan
Screenplay
Jackie Chan & Edward Tang
Producer
Leonard Ho / Golden Way Films
Chan Ka-Kui
Jackie Chan
Selina Fong
Brigitte Lin
May (Girlfriend)
Maggie Cheung
Chu Tao (Villain)
Chor Yuen
Superintendent Li
Bill Tung
Action Director
Jackie Chan Stunt Team
Official Trailer
© Golden Way Films / Media Asia. Trailer embedded via YouTube.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Jackie Chan really perform all the stunts in Police Story?
Yes — and the injuries sustained are documented in the film's closing credit sequence, which shows the actual accidents and medical treatment received on set. Chan performed the opening hillside shantytown stunt in which a bus slides through an entire constructed village, hung from a moving double-decker bus through live Hong Kong traffic, and completed the famous light-pole slide in the mall finale — a stunt that resulted in second-degree burns to his hands and a dislocated pelvis. Chan's philosophy was absolute: no stunt doubles, no camera tricks, because audiences deserve honesty. The Jackie Chan Stunt Team — a group of trained martial artists who trained together for years — assisted in choreography and group sequences, but Chan himself is in every dangerous shot.
Why did Jackie Chan make Police Story?
Chan had just completed The Protector (1985), a Hollywood production directed by James Glickenhaus, which he found deeply unsatisfying — the film felt generic, the action watered-down, and Chan had little creative control. Frustrated and determined to prove what Hong Kong action cinema could achieve, he returned to Hong Kong and immediately began writing and directing Police Story as a direct rebuttal. He wanted to make something that was entirely his vision: uncompromising in its stunt work, unashamedly comedic, and proudly Hong Kong. The result was a film that not only exceeded everything in his previous filmography but set a global standard for action cinema that Hollywood has been chasing ever since.
How many Police Story sequels are there?
The Police Story franchise spans six films. Police Story 2 (1988) — also directed by Chan — is a direct sequel reuniting the main cast and is widely considered almost as good as the original. Police Story 3: Supercop (1992) introduced Michelle Yeoh as a Mainland Chinese officer and became a massive international hit. Police Story 4: First Strike (1996) expanded the action globally across Ukraine and Australia. New Police Story (2004) was a darker, semi-reboot with Chan playing a broken detective. Police Story: Lockdown (2013) departed furthest from the formula, placing Chan in a hostage thriller. The 1985 original and its 1988 sequel remain the creative peak of the series.
Where was Police Story filmed?
The film was shot entirely on location in Hong Kong in 1985. The opening shantytown sequence was filmed at a purpose-built hillside set in Kowloon that was physically destroyed during filming — the collapse of the village and the bus sliding through it were real, happening once. The bus-hanging sequence was filmed on actual public roads in Hong Kong with live traffic. The mall finale was shot at City One Plaza in Sha Tin, New Territories — a real, operational shopping mall that was used during off-hours. Shooting in real environments rather than studio sets was central to Chan's vision: the danger needed to feel real because it was real.
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