This review may contain spoilers
Fate is on my side!
Jackie Chan's Dragon Ma is back for this sequel to Project A without Sammo Hung. He has to face not only the criminal Tiger Au, but vengeful pirates, rebels, and most of all a corrupt police officer who wants him dead. Dragon has his hands full and sometimes handcuffed all while trying to navigate the conspiracies and death threats. This is vintage Jackie Chan with plenty of hard- hitting fists, kicks, falls, and laughs.The plot is fast moving as Jackie has to take down the criminal element, deal with rebels and their secret book of names, avoid being killed by his superior, and escape the pirates' flying hatchets sometimes all at once! The story has weak areas as the double crosses and changing alliances take place, but the action is non-stop and the main reason for watching the movie to begin with.
One of the funniest scenes takes place in Maggie Cheung's home as a stream of good guys and bad guys revolve around her household searching for places to hide, often unaware of the others. Another inspired bit has Jackie and his nemesis Chun handcuffed together as a hatchet wielding gang(plank?) of pirates chases them through town.
The stunts often end with someone hitting the ground hard or smacking into a giant vase or poles on the way down. In one of the last scenes, Jackie runs down a falling wall and afterwards the building façade lands on him with little room for error to avoid a calamitous injury. This film is full of some of the most inventive fight and stunt scenes you are likely to see. Though the final fight scenes are long there is so much variety with Chan and different fighters and stunt elements it would have been hard to be bored.
Chan avoided the obvious mugging from some of his later movies and was a joy to watch as he ran up and down walls, cleverly finding ways to escape perilous situations. The cast was solid. Rosamunde Kwan appeared as a rebel. Michael Chan provided a great foil for Jackie in one of the early fights. And Lam Wai as the corrupt Superintendent Chun managed to keep up with Chan while they ran, flipped, and fought handcuffed together in a memorable sequence. My only disappointment was with Maggie Cheung's dipsy doodle role. She's so much better than the idiotic female she was often asked to play in Chan's movies.
The spectacular stunts and fights made up for a less than compelling story. This film was when Jackie Chan was starting to hit his stride as a choreographer, director, and star. Other films might have had more dangerous stunts but Project A 2 had plenty to keep your attention.
2/5/23
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