Police Story 2 (1988)

Police Story 2 (1988)

6/10

Starring

Jackie Chan

Maggie Cheung

Charlie Cho

Directed by Jackie Chan

Police Story II is good but not as good as the first Police Story, and the story follows the aftermath of what happened in the first film.

It’s not that there weren’t good fights in Police Story 1. The fight at the end, when he had to be held back before beating everyone up, was just amazing. But if you want to see Jackie do some incredible fighting skills—jumping and moving gracefully while doing things you can only dream of—Police Story II has it in spades. The best part is you don’t have to wait long to see it. Just sixteen minutes in, and Jackie is already vexed and begins to make the bad guys pay. Even though I felt the first fight scene wasn’t a fair fight—five average goons versus Jackie Chan, come on!

The movie has Maggie Cheung’s character, May, playing a more prominent role in this sequel. The plot, as mentioned, continues from where the first one stopped, with the bad guy working hard to make Jackie’s life a living hell, stressing him out and making his love life unbearable. May in this movie seems to be at the end of most of the problems Jackie faces, making her fed up with being with him.

The movie also has a second plot running concurrently with the first, as Jackie has to deal with his pending problems from the first film. There’s a bombing gang terrorizing the city, and Jackie, now assigned to a team, has to find and stop these criminals before they kill more people.

You’ll be throwing your hands in the air when you see the stunts in the fights. This movie has some very creative fight choreography, and the fast pace, with a less emotional undertone than the first, is what makes this action flick fun. It would have been better than its predecessor if the story were just as good, but the action and Jackie Chan being the fun-loving, slick fighter we all know and love makes up for the lack of a strong story. The movie also features heavy-duty policing, undercover work, surveillance, and high-tech stuff that was available in the ‘80s.

In the end, the movie was a critical success, and if you saw the first movie and liked it, you will like this one too. One thing that comes to mind whenever I remember this movie is the deaf-mute man who finds joy in hurting others with tiny fire bombs. Another thing is when the police officer ladies were interrogating the bad guy, who felt he was in control of things—until the ladies did a number on him.

The movie is written and directed by Chan, just like the first film.

It’s much longer than the first film (two hours in this cut I watched), but it’s worth every minute.