Review of Project A

Introduction

19th Century Hong Kong is a dangerous place: pirates rule the waters and gangsters rule the streets. Sergeant Dragon Ma (Jackie Chan), a brave young Coast Guard officer, is determined to help his men clean up the lawless seas, but is not helped by corrupt British officials and petty police bureaucrats. But, when he has to raid the pirates’ lair, he can count on the help of two friends, Captain Chi of the police force (Yuen Biao) and thief Fei (Sammo Hung).

Project A was the first of Jackie’s trademark stunt-action-comedies, featuring his two ‘brothers’ Sammo and Yuen Biao, and doing incredibly well at the Hong Kong box office.

Video

Made in 1983 and kept under Hong Kong storage conditions, you would expect Project A to look quite poor in the visual department. However, as expected with a flagship HKL title, their restoration team has done another excellent job with the picture. There is excellent detail throughout, minimal grain and good colour levels.

Audio

A 5.1 DD remix is available on both the original Cantonese soundtrack and the dubbed English – I listened to the Chinese track with English subs. The subs are functional and clear - and the soundtrack is the same. It sounds nice, but there is little use of split effects or bass.

Features

Starting on Disc 1, we have a typically informative commentary by Bey Logan, a 16min-long interview with ‘stunt God’ Mars, and some trailers.

Moving onto the decidedly loaded Disc 2, we are greeted with smartly animated menus on a maritime theme:

THE TEA HOUSE

This section contains an art gallery and a written essay on the ‘Triple Dragons’ Jackie, Sammo and Biao.

THE SCHOONER

This part has a great interview with Yuen Biao, the most introverted yet technically most talented of the three stars. The interview lasts 18mins, and goes into the making of the film, Biao’s film career and his home life. A trailer for HKL release The Prodigal Son (highly recommended!) is also here.

THE CLOCK TOWER

The jewel of the features is a documentary entitled ‘Project A – a Classic Revisited’, hosted by Bey Logan and running in at a substantial 77mins. Logan narrates from the set of the movie, and the documentary is interspersed with film footage, cast&crew interviews and analysis from talking heads. This feature is very well put together and goes into much detail about the film and the careers of the three leads before and beyond that.

‘Can’t Stop the Music’ is a somewhat less interesting but nevertheless just as detailed interview with the film’s composer Michael Lai, and lasts 18mins.

The PIRATE’S CAVE

A feature entitled ‘Master Killer’ is yet another interview (and they can get a little boring after watching a few already) Lee Hoi-San, Wing Chun Grandmaster and one of the main villains. A frequent collaborator with the Three Dragons, he is well poised to give an insight into working with them. The interview lasts 22mins.

Finally a 14min interview at home with the villain of the piece Dick Wei is included.

Conclusion

I’ve always thought that Project A was a fun movie, but upon watching it again, and since then having seen many other Jackie Chan films, it’s not as good as I remembered. The jokes are still funny, and the action scenes well choreographed, but Chan has done much better fight scenes, more audacious stunts and crazier humor. The plot is also a little ropey, and sometimes you get a little disoriented by the quick shifts in focus and setting. The Hong Kong film community greeted the first two Platinum tiles –Game of Death and Red Wolf – with a lukewarm reception, rightly so as they are two very poor films in my opinion. Project A is way better than either of these, but still you get the impression the Platinum titles are chosen to fit the extras available, and not the other way round.

However, as with the previous two Platinum releases, a substantial set of extras is provided, and this will make Project A an essential part of any Jackie Chan fan’s collection, even if like me you’re not overly keen on the movie itself.