Police Story 2 (Ging Chaat Goo si Juk Jaap): Special Collector's Edition (1988)

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General		Extras
Category	Martial Arts	Main Menu Introduction Menu Animation & Audio Audio Commentary-Jude Poyer (Hong Kong Stuntman) And Miles Wood (Film Critic) Outtakes-Montage Theatrical Trailer-2 Interviews-Cast-Jackie Chan: King Of Action Interviews-Cast-Benny Lai: Master Kicker Trailer-Hong Kong Legends
Rating
Year Of Production	1988
Running Time	101:06
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (80:53)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Jackie Chan
Studio Distributor	Fortune Star Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Jackie Chan Maggie Cheung Dennis Chan Charlie Cho Yuen Chor
Case	?
RPI	$29.95	Music	J. Peter Robinson

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Cantonese Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.30:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

    The sequel to Jackie Chan's hit Police Story takes place immediately after the events in the first film. Ka Kui is disciplined by his superiors for taking the law beyond the limits and is relegated to traffic control duty. Chu Tao (Chor Yuen) is sprung from gaol by his annoying lawyer (Charlie Cho). The lawyer proceeds to make Ka Kui's life hell, even threatening his girlfriend May (Maggie Cheung). Ka Kui decides to leave the force and in order to repair his damaged relationship with May organises a holiday in Bali. But a group of criminals who use explosives to blackmail large corporations lead to Ka Kui's superiors taking steps to get him back on the force.

    The original Police Story felt at times as though it was an excuse to stage any number of spectacular and death-defying stunts. In Police Story 2 Chan succeeds in melding the story and action together in a way that makes it superior and satisfying entertainment. There's no feeling that any of the stunts or action sequences are there for their own sake. But like the first film, they are exceptional. There's a superbly choreographed fight in a children's playground, Jackie runs across several lanes of busy traffic only to be hit by a van, he jumps from a truck onto a bus only to have to duck under some signage, and the film concludes with a lengthy battle against several opponents in a fireworks factory.

    Not all of the stunts went according to plan, as you will see in the outtakes montage at the end of the movie. Both Jackie and Maggie had their heads split open, and plenty of blood was spilled.

    The supporting cast has Bill Tung and Kwok Hung Lam reprising their roles from the first film as Ka Kui's superiors, plus small roles for Wu Ma, Lau Ching-Wan and others. Benny Lai is a standout as a crazed deaf-mute with a liking for small explosives and surprising martial arts skills.

    The movie is very entertaining and a worthy release in Universal's Hong Kong Legends series. Three more sequels to this film have been made, one largely in Australia. The latest film has yet to get a general release here.

Video

    The film is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.30:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. The original aspect ratio was 2.35:1, so the film appears to be slightly cropped at the sides. The only time when this seems to be an issue is in the scene where Jackie is hit by a van, which disappears to the right of frame. I'm not sure what this scene should look like, but at least one other reviewer of this DVD has pointed this out as an issue.

    The transfer is adequate in most respects. It is sharp without being very detailed. The print does not look exactly like one struck directly from an interpositive print, and looks more like a duplicate of a print, with that slight loss of detail that is not due to the telecine machine being not quite in focus. Colour is good if slightly muted, and contrast and brightness are acceptable.

    There is some slight edge enhancement at times, but otherwise the only artefacts are some slight low level noise in some of the darker sequences, and the occasional faint scratch. There is some grain evident, but not to excessive levels.

    Optional subtitles in English are in a clear white font, seem to be well-timed and to cover all of the dialogue, and contain no spelling or grammatical errors.

    The disc is RSDL-formatted with the layer change slightly disruptive at 80:53.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The main audio track is Cantonese Dolby Digital 5.1, with an alternative English language dubbed version available. I listened to the default.

    There is not much in the way of rear channel or subwoofer activity, with only crowd noises making any significant use of the surround channels. The bulk of the sound is spread across the front channels, with effects coming mainly from the mains. The effects sound a little boxy and less than impressive, but the soundtrack works quite well.

    The music score is very much of the era, quite punchy and effective in underscoring the action.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The special features menu is very busy, making it hard to work out what the sub-menus are.

Main Menu Introduction

    An animated introduction to the main menu.

Menu Animation & Audio

    Animation here is scenes from the movie, with some generic music.

Audio Commentary-Jude Poyer (Hong Kong Stuntman) And Miles Wood (Film Critic)

    Instead of the ubiquitous Bey Logan, this film has Poyer and Wood, who do a good job. They don't quite have the level of detail nor the ability to name every actor and stuntman in the movie that Logan has, but they make a good fist of it, and also of setting the film in context, both of the series and of Hong Kong cinema in general.

Outtakes-Montage (2:29)

    This is merely the montage from the end credits of the film, without the credits.

Theatrical Trailers (5:40)

    Two trailers for the film, one an original trailer with no dialogue and numerous behind-the-scenes shots, the other the HKL promotional trailer.

Interviews-Cast-Jackie Chan: King Of Action (30:34)

    An interview in English with the star and numerous others, including Richard Norton and Sammo Hung. Some of this material has appeared on previous HKL releases.

Interviews-Cast-Benny Lai: Master Kicker (15:42)

    An interview in Cantonese with English subtitles, with the stuntman and actor who plays the loony deaf-mute explosives expert in the film.

Trailers-Project A, Game of Death, Police Story, City Hunter, Young Master (8:34)

    Trailers and edition details of other HKL releases.

    The UK Region 2 release from HKL is identical to the Region 4.

    The All Regions Hong Kong release from Mega Star has an additional Mandarin Dolby Digital 5.1 track, but no English dub and is not 16x9 enhanced.

    A second Hong Kong release, this time from IVL, has several trailers, stills and what seems to be the same Benny Lai interview. It also has DTS 5.1 and 2.0 mono sound in Cantonese but no English soundtrack. It is only available in a three-disc set with Police Story and Police Story 3.

    There does not seem to be a Region 1 release at the moment.

    Unless you want DTS sound and the other two films in the series (episode three should be forthcoming from HKL eventually), the Region 4 has the better extras.

    An entertaining sequel that is at least as good as the original. Excellent value for money.

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is very good.

    A good range of extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall