Tweet
Released by: Dragon Dynasty
Released on: 1/13/2009
Director: Stanley Tong
Cast: Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh, Maggie Cheung, Ken Tsang, Yuen Wah
Year: 1993
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:
Also known as Police Story III, Stanley Tong's first collaboration with Jackie Chan is as enjoyable, entertaining and exciting as anything that Chan has done. Cast alongside the lovely Michelle Yeoh, Chan plays Hong Kong police inspector Chan Ka Kai who winds up working undercover with a mainland Chinese federal agent named Jessica Yang (Michelle Yeoh) to investigate and hopefully eliminate an underground drug cartel causing problems in both territories.
The mission takes Chan Ka Kai from Hong Kong to the mainland and then back to Hong Kong with Yang in tow while the life of arrested wife of the syndicate boss, the only one who can help to put him away, hangs in the balance. When he runs into an old girlfriend of his, the drug dealers figure out who he is and kidnap her to use as leverage leaving the two cops in a race against time where they have to take down bad guys, save good guys, and dangle precariously from high flying helicopters!
Infamous for its incredible helicopter sequence, Supercop is a relentlessly exciting picture chock full of action, adventure, intrigue and humor. Chan's acting style might not be as natural as some of his counterparts but his enthusiasm is infectious here and his on screen chemistry with the always stunning Michelle Yeoh really helps the picture rise above the countless action films that Hong Kong was churning out in the eighties and early nineties.
Making great use of a lot of genuine Hong Kong locations, the film looks great from start to finish - it's slick, well shot, well lit, and pretty to look at - but it's the action sequences that have justly earned the film its reputation. Aside from the aforementioned helicopter scene there are plenty of hand to hand fight scenes featuring some terrific displays of martial arts ability and a few nicely filmed shoot out/gun play sequences as well. While Chan does most of the heavy lifting here, Yeoh, who also did all of her own stunts for this picture, absolutely holds her own and proves why she was one of Hong Kong's most impressive leading ladies before succumbing to the lure of Hollywood and starring in turds like The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor and Babylon A.D (though in her defense, around the same time she also appeared in Fearless with Jet Li, so it's not all bad in the land of Yeoh).
While on their own both Yeoh and Chan have made better films, Supercop is definitely up there in both filmographies. It's violent enough to pack a real wallop but it's also got a strong story, great production values and, most importantly, it's a lot of fun that holds up incredibly well in an age where a lot of the stunts we see in the film would now be handled by computers.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Dragon Dynasty's 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer is very nice. The progressive scan image is clean and clear from start to finish and free of any serious print damage. Some welcome light film grain is evident here and there but detail remains sharp throughout. Color reproduction is nice and black levels are solid and there aren't any problems at all with mpeg compression artifacts or edge enhancement to complain about at all. Supercop looks awesome on this release.
Audio options are provided in Cantonese Mono, English DTS 5.1 Surround Sound and English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Optional subtitles are provided in English, Spanish and English SDH. While it's unfortunate that we're not given a Cantonese surround sound mix, the mono is clean and clear and free of any hiss or distortion. The English dubs don't work as well for the film as the Cantonese track does, but quality wise, they too sound quite good, exhibiting nice surround usage and strong bass response.
Aside from some classy animated menus and chapter selection, the sole supplement (well, technically there are ads for Fist of Legend and The Rebel that play before you can get to the main menu) on the first disc is a full length audio commentary track with 'Hong Kong cinema expert' Bey Logan. Bey's commentaries are always solid and he starts off by discussing the differences between the opening sequence included on the Dimension version of the film (included on this DVD) and the original Hong Kong cut of the picture (not included here, unfortunately). From there he goes on to talk about how Stanley Tong and Jackie Chan wound up working on this picture before detailing all of the Hong Kong location shooting that was used in this picture and detailing the cast. Logan really knows his stuff and this non-stop barrage of information about the picture is a truly interesting listen for anyone with even a remote interest in Jackie Chan's filmography or Hong Kong cinema in general.
Disc two starts off with Flying High (19:20), a fun interview with Jackie Chan in which the world's biggest action star talks about his working relationship with Stanley Tong, who was quite young when he started working with Chan. From there he talks about everything from having sex in an elevator to his input as an actor into the films that he makes to what it was like working with Michelle Yeoh on this film. Of course, he also talks about the stunts on the film and these stories are the highlights of the interview. Chan is his usual likeable self here and he's very animated as he talks in English about his career and about this film specifically.
From there check out Dancing With Death (23:10) which puts the charming and beautiful Michelle Yeoh in front of the camera for a talk, in English, about her work on this picture. The first lady of Hong Kong cinema talks about her early years as an actress, her training as a ballerina, and how she got into martial arts films (she's not had any formal training) and what it was like learning from scratch. She talks about the thrill and the excitement of working on films like Supercop and about the unpredictability of making movies in Hong Kong and of course, she too talks about some of the stunt work that she was involved in. Michelle Yeoh has always been an incredibly charming actress and this interview just furthers that even more.
Up next is The Stuntmaster General (19:32) which is an interesting interview, again in English, with director Stanley Tong. Stanly talks about what it's like to direct Jackie Chan before going on and telling some amusing stories about the movies that they've made together. He talks about their working methods and what it's like working with such a huge star and how it's important to keep communicating with his cast members. He also talks about making Rumble In The Bronx and a few other movies with Chan, and some of the difficulties that they ran into on a few productions.
Finally, be sure to watch The Fall Guy (21:42), an interview, in Chinese (with English subtitles) with Jackie Chan's bodyguard and training partner, Ken Lo. Ken talks about his friendship with Jackie and how they started working together and how Chan recruited him to work with him in the first place and how he became his bodyguard. He also talks about how he started working on films with Chan and about some of the stunt work and action scenes that he's been involved with.
Unfortunately the alternate opening sequence mentioned in the commentary has not been included, and neither has the film's trailer, but aside from that the extras on this release are top notch.
The Final Word:
One of Jackie Chan's last truly great films, Supercop gets an appropriately rock solid two disc release from Dragon Dynasty, who continue to do impressive work releasing superb editions of Hong Kong ass-kickers for a North American audience.