New Police Story

Plot

In the present day, a group of rebellious youths rob a bank. They explicitly ask a bank worker to call the police, and are confronted by the police outside the Legislative Council building. They play a sadistic game, in which they are awarded money for shooting police officers with assault rifles, before making their escape. Inspector Chan Kwok-wing and his squad are called to arrest the gang after their hideout is revealed. However, the hideout is rigged with traps, and the entire squad is decimated. Chan then finds his men in a large warehouse, suspended from the high ceiling by ropes. The gang challenges him to training regimes that are taught to policemen, betting lives of his men each time. Under mental pressure and the taunts of the gang, Chan loses and is left with only his would-be brother-in-law to save, who soon dies nevertheless. He tries to save the bodies of his comrades for burial before explosives blow up the building.

Being the sole survivor of the incident, Chan takes a year long leave from the police force, drinking heavily to drown his sorrows and guilt. Chan is discovered by a stranger (Nicholas Tse) and taken to the stranger's home. The stranger identifies himself to Chan as PC 138, Frank Cheng (Chinese: 鄭小峰; pinyin: Zhèng Xiǎofēng; Jyutping: Zeng6 Siu2 Fung1), his new partner. Frank tries various means to convince Chan to cancel his leave and take up the case but Chan refuses. However, Chan comes to his senses eventually by apprehending the same two youths that robbed him in an earlier scene while Chan was drunk. At the police station, Frank tells Chan that he is Kwong's younger brother, which convinces Chan to relook into the case. Chan's superior Chiu Chan (Yu RongGuang), initially believing that Chan's overconfidence alone was responsible for the disastrous raid, challenges them to solve the case before he does.

Frank and Chan convince Sam Wong, a former colleague of Chan, to reveal a clue from the night of the first robbery, a watch which he snatched from one of the robbers during a confrontation in. He tells them all he knows is that one of the gang members is a woman and that they like to play X-Games. This is confirmed by fellow police officer Sa Sa(Charlene Choi). Chan and Frank are tailed by Chiu Chan and the police as they go in search of the owner of the watch at an upcoming X-Games event; Sam Wong had been arrested by the police to assist in the investigation. At the event, held on the rooftop of a skyscraper, Frank and Chan manage to locate one of the gang members, Fire (Terence Yin) while Sam and the police interrupt the event and single out the woman robber, Sue (Coco Chiang). Before they can apprehend her, however, Fire sneaks up on the police and fatally shoots Sam and starts a gunfight in which Sue and several policemen are wounded, allowing the two gang members to escape. Before dying, Sam confesses to Chan that he was blackmailed by the gang into revealing their rigged hideout to Chan's team due to the bag of money he took from Sue to pay off his debts. Chiu Chan, upon overhearing this, has a change of heart.

Fire and Sue both manage to rappel down the building, with Chan and Frank pursuing Fire. To distract Chan, Fire shoots at a bus driver and sends the vehicle out of control. Chan quickly jumps onto the roof of the bus in order to stop it, while Frank rams a truck full of rubber ducks in front of the bus' path to prevent its fall into Victoria Harbour.

After the incident, Chan discovers that Frank is not really a policeman, and confronts him. Frank attempts to explain to Chan, but Chan refuses to believe the story. Regardless, they stay together to continue to track the gang leader, Joe (Daniel Wu). They are informed by Officer Sa Sa that the gang members all come from rich families and Joe is actually the son of the police chief.

Sue and Fire return to the gang's new hideout. Seeing Sue's injury, Joe shoots and kills her. Joe's gang accesses Chan's police file on a computer, with Joe bent on taking revenge.

Joe then arranges to meet Chan's girlfriend, Ho Yee, in the police station. He wraps a time bomb around her neck before leaving. When Chan learns of the bomb he desperately tries to free her. Ho Yee cuts the wires, with no effect, leading the police to believe that it is a fake. But when the two get ready to leave, a small wire attached to Ho Yee's back pulls out the secondary trigger, causing the bomb to explode. Before she can escape, it explodes and some falling pipes land on her, knocking her into a coma. Learning of Frank's false identity, Chan and Frank are arrested by the police force temporarily, long before the pair are unofficially released to apprehend the gang.

