Project A (film)

For Project A the atomic weapons project see Project Alberta

Project A
Traditional Chinese	A計劃
Simplified Chinese	A计划
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin A jìhuà Wade–Giles A Chi-hua Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization A Ji hwa Jyutping A Gai3 Waak6

Project A (Chinese: A計劃; Jyutping: A Gai3 Waak6; also known as Pirate Patrol and Jackie Chan's Project A) is a 1983 Hong Kong martial arts action comedy film written and directed by Jackie Chan, and starring Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao.

Set in the 1900s in old Hong Kong, Project A blends comedy moments and spectacular stunts, including set-pieces reminiscent of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. One stunt in particular involved Chan hanging and falling from the hand of a clock tower some 60 feet high, tearing through awning canopies before hitting the ground head-first. It was inspired by Lloyd's famous clock-tower stunt from the 1923 film Safety Last!.

Plot summary

Marine Police officer Dragon Ma (Jackie Chan) is part of the Marine Police's effort to suppress the pirates, who have been raiding ships for months. Members of the Royal Hong Kong Police Force and the Marine Police, who have a strong interservice rivalries, get into a fight in a bar. Shortly after this, Captain Chi (Kwan Hoi-San) releases all of the sailors to their commanding officer, and two of the Marine Police's ships get blown up.

Gangsters Chiang and Mr. Chow meet at a VIP Club, and discuss fleeing to Vietnam. As soon as Chiang leaves, he meets one of the pirates and they laugh about sabotaging the Marine Police ships. In the course of the conversation, the pirate tells him that his boss, San-po (Dick Wei), wants 100 police rifles.

As they do not have enough ships, Dragon Ma and his squad are forced to become regular police officers. They have to undergo "hard training" with the police, under Captain Chi's nephew, Hong Tin-tsu (Yuen Biao). After the police learn that Chiang is at the VIP Club, and that the guests there are not to be disturbed, Dragon and Tin-tsu go to arrest Chiang, but a big fight breaks out. After tiring of the blatant corruption in the police force, Dragon drags Chiang out and tells Tin-tsu to take the credit. That is his last official act as an officer with the Hong Kong police.

Fei (Sammo Hung) finds Dragon in the street. They have a conversation, in which Fei reveals that someone from within the police force is selling rifles. Fei tells Dragon that all he wants are the guns, and Dragon can catch the traitor. At night, Dragon and Fei interrupt a gun deal between the Army and the police Captain. After pushing everyone into the water and making off with the guns, Fei hides the rifles inside a log and marks it with a red flag. He later tries to sell the guns to the gangsters and pirates, but Dragon has intervened by removing the red flag and putting flags on other logs.

After the Admiral arrives, Dragon has a conversation with the Admiral's daughter, Winnie. He learns that the Captain wasn't smuggling guns for San-po, he was buying the guns from the army to arm his men. On overhearing this, Fei gets into an argument with Dragon. The gangsters come after Fei, so he tells them that Dragon is to blame for the missing guns. Dragon is forced to flee with Winnie. After teaming up with Fei, being tortured for information about the guns, and falling from the face of a clock tower, the police track Dragon down for a third time, and help him get away as they arrest the gangsters.

As the pirates have lost the guns they kidnap 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. He tells the Colonel that this will "greatly expedite matters," and the Colonel consents. After Mr. Chow leaves, Dragon confronts the Colonel and convinces him that the gangsters and the pirates will never fear the law if the police force are corrupt. After it is agreed that Dragon will assume all responsibility for the mission to save the hostages, the Colonel allows the Marine Police to be brought back into full force.

Mr. Chow is brought in by the police and beaten until he tells Dragon and Tin-tsu how to get to San-po. Dragon, posing as Mr. Chow, gets onboard a ship that takes him to San-po's hideout, and they are followed by the rest of the squad. Fei sneaks aboard and poses as a pirate. After a lot of tricky undercover work, the cavalry arrives, and there is a final confrontation in the middle of the pirate's lair. Dragon, Tin-tsu, and Fei engage in a hand-to-hand battle with San-po, eventually killing him with a hand grenade when he's rolled into the carpet.

Production

Title

In the 1980s, Chan chose vague, generic film titles such as Project A and Police Story so as not to give the plots of the films away prior to their release. It was felt that the titles of previous Chan films such as Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and Drunken Master gave too much away about the kung fu style they featured - Snake style and Drunken Fist respectively. Project A was originally going to be titled Pirate Patrol but it was feared that once announced, other Hong Kong film producers would rush to copy and release films featuring pirates.

Production

On the audio commentary of the Hong Kong Legends (Region 2) DVD, Bey Logan reveals that Chan's last period film, Dragon Lord (1982), had under-performed at the Hong Kong box office in comparison to the previous one, The Young Master (1980). Logan identifies that a possible reason for the poor performance was the comparative lack of action. Edward Tang and the production team felt that a period film could still have success if it had sufficient action, and so researched the history of Hong Kong during the time of pirates for Project A.

