Jackie Chan Marathon: Police Story 2013

Director: Sheng Ding

Writer: Sheng Ding

Actors:
Jackie Chan
Liu Ye
Tian Jing
Wei Na
Yu Rongguang

Jackie Chan reformed the action movies with the first Police Story in 1985. It was revolutionary. Hollywood filmmakers copied some of the scenes (shanty town scene, bus chase, motorcycle scene). After the two sequels in 1996 the trilogy was expanded into a quadrology with Jackie Chan's First Strike (Police Story 4). It was followed by the New Police Story in 2004. The latter is not in canon with the rest of the Police Story movies.

The title of Police Story 2013 is not really creative because they just put the year at the end. This movie is not connected tightly to the previous Police Story installments.

First I thought that it is just a hoax. The first trailer has appeared on the internet just a few months before its cinema release.

Jackie Chan once again plays a different character form the previous ones. The story is more serious than before. This time he is a Chinese mainland police officer. He has changed his hairstyle in order to fit in his role. His character Zhong Wen is a police officer who wants to solve each case peacefully instead of fighting and shooting. He only has recourse to force if there is nothing else left.

Zhong Wen has neglected his family recently. At the beginning of the movie he meets with his daughter, because he wants to make peace with her. Suddenly he gets involved in a kidnapping case. Tension builds up during solving this case. You can  feel that the characters are in real danger.

Like Crime Story (1993) and Shinjuku Incident (2009) Police Story 2013 has a serious story. The characters are well developed. The whole movie feels real. At least the creators tried to make the most realistic Police Story than before. The comedic elements, slapstick humour, and the dangerous stunts are gone.

The director Sheng Ding used all kinds of methods in order to enhance the mood and keep the adrenaline flowing. He applied fast and rapid fire editing, shaky cam, super slow motion, in medias res beginning, and flashbacks. The film often jumps back to the past. You can see "what if" scenes to show what would happen if a character decided to do something the other way around. Shaky cam was not overdone during the car chase, so it did not bother me as much as in other movies. In some action scenes CGI and wires were used but it was not noticeable.

Compared to other Jackie Chan films Police Story 2013 has less fighting and the run-time is shorter. In spite of the few action scenes, the twists in the story make this movie quite exciting. Back then in Jackie Chan's action films the story was just filling between fight scenes. Now it is the other way around. It is interesting that the movie still works with the action that has moved into the background. Action, tension and story are in proportion to each other.

Police Story 2013 was not a big disappointment, but it was pleasant surprise. This movie proved that Jackie Chan still can give something new to his audience. His performance as the ageing police officer was convincing enough. It was nice to see him in a new film. Police Story 2013 is better than Chinese Zodiac (2012). It has not got forced comedy and the story is decent. I would like to advise Police Story 2013 to the fans of Jackie Chan and to the fans of action thrillers.