I had been somewhat familiar with martial arts films for the past couple of years, mostly from franchises like the Raid and Ip Man. But I had never fully watched a Jackie Chan movie until I recently watched Drunken Master, which was his first movie to star in and was also what kicked off the kung-fu comedy sub genre. Police Story is a movie that’s actually directed by Jackie Chan himself and really shows off his impressive and authentic stunts that help tell a fast paced story and leave a lot of room for slap stick comedy. Jackie Chan certainly is intuitive when it comes to these action scenes, have every item in sight used as a weapon in a creative way. Jackie Chan has mentioned in the past about how he takes a lot of inspiration from Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton when it comes to his comedy scenes. The physical comedy is actually a great way to move the story forward in an entertaining way, and just like those previously mentioned filmmakers, Jackie Chan is a huge perfectionist, doing hundreds of takes and constantly putting his own life in danger for the stunts.
The mall scene in this movie is the highlight, because of how they travel through different stores, which give the action scenes so much variety when it comes to the stunts. The biggest stunt is when Jackie Chan slides down an electric pole and falling into a canopy. He actual suffered from severe burns from his hands and other injuries from the fall. The movie even does two instant replays to show off how big of a stunt it was. Some people might find the comedy in Jackie Chan’s films to be too silly, but there is so much effort and insane stunt work that it is an impressive feat, and also has so much charm and entertainment value to it.