New Police Story (2004)

The original Police Story series, which began in 1985, is widely regarded as some of the finest action cinema Hong Kong has ever produced. Jackie Chan wrote, directed and starred in those early films, building a franchise on a foundation of breathtaking physical comedy, inventive stuntwork and a cheerful disregard for the laws of physics. By the early 2000s, however, Chan's career had shifted considerably. Hollywood crossovers like the Rush Hour series and Shanghai Knights had made him a global name, but some felt the rawer, more personal energy of his Hong Kong work had been smoothed away in the process. New Police Story, released in 2004, was marketed partly as a return to that Hong Kong roots, though in practice it takes the franchise somewhere genuinely unexpected. This is not a nostalgic clip show or a comfortable revival. It is a crime drama with a heavy emotional core, using the Police Story name as a loose brand rather than a strict continuation of the earlier storyline.

The film was directed by Benny Chan Muk-Sing, a Hong Kong filmmaker who had worked with Jackie Chan before on Who Am I? (1998) and Gen-X Cops (1999), and who had a reliable track record in slick, polished but unremarkable Hong Kong action fare. The production brought together JCE Movies, Emperor Motion Pictures and China Film Group Corporation, reflecting the increasingly co-produced nature of major Hong Kong releases at this point in the industry's history. Alongside Chan, the film assembled a strong cast from across Hong Kong's entertainment world. Nicholas Tse Ting-Fung, already a well-established pop star and actor in the region, plays the rookie partner whose own troubled background mirrors Wing's in interesting ways. Charlie Yeung Choi-Nei and Charlene Choi Chuek-Yin provide supporting roles, while Daniel Wu, one of the more versatile performers working in Hong Kong cinema at the time, is cast against type as the gang's cold and sadistic leader. It is a cast that signals ambition, a film trying to do something more than put Chan through his paces. If you want to see how Chan fares in rather different territory across his career, his performances in Gorgeous and Rumble in the Bronx make for a useful comparison, the latter in particular showing the scrappier, more instinctive energy that characterised his pre-2000s work. For a broader sense of the Hong Kong action tradition this film is quietly in conversation with, it is also worth looking at A Better Tomorrow, a film that similarly treats violence and loss with a certain gravity rather than spectacle for its own sake.

New Police Story (2004) is a bold departure from the slapstick and stunts that defined Jackie Chan’s earlier Police Story films, replacing laughs with loss, acrobatics with anguish. Here, Chan plays Inspector Wing, a once-brave cop shattered by guilt after his entire team is wiped out in a botched operation. He’s broken, alcoholic, and barely holding on, haunted by failure and struggling to reclaim his purpose. It’s one of Chan’s most serious, emotionally raw performances, and it works. You believe his pain, his shame, his slow climb back. The action is still top-tier: the opening heist is tense and brilliantly choreographed, and the final sequence inside a glass-walled skyscraper is thrilling, dangerous, and shot with real intensity. Unlike the cartoonish physics of his 80s and 90s work, this feels grounded, urgent, even brutal. The tone is darker throughout, more akin to a police drama than an action-comedy. That said, it’s not quite as good as the originals. The emotional weight drags at times, the pacing sags in the middle, and the shift away from humour, while admirable, loses some of the fun that made the franchise iconic. There’s no joy here, only redemption earned through suffering. Strong performances, excellent action, and a mature take on heroism. But without the levity that made Chan unique, it feels like a different series altogether. A worthy entry, just not a classic.

What stays with me, thinking it over, is that feeling of watching a performer genuinely trying to stretch rather than simply deliver what's expected. For me, that effort earns real respect, even when the film around it doesn't entirely hold together. The sagging middle section is a real problem, and I found myself willing the momentum back more than once. But the action sequences, when they arrive, are worth the wait, and Chan's performance lingers in a way his more acrobatic work sometimes doesn't. It is the kind of film I'd recommend to someone who already has a fondness for Hong Kong cinema and wants to see it doing something a little different, rather than as a starting point for the uninitiated. A solid Friday night watch, just don't go in expecting laughs.

Rating: ★★★  | Year: 2004  | Watched: 2025-10-02

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Trailer

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Related on Movies With Macca

More with Jackie Chan: Hand of Death (1976) · Rumble in the Bronx (1995) · Skiptrace (2016) · Gorgeous (1999)
More from Hong Kong: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Hand of Death (1976) · Come Drink with Me (1966) · Street Fighter (1994)
More from the 2000s: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Daredevil (2003) · Apocalypto (2006)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)
More thriller: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Angst (1983) · The Long Walk (2025) · Punishment Park (1971)