Project A (1983)

It seems that for the most part, Jackie Chan movies are the most entertaining with a historical setting and especially when Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao along. This film, following a man named Dragon's exploits as he tracks down and defeats a group of pirates who have been screwing with the Hong Kong Coast Guard and are smuggling weapons, is one of the best offerings of Chan's early career.Much like the majority of his films, this one is full of good comedy and slapstick. Compounding that with some impressive and plentiful action as well as a decent story (for a Chan film at least) and you have a winner. Sammo Hung and Jackie work together quite well (duh, they're basically twins) and the fight scenes including them both are a joy. The other fight scenes are exceptionally choreographed and some of the stunts are death defying.As a Jackie Chan film, this is a good offering. Fun, action-packed, and as entertaining as they come, Project A is a great way to blow a movie night.

Project A is in my opinion the three brothers best work(Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao). It features great fight scenes, jaw-dropping stunts, well-played tongue-in-cheek humor, and a fun, complicated plot full of misunderstandings and amazing coincidences. It's just awesome and I'm gonna tell you why.Firstly, the story. Now since this is a Jackie Chan film, you don't expect to see a well-layered, complex story with poignant messages about the horrors of war and why should you? Jackie Chan's films are just made for entertainment. They aren't made to make you think about "what it means to be human" or "what is the definition of evil", they are films made to entertain and in that regard, Project A MORE than succeeds. The plot here is full of misunderstandings, amazing coincidences, and extraordinary cases of people being in places they shouldn't have been, and it's a lot of fun! While this movie, like a lot Chan's films, is really just goofy, slapstick humor after fight scene after goofy, slapstick humor, after fight scene, and repeat that pattern 100 times more, the plot here is so tongue-in-cheek and fast-paced, it'll keep you entertained the entire time. So yeah, there's certainly not a whole lot to talk about as it becomes very complicated if you try to describe it and there's no real character arcs or themes, I'll say this. The plot here is perfectly fun and entertaining and it'll keep you interested till the very end.More importantly, how are the fight scenes and stunts? They are GREAT! The fighting here is the usual Jackie Chan fighting style, people punching and kicking each other repeatedly without a whole lot of grace or obvious choreography integrated with Three Stooges-esque comedy, and a clever use of props as weapons. While the fights are just punches and kicks with no real gore, the various falls and hits that the stuntmen take do feel very real and brutal at times which is cool, as it makes the fights feel more real. Something lacking in his American films. Jackie here, is in his physical prime. He does some truly daring and creative stunts in this film without mentioning the most famous of which, the clock tower drop. While Sammo and Yuen don't do nearly the amount of hardcore stunts as Jackie does, their talent for comedy and screen fighting make up for it. Speaking of Sammo and Yuen, how's the rest of the cast? Well, since this is HK comedy, everybody does kinda play their part in an exaggerated manner. But with this sort of film, it works and the entire cast got me laughing at least once so I can't say they did particularly a bad job but I would say, that the villain, Pirate Lo, really should've gotten more screen time. They built him up the whole movie to be this big bad pirate but yet, when we meet him, he's just a very generic villain. But other than that, the cast is pretty solid and entertaining.There are some flaws with this film. While most of the film is light- hearted and tongue-in-cheek, there's some really dark and unsettling moments on occasion that are meant to be funny, but feel out of place. There's a scene where Yuen Biao orders one of his police cadets to be EXECUTED for laughing in class! Wow, that's just WAY too dark for this kind of movie and it makes Yuen look like a psychopath. Though, the guy fainted before they could shoot him so he changed the punishment to washing the bathroom instead. Still, a complete tone-killer for what's supposed to be a fun, breezy film. There's also scene where Jackie tries to get information from some pirate associate how to meet Pirate Lo but for some reason, Jackie gets SO mad at him, he starts beating the crap out of him with a baton! Seriously, was that necessary? I know he's supposed to be a righteous, compassionate guy who would never let bad things happen but was that really necessary? It's just too brutal for this type of film.But overall, it's a very funny, exciting film that showcases the three brothers'talent best out of all their collaborations. I recommend it to all martial arts fans.

This movie is heavy on the humor and has a few stunning action scenes, which is honestly all anyone wants from a Jackie Chan movie, right? Most of the scenes are pretty typical barroom brawler type things, skillfully choreographed but not quite as creative and fun as what Chan would show us in the next two decades.The movie's most famous scene is the clocktower fight, which is both an homage to Buster Keaton and one of Chan's most dangerous stunts in his entire career, where he fell 60 feet with only two awnings to break his fall. Also above average is the great bicycle chase which is vintage Chan with all kinds of gags that work quite well.The non-action scenes are fine. Don't expect anything too spectacular, after all you watch these movies for the laughs and the action, but the movie does avoid being boring as we watch the escapades of Chan's character Dragon, an goodhearted but hapless sailor determined to bring justice to the pirates plaguing the coast. He runs into all kinds of bureaucratic problems, of course.I watched the dubbed version, which from the other reviews, I gather is the one to watch, as it includes all the best scenes.