Unlike other Hollywood period films that are set on one timeline, many Hong Kong films play fast and loose with time and place. A prominent example by Bey Logan is set like this: the Hong Kong Marine Police is set up in 1846 by the British Colonial Government. The Hong Kong Headquarters is set up in 1884. The Kowloon Canton Railway Clock tower is set up in 1915. So in other words, this film takes place between the late 19th and early 20th century. Jackie and the Golden Harvest team employ some researchers to come up with background for this story about pirates in Hong Kong and are not really concerned at all about depicting the film in a single time period. Bey Logan coined regarding historical heroes and stories like Wong Fei Hong: if you choose between the truth and the legend, you print the legend because if you pick the truth, you won't have for example, having items, vehicles and certain historical figures if you are shooting it in a single time frame for that film.

Project A marks the first time that veteran Michael Lai used orchestral music for a film score, instead of using library music, or lifting the score from other films.

In rehearsal for the clock tower fall inspired by Safety Last!, Chan took a week to build the courage to drop from such a great height. During the shooting of the bicycle chase sequence, one of the stuntmen informed Chan that E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was playing at the local cinema. Chan halted filming to watch the bicycle chase scene in the finale of E.T., to ensure that his scene and Steven Spielberg's scene were not the same. After watching the film, Chan became more confident, realizing that the audience doesn't really care so much about such minor details, only in watching the film and having a good time.

After appearing in The Cannonball Run (1981), Chan liked the idea of including bloopers over the closing credits. Beginning with Dragon Lord, he has included outtakes over the end credits for most of the films, including Project A, he has directed and they have become something of a Chan trademark. Due to the nature of his films, Chan's outtakes are a combination of comedic moments and injuries sustained whilst he and his team perform stunts and fight sequences. These outtakes were enjoyed particularly by audiences in Japan - so much so that Japanese film companies would demand the inclusion of "NGs" ("no good" shots) in the distribution contracts for all Jackie Chan films, regardless of director.

US version

The version distributed on video and DVD by Miramax in North America has a new opening credits sequence, a new score, and dubbed English dialogue. In addition, there are seven minutes of cuts, including:

• Tai Bo and Big Mouth's song mocking the "Green Coats" (policeman).
• A cop throwing spaghetti in Tai Bo's face.
• The mahjong gambling scene.
• The scene in which the Coast Guards learn to shower in ten seconds.

Cast

• Jackie Chan - Sergeant Dragon Ma Yue Lung (doubled by Mars)
• Sammo Hung - Zhuo Yifei aka Fei
• Yuen Biao - Inspector Hong Tin-tsu (Captain Chi's nephew)
• Lee Hoi San - Mr. Lee Cho-kou
• Kwan Hoi-San - Captain Chi
• Dick Wei - Pirate Chief Lor Sam Pau / San-po (English voiced by Danny Trejo)
• Mars - Big Mouth / Mars
• Isabella Wong (Wong Man-Ying / Winnie Wong) - Winnie Chi
• Tai Bo - Tai Bo
• Lau Hak Suen - Admiral Shih
• Wong Wai - Chou Wing Ling
• Hon Yee Sang - Chiang
• Ng Min Kan - Pirate
• Kwan Yung Moon - Pirate
• Chan Chi Fai - Pirate / Policeman
• Law Ho Kai - Club manager
• John Cheung (Cheung Ng-Long) - Assistant at club
• Wan Faat - Assistant at club
• Wu Ma - Mahjong Cheater
• Benny Lai (Lai Keung Kuen) - coast guard
• Danny Chow - Ling's thug
• Johnny Cheung - Ling's thug
• Lola Forner - British Admiral's daughter
• Chris Li - Pirate
• Sam Wong - Pirate
• Chin Kar-lok - Police Coast Employee (extra)
• Steve Mak (extra)
• Frankie Poon (extra)
• A. Chau (extra)
• Rocky Lai
• Nicky Li

Isabella Wong is the only female actress with a substantial role in this film. Her only other film credit is a cameo appearance in the sequel, Project A Part II.

Awards and nominations

• 1985 Hong Kong Film Awards
  • Won: Best Action Choreography
  • Nominated: Best Actor (Jackie Chan)

Box office

Project A marked Chan's return to Asian cinema after his first attempt to break into the Hollywood market with a small role in The Cannonball Run and a starring role in the unsuccessful Battle Creek Brawl. In contrast, Project A was huge success at the Hong Kong box office, earning HKD$19,323,824 in Hong Kong. It was also very well received abroad, and particularly throughout East Asia. Reportedly, in Japan, Emperor Showa's fondness of the film and eagerness to see a sequel, led Chan to make Project A Part II.

Critical reception

In his annual film guide, Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide, Maltin rated the film 3 out of 4 stars. The film was praised by the LA Times.

The film received an average rating of 82% at the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.

Influence on popular culture

• In the aftermath of the series a remake was done starring Dicky Cheung and Wong Jing using the film's setting as a template for a TV series also titled Project A (2007).
• Music video game Pop'n Music 7 (2001) features a remixed version of the film's theme song as one of its songs.
• Jackie Chan (under the name of Dragon Commander) appears in the episode 109 from the anime Gin Tama in which he is part of a terrorist group. The Cantonese song from the film is used during the episode's ending.

See also

• Project A-ko
• Hong Kong Marine Police
• Former Marine Police Headquarters Compound
• Royal Hong Kong Police Force
• Jackie Chan filmography

External links

• 'A' gai wak at IMDb
• Project A at AllMovie