Once again, Jackie stars as Kevin Chan, the notorious HK "supercop." This time he's sent to the Mainland to help a Chinese officer (Yeoh) stop a deadly drug dealer (Yuen), whose brother (Tsang) is about to launch a major shipment onto the streets of Hong Kong. Of course, Chan's ever-present girlfriend May (Cheung) shows up when she's least expected and/or wanted and fulfils her mandatory damsel-in-distress role.

My personal favorite in the Police Story series, mostly due to the infusion of Michelle Yeoh. Sequels, especially after the second film, often have the problem of falling into repititious storylines and action. Yeoh's character was the perfect solution to this. Not only is she the antithesis of many of Chan's ditzy female co-stars by providing a strong female character, she proves she can hold her own (and sometimes surpass) Chan at his own game.

The stunts in Supercop are simply amazing and among the best Chan has ever done-- the one where Chan hangs onto a flying helicopter while it crashes through billboards never ceases to amaze me (even though the blooper reel takes away from it a bit by showing how it was done). Yeoh shows her stuff in several key stunts, including a daring motorcycle jump, which actually broke the leg of the stuntman that tested it out. Fight-wise, the action centers more on the big brawl-style popularized in Armour of God and perfected in Drunken Master II. Fans of realistic one-on-one fighting will most likely be disappointed, but I found the action to be well-paced and fun to watch, just like the rest of the movie.

Note: the US version (Supercop) is cut by about 10 minutes. The cut scenes are (of course) present in the HK versions, but the Media Asia DVD has a very bad Dolby remix and out-of-synch subtitles, and the Tai Seng VHS has poor picture quality and subtitles. The Criterion laserdisc is probably the best version of the film, but the cut scenes are not included in the movie itself. Here are some of the cuts:

• The beginning has a different credit sequence and there is an additional scene where we see the police superiors (Bill Tung, Ti Lung, etc.) getting a briefing about the rising drug trade and Yuen Wah/Kenneth Tsang, and then having a meeting about what to do with it. The superiors eventually hatch the plot of sending in Chan undercover, even though they are not sure if he can do it; we also see bits of Chan goofing off around the office.
• After Chan is told about his mission, there is a bit more between Chan and Bill Tung/Ti Lung. When Chan leaves, Tung and Ti discuss whether they have done the right thing or not (relating to the first scene).
• When Michelle Yeoh is briefing Chan about the mission, she tries to teach him about the differences between China and Hong Kong, including teaching him some slang words, which Chan messes up horribly.
• When Yeoh, Chan and Yuen Wah are going to the restaurant in Chan's "hometown," we see more of the town square. Chan sees some strung-up skinned cats being sold for food (this is why he orders them later).
• The initial meeting with Kenneth Tsang was cut drastically. In the Hong Kong version, we see two women being shot up with heroin (supposedly to "test" the new shipment). One of them dies and is thrown into the pool. Tsang later confronts one of his men and accuses him of being a traitor and orders him killed. The man is then thrown into the pool (this bit shown in the US version, but doesn't really make sense). For some reason, the video game Tsang is playing is also different.
• The US version has a different soundtrack, putting in rap in place of the original score, a Tom Jones song ("Kung-Fu Fighting") on the blooper reel, and a Devo song over the end credits; the dialogue has also been changed a bit to accommodate the dubbing.

A review of the DVD for this movie (US version) can be found here

Click here to view a clip from this movie (clip courtesy of JoBlo's Trailers)

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