Filmic Friday 217: Crime Story

I'm a big fan of action movie cheese, you may have noticed. You may have also noticed that I haven't yet covered a movie from the king of action - Jackie Chan.

This all changes now.

People & Gentlefolk, I give you:

Crime Story

Crime Story is a fantastic action movie following virtuous inspector Eddie Chan (Jackie Chan) of the Organized Crime & Triad Bureau trying to protect (and eventually recover) a, frankly wretched, businessman name Wong Yat-Fei.

That would be the balding guy on the right, here. He's also the one talking.

Wong is a slimeball. He builds tenements and refuses to pay his workers. You don't feel sorry for him at any point. He's even mean to his poor wife, who has a heart condition. You get the feeling she
doesn't really... get what he does.

His workers do, however, and begin to riot.
Eddie talks some sense into them by letting them know he doesn't like their boss either, and to sue his ass to kingdom come.
Just because he's supposed to keep Wong from being kidnapped doesn't mean he
shouldn't let the man experience some financial fear, lol!

Now, things are definitely complicated by the fact that Eddie has absolutely developed PTSD after being forced to shoot a bunch of guys in self-defense. The stunts for this scene (and really, all throughout the film) are absolutely nuts. Jackie Chan is constantly risking life & limb because the Hong Kong film industry had 0 standards for safety back in 1993. Regardless, Eddie is in rough emotional shape. He's in denial that killing people has messed him up. He's also satisfied that Wong is safe until the last moment, when it becomes very, very obvious that he isn't. Due to bureaucracy, however, he cannot get any help in time and Wong is taken and two police officers are horrifically injured, one dying from his injuries. Eddie is devastated, but accepts the responsibility of getting Wong back from the kidnappers.

Eventually, though, we're introduced to our villain, and what an introduction. We first see Hung Ting-Bong with his prostitute girlfriend, who greets him with an elevator quickie. This is not something they're shy about. They literally walk past people with the girl, Lara, still... uh... getting a workout.

Yes, with this guy. No, I'm not sure that's not supposed to be played for laughs.
Just roll with it, man, it's an awesome movie.

Now, Detective Hung Ting-Bong is working with the kidnappers from inside the police station and is constantly trying to stop Eddie from succeeding. He's shown stealing evidence, misplacing vital clues, and intimidating or silencing witnesses (including Lara) at several points. He's bad news, man. He will not stop until he has the millions of dollars in ransom money he feels he is owed.

Eddie, meanwhile, has been doing the rogue-good-guy-cop thing, but he's been suffering the consequences.

Remember how I said earlier that the Wong abduction scene is a little brutal?
I'm pretty sure he's actually driving a car and rinsing his eye out with a water bottle at this point.
It's nuts.

Eddie keeps tracking down Wong and building his case against Hung Ting-Bong, but he's constantly plagued with self-doubt, fear, and pain.

The scene in the hospital where he goes to comfort the patrolman's wife is shockingly powerful.
It's amazing, and truly beautiful.

 Of course, it wouldn't be a Jackie Chan movie without an insane finale.

Eddie tracks the kidnappers to Kowloon and hopes to confront them and secure Wong's release, but he and Hung Ting-Bong have a showdown. Many kidnappers are gunned down, there are multiple insane chase sequences, and eventually a fire is started.

Here's how crazy the Hong Kong film industry is:
They actually blew up parts of Kowloon.
See that? That's a legit tenement. On fire.
Hong Kong cinema is insane.

Eddie & Hung end up trapped, but Hung stays behind so that Eddie can save a trapped child, redeeming himself slightly. The movie ends with Wong being rescued, Hung being dead, and Eddie burning Wong's wallet to make sure that the scummy businessman can actually start a new life somewhere else.

It's a wonderful, insane, beautiful, horrifically dangerous film. I'd love to see it in the original language, because hearing someone dub over Jackie Chan's voice is... really weird. And a lot of the dubbing is bad. I'm talking crappy 3AM Kung Fu Theater bad. It's the kind of dubbing people make jokes about for years. You can tell these guys are acting their nuts off, but some chucklehead in Wisconsin is just stammering into a microphone and calling it good enough.

If you're looking for a good time, check out Crime Story!

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