Hall of Fame: Chan Ka Kui
For the final week of the year, we thought it might be a good idea to induct into our BPA Hall of Fame a character has been just barely on the outside looking in each year. He hasn’t missed his opportunity to be inducted into the BPA HoF based on his lack of action credibility. It hasn’t been because he wasn’t heroic, or hasn’t stopped world-altering plans from coming to fruition from some of the worst villains imaginable. Inspector Chan Ka Kui, played by legendary action star Jackie Chan, has mostly missed being included into the prestigious BPA Hall of Fame based on his domestic notoriety. Sure, everyone in the states has a pretty good idea of who Jackie Chan is but I would argue that a majority of that same audience couldn’t place the name Chan Ka Kui to a Jackie film if their life depended on it. Well, we’ve finally made the decision that part of that responsibility should fall on us. It’s time for Jackie and his most infamously badass character to be inducted into the Bulletproof Action Hall of Fame!
There may not be a more persistent police officer on the Hong Kong police force than Chan Ka Kui. Throughout his four cinematic adventures, Ka Kui foils as many evil plots, evades more deadly explosions, and kicks enough asses that his exploits should have landed him a far greater rank than just “Inspector”. Let’s take a brief look at some of the ridiculousness now:
The original Police Story, released in 1985, is far and away one of the greatest action movies of all time. The stunt work done by Jackie and his team is on a whole different level from the rest of the world. The story follows a young Chan Ka Kui, a police officer who single-handedly captures a drug lord and then spends the rest of the movie dealing with the aftermath. Like seemingly all movies in the action genre, the evil drug lord is released on some sort of BS legal reason and then Ka Kui is forced to re-arrest the man. Jackie does a few of his most famous stunts in the original Police Story and fans of his will most certainly remember the opening scene and the finale for the absolute anarchy of the action present. If you usually rate the craziness of Jackie stunts by the threat of death to those involved then Police Story has some of the wildest ever!
Jackie returned to the character of Chan Ka Kui three year later with Police Story 2. A direct continuation of the story from the first, the opening of this sequel finds Ka Kui working as a traffic cop after his reaction at the end of Police Story. While PS2 doesn’t appear to be much different than the first one initially, it turns out to be nearly as good as the original as it adds another level of villainy when Ka Kui is forced to have to rescue his girlfriend (played by the awesome Maggie Cheung) from the clutches of some blackmailing terrorists. The violence and beatdowns get ramped up when you threaten one of Jackie Chan’s boo’s so Police Story 2 turns in some of the best and most inventive fight scenes in movie history. A true masterpiece.
Supercop, released in 1992, is another top 5 film from Jackie Chan and another excellent sequel to Police Story following the amazing bad luck had by Inspector Chan Ka Kui. This film sees Ka Kui going undercover, breaking a man out of prison, and then infiltrating a group of drug lords with the help of the beautiful Michelle Yeoh. It wouldn’t be a Jackie Chan movie without some hijinks, as well, when Ka Kui’s girlfriend (damn Maggie, why you still with him?) unknowingly blows his cover and gets kidnapped by the bad guys. The ensuing action towards the end is so insane that I’m not sure how someone didn’t die in the process. The types of scenes that Jackie and his crew were famous for might not even be legal anymore. It’s like watching a NFL game from 1971 and seeing dudes sucker punching each other and trying to rip one another’s helmets off. Supercop is one of those movies that usually gets mentioned as one of the greatest action movies of all time and it is for good reason.
The final outing for Jacking Chan as Chan Ka Kui is in 1996’s Police Story 4: First Strike. You’ll often see it titled just First Strike here in the US and that isn’t the only change made to the film to fit into the American aesthetic that hurts it. There is no doubt that First Strike has some amazing scenes of action in it. Jackie Chan probably can’t brush his teeth without making it look entertaining, but there is a noticeable difference in this movie when compared to the earlier films in the series. The one that leaps out is that Maggie Cheung, who has played Ka Kui’s girlfriend May, isn’t even in the movie! While that probably isn’t going to seem weird to most audiences, the connection that May and Ka Kui have in each of the movies is typically what the driving factor is by the end of the films. She always somehow gets involved in the plot and Chan is always forced to have to rescue her. They also have amazing chemistry with one another and First Strike is a movie that could have been improved with her presence. Jackie has always stated that he wanted to play a James Bond type role and this is most certainly his attempt at doing so.
Even a person new to the action game can see from the videos above that Chan Ka Kui is one of the most deserving of characters to be inducted into the BPA Hall of Fame. Even though Ka Kui was never one to seek out fisticuffs, he was always more than ready to dole out the punishment when necessary. But Ka Kui’s greatest attribute was always his good-hearted nature. It’s why May never left him and ultimately why he was so successful bringing bad guys to justice. Welcome Chan Ka Kui to the Bulletproof Action Hall of Fame!
