New Police Story

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New Police Story

New Police Story Chinese DVD cover
Directed by Benny Chan
Produced by Jackie Chan
Willie Chan
Barbie Tung
Solon So
Written by Alan Yuen
Starring Jackie Chan
Nicholas Tse
Daniel Wu
Music by Tommy Wai
Cinematography Anthony Pun
Editing by Chi Wai Yau
Release date(s) Flag of Hong Kong September 24, 2004
Running time 122 min.
Country Hong Kong
Language Cantonese
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

New Police Story (Chinese: 新警察故事) is a 2004 Hong Kong crime-action film, directed by Benny Chan.

As with all the Police Story films, New Police Story stars Jackie Chan as a heroic but troubled Hong Kong police officer. The film is a reboot of the Police Story series and has no connection with the earlier installments.

Contents

[edit] Plot synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The film begins with a highly intoxicated police Inspector Chan Kwok Wing drinking one whisky after another. Later, he collapses in an alley, and is found by a stranger played by Nicholas Tse. The timeline now moves back a year.

The heroics of Inspector Chan are shown, as he disguises himself as a news cameraman in order to subdue a man holding a woman hostage in Central.

Soon after that incident, a group of rich, rebellious youths rob a bank. They explicitly ask the bank manager to call the police. They then confront the police outside the Legislative Council building. Having wounded countless police officers, they manage to escape. Apparently they treat the shooting as a game: The more officers a person shoots down, the more money he is awarded.

Inspector Chan and his squad are called to arrest the gang after their hideout is revealed. The ten man team arrive at the hideout only to find that it is rigged with traps. Chan's men falls for them one by one.

Chan then finds the men in a large warehouse, hung high above him. The gang murders Chan's men brutually, by dropping them from a height, after Chan loses two bets. In the end, only the brother of Chan's fiancee remains. In spite of Chan's efforts to get him down safely, he dies of internal injuries. Chan then barely escapes the hideout before a bomb is set off.

Being the sole survivor of the incident, Chan takes a year-long leave from the police force, drinking heavily to drown his sorrows.

The time line jumps back to the present. After his latest round, he sees a woman whose bag is snatched by two youngsters. In his drunken state, Chan tries to draw his gun, but takes out his bottle instead. He is knocked down and robbed by the youths. Later, he is found by an unknown man, who takes him home. When Chan wakes up, the man identifies himself as PC 1667, Frank Chang, his new partner.

Frank informs Chan that the gang that killed his men have recently struck again, and have made a computer game of based on the night his team was killed. He hints that by playing the game, they can keep track the gang's moves. Although Chan is initially reluctant to pursue the case, but is encouraged when he foils the two young bag-snatchers as they try to repeat the earlier crime.

It is then revealed that Joe, the leader of the gang, is a spoiled son of the police chief. Since he was beaten and handcuffed by his father in his childhood, Joe holds a grudge against the police.

Chan re-enters his office, vowing to apprehend the gang once and for all. Their first clue is their former colleague, Wong Sum, who had resigned from the force after the incident with the gang the previous year. He shows Chan a watch he yanked from one gang member, a girl named Sue. They track down Sue to a rooftop extreme sports party. However, the police have also sent a large number of men to investigate the venue, bringing Wong Sum with them. Before Wong Sum is able to identify the girl to whom the watch belongs, another gang member, named Fire, soars towards him on his BMX and shoots him dead. Before dying, Wong Sum confesses to Chan that he betrayed their plans to the gang before they took action.

An intense chase sequence begins. Using a climbing rope, Fire jumps off the roof, cycling down the wall of the building, while the girl slides down on roller blades. To distract Chan, Fire shoots at a bus driver, rendering the bus out of control. Chan quickly jumps onto the roof of the bus in an attempt to stop it. He finally manages to hit the brakes just moments before the bus is about to fall into the Victoria Harbour, and after it has caused a great deal of havoc in Central.

After the incident, Chan discovers that Frank is not a real policeman. In spite of this, they continue to stalk Joe, the gang leader. According to information provided by a policewoman, Officer Sa Sa, the gang members all have rich parents. Joe, the gang leader is also the son of a police chief. Meanwhile, Joe's gang are going through Chan's information on a computer.

Sue is badly wounded from a gunshot fired by Frank. When they return to their hideout, Joe shoots and kills her remorselessly.

Chan and Frank follow Joe to Chan's girlfriend's house. However, all this serves to distract Chan, as another gang member, Max, drives over to Chan's car and dumps a smoke grenade into it.

Joe then arranges to meet Chan's girlfriend in the police station. He wraps a time bomb around her neck before leaving. In spite of Chan's efforts, the bomb goes off, and Chan's girlfriend is knocked into a coma by some falling pipes. Unfortunately for Chan, he is charged with being responsible for the bombing, and is imprisoned in the police station with Frank.

After they are taunted by Joe's gang, Sa Sa "coerces" (by whining and threatening to run away from home) her father, the jailer to release Chan and Frank. The two sneak out of the police station, with everyone deliberately ignoring their departure. Police Chief Wong even lends Chan his handgun. Once out, they find out that the gang's next target is the Bank of Hong Kong, located in the New Wing of the Convention and Exhibition Centre.

