Project A Part 2

Director: Jackie Chan

Producer: Leonard Ho, David Lam, Edward Tang

Overview: My favourite Jackie Chan movie of all time. Non-stop, top quality action all the way through.

Plot: Pirates wanting revenge, revolutionists (Maggie Cheung), emperor's agents (Lee Hoi San) and corrupt policeman (David Lam) are all after Coastguard turned Policeman Ma Yu Lung (Jackie Chan) and that little black book, that keeps popping up in these period martial art movies. That little black book contains, not phone numbers of Chinese honeys but, the names of all the revolutionists in China.

Review: The sequel to the incredibly popular and ground breaking Project A is a first class comedy action adventure and has all the ingredients for the perfect Jackie Chan movie. Group fights, prop fights, environment fights, chase scenes, breathtaking stunts and of course the comedy.

Unfortunately, this time around there is no chubby Sammo or acrobatic Yuen Biao, they were filming Eastern Condors. Instead you have not one, but two, of Hong Kong's most popular and beautiful actress's, Rosamund Kwan (Once Upon A Time In China) and Maggie Cheung (Police Story). The role's are that of helpless women who Jackie has to save in the fantastic finale. But what else did you expect from a Jackie Chan film. They do take part in the action though, doing a couple of nice stunts each. Bill Tung plays a Chief of Police, very similar role to that seen in the Police Story films. Bill has the funniest moments of the film when in Maggie Cheung's apartment.

David Lam plays the corrupt copper with the only handgun in the entire HK police force. He sets out to frame Jackie, who has taken control over one of his districts. Chan Wai Man has a small, but menacing role as Tiger, a gang boss in Jackie's part of town. There are also many familiar face's popping up throughout the film. Most of these are Jackie's stunt guys. Benny Lai, Ken Lo, Ben Lam and Anthony Carpio to name a few. So, although Sammo and Biao aren't present the rest of the cast more than make up for it. Although the film would of been too good to be true if Biao and Sammo had appeared.

The story is rather good, for a Jackie Chan film anyways. The plot does become a little hard to follow in places because there are so many people and lot's of things are going on. The early part of the film, with Chan Wai Man, feels a bit disjointed to the rest of the film and after the little side plot with Wai Man you're thinking 'that's the shortest Jackie Chan film ever'. It does however set up the the corrupt coppers part of the film.

The comedy in this movie is nowhere near as silly as that seen in most HK movies of the same time. Its much more like situation comedy then slapstick or goofball. This is most evident in the scene inspired by the Marx brothers. Maggie Cheung has to hide many people in her flat all the while there are the emperor's assassins hiding there too. This scene works very well and apparently took Jackie a month to figure out.

Action-wise the film isn't the most pure martial arts orientated of Jackie's movies. Needless, to say though he doe's do a lot of fighting in the film. As I mentioned earlier there is a great variety of action on offer. There's a superb fight in a club, with Jackie's guys taking falls all over the place. There is a marvellous scene with Jackie handcuffed to David Lam as they try to escape the pirates which leads to a wild chase through town and a restaurant, with laugh out loud moments all the while. The finale is one of the longest of Jackie's career. It take's in many different environments, and lots of painful break falls. The clock tower was always going to be hard to beat. Jackie still comes up with a cracking final stunt, involving a huge collapsing ceremonial wall. Inspired by the fantastic silent movie star Buster Keaton.

A mention must also go to the authentic costumes and great looking sets, which were built on the old Shaw Brothers Studio. They are even used to this day. I don't think any other HK film before this had such detail lavished upon it.

Overall then, Project A2 is one of Jackie's finest achievements. I've seen the film dozens of time because it was one of the first in my collection all those years ago and I'm still not bored of it. If you're a fan of Jackie you must try and see this film.

Rating: 10.0 out of 10.0