I Watch Films: Project A Part II

 

Project A Part 2

After the events of Project A, some surviving comic relief pirates vow revenge on Sergeant Dragon Ma (Jackie Chan). Meanwhile he’s been seconded to the police. They suspect that Superintendent Chun is corrupt, staging arrests. We see this happen, and when it goes wrong he shoots the thieves; he’s the only Chinese policeman allowed to habitually carry a gun.

Is that a bit political? Well strap yourself in, there’s going to be more. Amongst the people in the tea shop where Chun was waiting for the staged arrests were two women, Yesan and Carina, selling flowers to support Chinese revolutionaries; Dr Sun Yat-Sen is mentioned.

But back to less controversial topics; corrupt police. The station house is run by a veteran sergeant who has a rotating door for criminals, and a stack of lazy and cowardly junior police. The young, idealistic one of them lets Dragon know about Tiger Ow, a gangster, and his illegal gambling house. Dragon, the one good cop and three of his Coast Guard friends raid it; there’s a big fight which is finally won when more Coastguard turn up.

After this success Dragon is put in charge of security at the Governor’s ball. The revolutionaries are in league with Chun, and steal a diamond pendant, framing Dragon for it. This then propels us into the back half of the film; while handcuffed to another policeman Dragon has to hide in Yesan and Carina’s house, only to discover that Imperial Chinese Agents have taken Carina prisoner. Why are they hiding? The police commissioner is there, and they aren’t supposed to have taken Dragon out of prison. It’s a classic bedroom farce, except with murderous agents and kung fu.

An attempt to kill Dragon has him rescued by the revolutionaries whose hideout is above a medicine shop. One of the pirates comes in looking for medicine, recognises him as their target, but is disarmed when Dragon offers to pay for the medicine. The Imperial Agents attack, and a final action sequence in a food factory ensues, with Revolutionaries, Agents, Pirates and Police all making appearances. All this is pretty good, the setpieces, fights and stunts fun with energy and verve.

Watch This: Excellent period kung fu movie
Don’t Watch This: Many scenes very contrived for silly reasons, and the politics almost insultingly simple, even for someone as ignorant of the period as me