35. Project A (1984) - Dir. Jackie Chan
Note - I wanted to include better screenshots, but my DVD kept on crappin' out.
Project A is Jackie Chan's best film, and the best film co-starring his Peking opera brothers, Sammo Hung and Yeun Biao. Project A is a swashbuckling, high-flying, tightly-paced, entertaining adventure yarn complete with pirates, kung fu, comedy and action sequences galore. In other words, it totally rocks, and delivers a non-stop series of laughs and action in a way that only a Hong Kong film can. And, as good as everyone else in the film is, Jackie Chan totally steals the show. It has often been said (even by the man himself) that Jackie is his own special-effect, and this film proves the notion true.
Like a live action Lupin III cartoon, Project A is a boy's own film that preys upon the desire for grand adventure and action. It approaches its action and adventure with an innocence and lightheartedness, and even when the violence erupts it maintains a sense of fun and naivety. In many ways, the film reminds me of the imaginative adventures I had as a kid, and it is this quality that I admire most. Its “awe-shucks” earnestness and tangible energy bolster each other, and the filmmakers use these qualities to craft a film that is highly endearing, memorable, and effective.
While the film does come up pretty short in the plot and character departments, it more than makes up these shortcomings with pure energy. The film benefits from the stars' unique personalities, youthful charm, grace, and energy. Project A was Chan's first major, and financially successful, directorial effort, and it is clear that he approached the film with the exuberance of kid free of adult supervision in giant toy store. Jackie and his “brothers,” Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, create some of the most fun and memorable action pieces of the era.
Key sequences include a musical-like bar brawl, complete with food-in-face gags, broken chairs, prop-assisted action, and Yeun Biao's signature tumbling, a siege of a pirate's hidden cove, a restaurant fight, with Sammo and Jackie cracking wise, and an amazing sequence that begins with an incredibly inventive bike chase and ends with Jackie facing off against my favorite bit-player, Lee Hoi-San, in, and on, an imposing clock tower. This clock-tower set-piece contains one of Chan's most famous and deadly stunts: a nearly 5-story free-fall, broken only be a series of flimsy awnings, at the end of which Jackie lands painfully on his melon. And oh yeah, he does the stunt multiple times to get the best take for the film.
The film's setting is also unique, and helps the film break free from the plethora of old-school martial arts flicks churned out by the Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest studios during the previous decade. Set in the nineteen-thirties, against the backdrop of civil unrest, the film comically examines the impact of British Naval control in Hong Kong. Gone are the typical kung fu masters, training sequences, and tournament style battles. Also gone are the pangs of vengeance, the classical weapon combat, and the Shaolin-style open-handed combat. Project A approaches its action and drama in an all together different way. The city in which the film is set is more modern, and the milieu feels more alive and vibrant. Everything is on a much grander scale, and the tangible surroundings make for many memorable sights and sounds.
There are a few films that typify the mid-school era of Hong Kong action cinema, but none do so as well as Project A. The nineteen-eighties were a time of incredibly creative output from this small Island, and spearheading this cinematic-advancement was Jacki Chan, Sammo Hung, and Yuen Biao. Like a perfect mix between the Three Stooges, Fred Astaire, Harold Lloyd, and Bruce Lee, these three young men helped to define a nation's cinema, and Project A is a premier example of their creative output. It is a joy to watch, contains many moments of breathtaking stunt work and action choreography, and is simply far too much fun to look away.