Chan, Frank, and Sa Sa learn that the gang's next target is the Bank of Hong Kong, located in the New Wing of the Convention and Exhibition Centre.

A squad of police officers arrive, but this time Chan stops them from rushing in, assigning them the task of calmly escorting the public out of the building. Once the public are moved to safety, the gang members' parents are sent in, causing dissent within Joe's gang, prompting Joe to kill gang member Max for surrendering to the police.

Afterwards, Chan and Frank run up to engage the three remaining gang members. Frank manages to shoot Fire in the leg with his own gun, disabling him. Chan chases another gang member, Tin Tin, into a Lego exhibition. When the exhibition hall is emptied, Chan reminds him that they had struck a draw the last time they fought. The two engage in hand-to-hand combat, with Chan defeating Tin Tin. Joe then chases Frank into the hall and shoots at him. In the crossfire, Tin Tin is shot in the chest.

Joe manages to chase Frank out of the room just moments before the Special Duties Unit of the police arrives. Tin Tin grabs a gun from the floor and points it at Chan's back. Chan, oblivious to what's happening behind him, calls out to the squad to bring in a medic for Tin Tin, prompting Tin Tin to spare Chan.

Chan finds Joe on the roof of the Convention Centre. Having captured and tied up Frank, Joe threatens to throw him to his death. Joe challenges Chan to a race to assemble a semi automatic pistol, a rematch of an earlier challenge, and wagering Frank's life in the process. This time, Chan chambers the bullet first and wins the game, much to Joe's disbelief. A number of policemen arrive on the roof, along with Joe's father, the police chief. Joe's father reprimands him, while Chan tells Joe that he knows that he doesn't hate cops, he merely hates his father for berating and abusing him in his childhood.

Due to what Chan and his father have said, Joe finally admits defeat and deliberately unloads the single bullet in his gun and aims the empty gun at Chan for the police to have a cause to kill Joe. Not knowing that Joe's gun is empty, a police sniper then fires and injures Joe. He weeps and aims at his father, causing the sniper to fire once more, hitting him in the chest and presumably killing him despite Chan's yelling that the gun was empty. Chan rushes to rescue Frank and both of them fall off the building. They eventually land onto a fireman's inflated cushion.

In the hospital, Ho Yee has recovered and prepares to leave before accepting Chan's marriage proposal. Meanwhile, Frank is led away by Officer Sa Sa. He leaves his jacket on a railing. When Chan looks at the jacket, he suddenly recalls an event from years ago: a homeless man from the mainland arrives without much money, and his son is starving. He tries to steal some food for his son from a 7-Eleven store. While running across the road to escape from the shopkeeper and the police, he is hit by a truck and killed. While another officer sneers at the dead man, Chan arrives at the scene and uses his jacket to cover the body of the boy's father, telling the other officer that even a thief has dignity. Chan then buys the boy a loaf of bread. He comforts him, saying that the best thing do is to try to forget the past and look forward to the future. He gives the boy his jacket and asks his name to which the boy replies "Frank Cheng".

Cast

Jackie Chan Stunt Team

Production

Principal photography took place in Hong Kong between from 1 January until 31 December 2003.

Box office

New Police Story opened in Hong Kong on 23 September 2004 where it made HK$5,625,746 in its first three days. It ended its run with HK$21 million to making it the fourth highest-grossing domestic release of the year.

On 13 October 2006, the film received a limiting release in the United Kingdom. In its opening weekend the film grossed $19,332 having been shown in 16 theatres. It ranked #21 at the box office and averaged $1,208 per theatre. As of 22 October 2006, New Police Story had grossed a total of $33,404 in its two-week release in the UK. British film critic Jonathan Ross gave the film a fairly positive review and felt that Chan could "still do the business".

International version

New Police Story was released straight-to-DVD in the United States by Lions Gate on 16 May 2006. The DVD included an English dubbed with participation by Jackie Chan. Also included is an introduction by Jackie himself and a message not to buy an unlicensed copy of the film. When played in its original language it contains dubtitles. A cut was made towards the end of the film wherein a young Frank Cheng was being escorted back to the PRC by Chan.

A Blu-ray version was released in the United States on 24 November 2009.