Jackie Chan's Project A
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Jackie Chan's Project A (aka. Pirate Patrol, aka. Project A; Chinese: A 計劃) is a 1983 Hong Kong film starring Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung.
This film marked Jackie Chan's return to Asian cinema after his first unsuccessful attempt to get into Hollywood.
This film is famous for containing some of Chan's finest comedy moments and some of his trademark stunts, including some action gags reminiscent of the best of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd.
The film was released in a dubbed version by Disney in the USA.
Plot summary
This summary contains plot SPOILERS, and is about the dubbed version of the movie.
Project A is set during the turn of the century in old Hong Kong. In it, Jackie Chan plays a Naval officer named Dragon Ma Yong, and is part of the Navy's effort to suppress the pirates, who have been raiding ships for months.
Early in the movie, the policemen and the Naval officers, who have a strong bureaucratic hatred for each other, get into a large fight in a bar. Shortly after this comedic scene, the Captain (as played by Hoi San Lee) releases all of the sailors to their commanding officer, and two of the Navy's ships get blown up. In the next scene, a gangster named Chan Ho meets with another gangster (Named Mr. Chow) at the VIP Club, about fleeing to Vietnam, and as soon as Chan Ho leaves, a representative from the pirates meets with the gangster and they laugh about sabotaging the Navy's ships. In the course of the conversation, the pirate's representative tells the gangster that Lor Sam Pau (The pirate's leader) wants 100 police rifles.
As a result of not having enough ships, Dragon Ma and co. are forced to become police officers. Dragon and all of his friends have to undergo "hard training" with the police, under Captain Chi (as played by Yuen Biao (Who is the other Captain Chi's nephew)). After the police find out the Chan Ho is at the VIP Club, and that the guests there are not to be disturbed, Dragon and Chi go to there and try to arrest Chan Ho, and a big fight breaks out. After tiring of the blatant corruption in the police force, Dragon drags Chan Ho out and tells Chi to take the credit. That is his last official act as an officer with the Hong Kong police.
In the next scene, Fats (as played by Sammo Hung, and who can be spotted after the discussion of the rifles) finds Dragon in the street. They have a somewhat cryptic conversation, in which Fats reveals that someone from within the police force is selling rifles (Which turns out to be a lie). Fats tells Dragon that all he wants are the guns, and Dragon can get the traitor. At night, Dragon and Fats mess up a gun deal between the Army and the Captain. After pushing everyone into the water and making off with the guns, Fats puts the rifles in a log and marks it with a red flag. He tries to sell them to the gangtsers and pirates, but Dragon has taken the red flag off of the log and put red flags on every other log.
After the Admiral comes and probably saves Fats from being shot, Dragon and the Admiral's daughter have a conversation, in which is it learned that the Captain wasn't smuggling guns for Lor Sam Pau, and that he was buying the guns from the Army so that his men could use them. Fats overhears this, after losing the gangsters who are trying to kill him in the street, and him and Dragon have a brief shouting match. The gangsters come after Fats, who quickly places the blame of the missing load of guns on Dragon, who is forced to flee with the Admiral's daughter. In the course of fleeing, Dragon counters the Captain twice, and is involved in a humorous scene involving lots of bicycles. After teaming up with Fats, being tortured for information about the guns, and falling off of a clock tower, the police track Dragon down for a third time, and help him get away as they arrest the gangsters.
The pirates respond to all of this trouble with the rifles by kidnapping everyone on board a ship, including a Rear Admiral. The Colonel has a conversation with Mr. Chow, which Dragon overhears. Mr. Chow proposes an arms for hostages deal (re: all of the hostages, including the Rear Admiral, for 100 rifles). He tells the Colonel that this will "greatly expedite matters," and the Colonel consents to it. After Mr. Chow leaves, Dragon confronts the Colonel and while he has a gun shoved in his chest, convinces the Colonel that the mob and the pirates will never fear them if they're corrupt. After it is agreed that Dragon will assume all responsibility for the mission to save the hostages, the Colonel allows the Navy to be brought back into full force.
With that in mind, Mr. Chow is essentially kidnapped by the police, and beaten until he tells Dragon and Chi how to get to Lor Sam Pau. Dragon, posing as Mr. Chow, gets on board a ship that takes him to Lor Sam Pau's hideout, and they are followed by the rest of the Project A group. In the course of this, Fats somehow sneaks on board, and poses as a pirate. After a lot of tricky undercover work, the calvary arrives, and the final fight breaks out in the middle of the pirate's lair.
Cast includes
- Jackie Chan
- Sammo Hung
- Yuen Biao
- Dick Wei
- Mars
- Winnie Wong
- Po Tai
- Wu Long Cheung
- Hoi San Lee
- Hoi-Shan Kwan
- Wai Wong
- Fat Wan
- Wing Man Kuen
- Ho Kai Law
- Hak Suen Lau
- Ma Wu
- Chow Yun Kin
- Kwan Wong
- Yim Chan Tang
- Benny Lai