I have read Jackie’s autobiography and was a huge fan of his movies in the late 90s and early 2000s, but I don’t think I have ever seen one of his Police Story movies, surprisingly. I did however receive a review copy of Police Story: Lockdown in which Jackie stars as police officer Zhong Wen in a film written and directed by Ding Sheng. The story sees Jackie and his daughter, as well as a dozen other seemingly random people, taken hostage in a prestigious night club. Negotiations are slow, but Ye Liu’s character, Wu Jiang, seems to have thought of everything as his master plan begins to take form.
The runtime approaches one hour and fifty minutes and much of this you’re trying to figure out why Wu Jiang has gone through some five years worth of scheming to hatch this plan. What is is his goal here, and why has he made sure that he will have a significant amount of uninterrupted time with this group of people? I thought Ding Sheng did a good job of keeping me interested right up to the very end, and he did so not just with Jackie Chan action, but instead with calculated story vignettes, or flashbacks, to the events that led up to this night. Sometimes this can be a little bit confusing as Sheng uses seamlessly integrated scenes that show a series of events that might have happened, and the first few times you see this it might shock you for a few seconds thinking that this is indeed what happened. But then you’re suddenly placed back a few moments in time to right before this alternate path, and then a more believable option turns out to be the actual path taken in the story.
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The mixture of these flashbacks and quick alternate path scenes add a little bit of confusion but it’s also not a very familiar mechanic to me, so it was somewhat interesting, too. I think it more contributed to my interest in the story than it did detract from it, although it’s not a tactic (gimmick is not the right word) that I would want employed very often; flashbacks are ok, but the ‘alternate path’ mechanic is not something I would want to see in many movies. Anyway, so while certainly a little convoluted and maybe a little long winded in getting to the point, I thought the story had enough quality content to it to make the journey worthwhile.
But it wouldn’t be a Jackie Chan movie without some awesome martial arts scenes, of which Police Story: Lockdown has, but not in spades, per se. This is not Jackie Chan’s First Strike with a-frame ladder acrobatics or Who Am I? with an epic twenty-plus minute fight scene that rivals anything anyone’s ever strung together. But it does have its moments, including some where you see Jackie take a brutal beating that, as a fan of his, was somewhat hard to watch. In general though, the fight choreography is tight and quick paced, with less emphasis and use of props than his previous work. Combat is also much more singluar focused, i.e., one versus one instead of say the end of Rumble In the Bronx in which Jackie juggled a dozen or more bad guys. The humor that you generally expect a scene or two of in a Jackie film is practically devoid in Lockdown too. The sum of the parts makes for a smart action flick that demands your attention and earns it through good acting and story-telling mechanics. You may not agree with all of Sheng’s directorial decisions as they can lead to some confusion and tangents, but I found myself entertained from opening through the credits roll (which included outtakes and goofs typical with a Jackie movie).
As for the Blu-ray release, it’s pretty much exactly what you would expect. A crisp 1080p widescreen with 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio in Mandarin, with an English dub track available, as well as English subtitles. The menu system is smooth and functional, although you’ll have to watch or skip through three previews to get to it everytime. The extra features are good, and include several interviews and a behind the scenes reel, as well as the film’s 1m41s trailer in HD. The interviews, which are all in SD include Director Ding Sheng (4m20s), Jackie Chan (3m51s), Liu Ye (6m14s), and the beautiful Jing Tian (6m11s) who plays Jackie’s daughter. Each of these interviews is refreshingly focused and candid, and not interrupted by a bunch of bumpers or audio from the movie. Instead, you get more behind the scenes footage, beyond what is shown in the actual behind the scenes feature (also in SD). Speaking of which, the behind the scenes feature runs 5m50s and is entertaining from start to finish.
Overall, Police Story: Lockdown is a solid movie and the Blu-ray release is nicely done. To the summary…