While Jackie Chan's previous film Dragon Lord (1982) did not have as much local success as Chan wanted his next film Project A would be an artistic and commercial success. It is the maturation point for Jackie as a filmmaker and would start a string of successes that would help establish Chan as an action auteur. He directed, starred, co-written and even hired two "brothers" in Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao (they had grown up together in the same opera troupe and performed as the Seven Little Fortunes amongst others; Sammo was already an established success at this time and certainly is a prodigious presence in this movie) in the first film where they all had decent acting time -- kudos to those who can name the first film they acted in together.Dragon Ma (Jackie Chan) is a sergeant in the Hong Kong Water Police where pirates are problematic on the coastline (they would remain an issue even past WWII), his department is poorly financed, there are interdepartmental squabbles with the landlubber police and their haughty commander Captain Chi (Kwan Hoi-San) and his nephew Inspector Hong Tin Chi (Yuen Biao: Knockabout) and they just had their remaining ships blown up real good (nice model sets in that scene). Project A is the codename to combat these buccaneers. However, it looks bad for the Water Police when they get merged back into the main police force and there is a plot to steal rifles and be sold to the pirates headed by Lo San Po (Dick Wei: The Five Venoms) who ultimately does not seem that bad to me. Later the pirates make the ultimate mistake in kidnapping a ship with a Rear Admiral aboard and take them hostage. This leads to Dragon Ma eventually teaming up with wayward thief and gambler Fei (Sammo Hung) and Inspector Hong to combat these irascible swashbucklers.There are several stunts in this movie that are truly amazing. Much has been stated about the clock tower fall inspired by Harold Lloyd in Safety Last and with good reason. It is a superlative stunt and still one of my favorites as well as Jackie too. Jackie hangs by a clock hand about 50 feet above the surface and lets go to crash through two cloth awnings until the rude smacking into the ground proving that gravity is indeed a harsh mistress. It would be the first "superstunt" Jackie would do in a film and which would soon be a reoccurring theme in his movies to risk his life to please the audience. All three takes of this life-threatening drop are available to see on the film: two are shown in the movie and one is shown in the outtakes at the end. Every take looks quite painful. Leading up to this situation is another quick stunt that was quite dangerous. He climbs a flag pole to the top while handcuffed so he can unwrap himself from that mast and escape his predicament. But you look at how high he is from the concrete floor below and realize that if he messes this stunt it could be much worse than the fall through the awnings.The comedic fighting in this film is also quite adroit and amazing in its action direction led by Jackie and Sammo. The first scene between the water and land police is a crazy mêlée of kung fu, throwing objects and spaghetti. It is quite reminiscent of an updated western bar fight. The Keatonesque bicycle chase and action sequence is a brilliant combination of the two. While the scene certainly had been influenced by such films as Sherlock Jr., especially in the bicycle camera view towards the end, Jackie gives it such a unique touch that makes it such an aesthetically pleasing and entertaining spectacle. Add in several other fight scenes and a fantastic finale with the three brothers and the antagonist and you have quite a satisfying film.Project A was a hit in Hong Kong (19M HK dollars box office) and found critical support there as well. Jackie Chan would be nominated for Best Actor for Hong Kong Film Award; however, this film would win Best Action Design (Jackie Chan's Stuntman Association was even nominated against itself that year in Wheels on Meals) an award it truly deserved. It is also an important film for Hong Kong cinema. It helped push action movies into modern day locales and away from the Qing era and before dominated themes (though this film is considered a period film since it takes place in early 20th century).While the film may not know what to do with female characters like Wong Man-Ying and the plot is not the most sublimely cohesive -- there is a grenade scene early in the film which seemed a bit excessive, not that funny and did not seem to fit -- this film is consistently fun and beautifully directed (cinematographer Cheung Yiu-Jo does not get enough credit for the work he has done with Jackie Chan). Action aficionados certainly talk about this film though it is somewhat overshadowed by Police Story (one of my favorite films) when they discuss the oeuvre of Jackie Chan. With the humor, the dangerous stunts with complete disregard for human life and the awesome action scenes it is easy to recommend this. I certainly love this film and find multiple viewings rewarding. There does remain one question that I will resolve soon: which film is better: this or the sequel?