As before, the police arrive, but this time Chan stops them from rushing in, assigning them the task of calmly escorting the public out of the building. Once the public are out of the line of sight of anyone who may be on the upper floors, the gang members' parents are sent in, much to their surprise. One of the gang members, Max, is so ashamed of himself that he attempts to run down the escalators to his parents, only to be shot dead by Joe.

Afterwards, Chan and Frank run up to engage the three remaining gang members. Frank manages to shoot Fire in the leg with his own gun, disabling him. Chan chases another gang member, Tin Tin, into a Lego exhibition. When the exhibition hall is emptied, the two engage in hand-to-hand combat (similar to the first confrontation), with Chan defeating Tin Tin. Joe then chases Frank into the hall, and shoots at him. In the cross fire, Tin Tin is shot in the chest.

Joe manages to chase Frank out of the room just moments before the Special Duties Unit of the police arrive. Tin Tin notices a gun on the floor and points it to Chan's back. Chan, who is oblivious to what's happening behind him, calls out to the squad to bring in a medic for Tin Tin. Tin Tin contemplates what he has done and the actions of Chan, and decides not to shoot him. He is then cared for by the medics.

Chan finds Joe on the roof of the Convention Centre. Having captured and tied up Frank, Joe threatens to throw him to his death. Joe challenges Chan to a race to assemble a handgun, a rematch of an earlier challenge, wagering Frank's life in the process. This time, Chan swiftly wins the game by placing the bullet in the barrel first, then the rest of the parts, and immediately aims his gun at Joe. A large number of policemen arrive on the roof, along with Joe's father, the police chief. Joe's father reprimands him, while Chan tells Joe that he knows that he doesn't hate cops, but he actually hates his father for berating him.

Not knowing that Joe's gun is empty, a police sniper then fires two rounds at him, which sets Frank up for a free-fall. Chan tries to save Frank, grabbing onto the rope, but is dragged down the building by Frank's weight. Chan ends up clutching a support pillar of the building, holding Frank between his legs. He eventually loses his grips and falls down with Frank, but lands safely on an airbed erected by firemen.

In the hospital, Chan's girlfriend recovers and prepares to leave. She is met by a large number of policemen and nurses who persuade her to accept Chan's marriage proposal. At first, she tried to hide her facial scars from Chan. But eventually she accepts the proposal to the crowd's applause. Meanwhile, Frank is led away by Officer Sa Sa. He leaves his jacket on a railing. When Chan looks at the jacket, he has a flashback.

Some years ago, a man from the mainland arrives without much money, and his son is starving. He tries to steal some food for his son from a 7-Eleven store. While running across the road to escape from the shopkeeper and the police, he is knocked down by a truck and killed.

The cops begin to kick the body of the man. Chan arrives at the scene and stops them, saying that even a thief has dignity. He orders his men to call the ambulance, while using his jacket to cover the body of the boy's father. Chan then buys the boy a loaf of bread. He comforts him, saying that a lot of unfair things happen in life, the best one should do is to try to forget it and look forward to the future. He asks the boy for his name and - it is Frank Chang.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Box Office

New Police Story opened in Hong Kong on September 23, 2004, where it made $5,625,746 HKD in its first three days. It ended its run with $21 million HKD, making it the fourth highest-grossing domestic release of the year.

[edit] US Version

New Police Story was released on DVD by Lions Gate. The DVD included an English dub, with participation by Jackie Chan. When played in its original language, it contains dubtitles. A cut was made towards the end of the film wherein a young Frank Cheng was being escorted back to the PRC by Chan.

[edit] Awards

24th Annual Hong Kong Film Awards

  • Nomination - Best Picture
  • Nomination - Best Director (Benny Chan)
  • Nomination - Best Actor (Jackie Chan)
  • Nomination - Best Supporting Actor (Daniel Wu)
  • Nomination - Best Editing (Yau Chi-Wai)
  • Nomination - Best Action Design (Lee Chung-Chi, Jackie Chan Stunt Team)
  • Nomination - Best Sound Effects (Kinson Tsang Kin-Cheung)
  • Nomination - Best Visual Effects (Wong Won-Tak, Ho Chi-Fai)

41st Annual Golden Horse Awards

  • Winner - Best Supporting Actor (Daniel Wu)
  • Winner - Best Action Choreography (Lee Chung-Chi, Jackie Chan Stunt Team)
  • Winner - Best Visual Effects (Victor Wong, Brian Ho)
  • Winner - Audience Choice Award
  • Nomination - Best Editing (Yau Chi-Wai)
  • Nomination - Best Art Direction (Wong Ching-Ching, Choo Sung-Pong, Oliver Wong)
  • Nomination - Best Sound Effects (Tsang King-Cheung)

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Police Story
Police Story | Police Story 2 | Police Story 3 | Police Story 4: First Strike | New Police Story
Spin-off | Project S