Tweet
Released by: 88 Films
Released on: October 15th, 2023.
Director: Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung
Cast: Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, David Lam, Maggie Cheung, Rosamund Kwan
Year: 1983/1987
Purchase From Amazon
The Project A Collection – Movie Review:
88 Films brings two classic eighties-era Jackie Chan films to ultra-high definition in this excellent two-film collection. Here’s how it all shakes out.
Project A:
The first film, co-directed by Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung and released in 1983, is set in the 19th century and sees Chan playing a man named Dragon Ma, an officer in the Hong Kong Marines. He and his team are tasked with stopping the pirates that have been wreaking havoc in the area for some time now.
Early in the film, Dragon Ma's team winds up getting into a rowdy bar fight with their rivals, members of the Hong Kong Police Force, after which their commanding officer, Captain Chi (Kwan Hoi-San), releases all of the sailors to their commanding officer, after which two ships used by the police force are blown up. Elsewhere, two gangsters - Chiang (Hon Yee-Sang) and Chou (Wong Wai) - discuss plans to leave the country until Chiang learns that San Pao (Dick Wei), his employer, needs him to retrieve a hundred rifles that have been stolen from the police.
Meanwhile, Dragon Ma and his team are now serving as police officers under Captain Chi's nephew, Hong Tin-tsu (Yuen Biao), who puts them through some rigorous training exercises. Once that's complete, they decide to raid the club where Chiang and Chou were hanging out, knowing that it's essentially a safe haven for villainy, but their attempts to arrest Chiang result in a brawl that trashes the club. Eventually, Ma is able to arrest Chiang but after that, he quits the force, tired of the obvious corruption problems.
From here, Dragon Ma runs into an old acquaintance of his, Fei (Sammo Hung), who still works as a thief - in fact, he's the very same thief that Chiang intends to use to get the runs for his boss. They agree to work together, so that Fei can get the guns and Dragon can take down the bad guys but they soon uncover a conspiracy at play. As the friendship-rivalry between Fei and Dragon continues, Dragon winds up having to save Winnie (Isabella Wong), the Admiral's daughter, from gangsters all while dealing with gun runners, pirates and, of course, Fei.
Note that this release includes both the original Hong Kong Cut, which runs 106 minutes, and the longer extended Taiwanese cut, which runs 115 minutes.
Project A - Part II:
Made four years later with Chan once again directing, this second film in the series doesn't see Sammo Hung or Yuen Biao return (the cameos in the opening don’t really count) but it's still a pretty entertaining sequel that should please fans of Chan's trademark blend of kung-fu and comedy.
Basically picking up where the first movie left off, the pirates are now out to take care of Dragon Ma (Chan reprising his role) personally and so his commanding officer transfers him to the Sai Wan District. Here, he's to be put in charge of the Marine Force, as it's suspected that the man he's replacing, Chun (David Lam), is suspected of staging arrests and having criminal who could speak out against him shot. Dragon Ma is essentially supposed to work Chun’s scheme from the inside.
Upon his arrival in Sai Wan, Dragon Ma meets Yesan (Maggie Cheung) and her cousin, Carina (Carina Lau), where he learns that Carina is involved with Dr. Sun Yat-Sent, a revolutionary type. A short time later, Ma learns that the only honest cop on the force he's now working with is Sho King Ho (Kenny Ho), everyone else seems to be on the payroll of a local gangster named Tiger Ow (Chan Wai-Man), who runs a gambling operation in town.
Dragon decides to take on Tiger himself, which leads to a brawl with the gangster's henchmen but it's interrupted when the Marine Police show up, heavily armed, and put most of the gangsters behind bars. A short time later, Dragon Ma is tasked with handling security for a party that the Governor is throwing for his daughter, unaware that Chun is scheming behind the scenes to set up a con wherein Dragon is framed for stealing some jewels. When he's wrongfully arrested for this, Carina winds up getting kidnapped and things escalate from there.
Note that this release includes both the original Hong Kong Cut, which runs 107 minutes, and the shorter export cut which runs 98 minutes.
The two Project A movies are just a lot of fun. The action set pieces are consistently impressive, with Chan, at the height of his powers here, risking life and limb to entertain his audience and the supporting players all doing great work here as well. The first film is the better of the two, thanks to the presence of Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao and the always enjoyable camaraderie that they always bring to their collaborations with Chan, but the second film holds up as well. Both movies are quick in their pacing and boast solid production values – the costumes and sets created for the movie all look great and they’re always bright, clean and colorful looking.
As far as the narratives go, the storylines in both films can be a little predictable but that’s ok – it’s the action set pieces and stunt work that are here to ‘wow’ you more than anything else, and on that level both movies are wildly successful. Chan’s at his most Buster Keaton-esque in these two films, working the physical comedy into the stunt work really well and making it look effortless and natural. Ultimately, these work really well as adventure movie/martial arts hybrids with plenty of heaping doses of some generally solid comedy thrown into the mix as well. Anyone with an appreciation for this or for Chan’s trademark style should have a whole lot of fun with this two films.
The Project A Collection – UHD/Blu-ray Review:
Both movies in The Project A Collection arrive on UHD from 88 Films in an HVEC encoded 2160p transfer taken from a new 4k scans of the original 35mm negatives and framed at 2.39.1 widescreen with DolbyVision and HDR10. This is a very nice presentation. Colors look very natural, never oversaturated or boosted, and detail is generally really impressive. Black levels look very good and skin tones as well. There’s very nice depth and texture to pretty much every scene, and the images are pretty much pristine, showing now noticeable print damage but retaining a good amount of natural film grain. It’s hard to find much to gripe about here, both movies look really good. Detail and color reproduction advance over past editions and the included Blu-rays in this set as well, with the HDR really bringing out the colors in the darker scenes.
Audio options for the first movie include Cantonese and Mandarin-language tracks in Dolby Atmos and mono with newly translated subtitles and an English Mono Dub (with Mandarin language inserts used during the extended scenes in Taiwanese Cut). As far as the second movie goes, we get Cantonese-language options in mono and Dolby Atmos and Mandarin mono with newly translated subtitles for the Hong Kong Cut and an English Mono Dub for the export cut. Note that all of the audio options on both discs are 16-bit encodes. Whichever option you go for, the audio is clean and nicely balanced, with the Atmos track really giving things a nice kick when the action scenes take place. There are no problems to note with any hiss, distortion or sibilance and there’s pretty decent depth for the score and sound effects used throughout the two movies.
Extras are spread across the set as follows:
Project A:
A new audio commentary by Frank Djeng and FJ DeSanto, available over the Hong Kong Cut, kicks off the extra features. They start off by explaining why they consider it one of the greatest movies of all time, the film's release history, details on the cast and crew, some information on the Hong Kong police force, the different cameos that are in the movie, some of the locations that were used for the movie, the chemistry that exists between the leads, the quality of the action set pieces, the effectiveness of the comedy, how Chan's filmography had evolved up to this point, who did what behind the scenes, thoughts on the fight scenes and the cinematography and lots more. The disc also includes a solo audio commentary by Frank Djeng, also over the Hong Kong Cut. he goes over the different titles that the movie has been released under, box office details, where Chan's career was at during this period in time, how the movie pulls from events in Hong Kong's history, more cast and crew details, some of the historical elements that the movie depicts, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao's involvement in the film, the quality of the costume work on display, thoughts on the specific fight scenes, influences that worked their way into the movie (including The Beatle’s movie Help!) and lots more. There's some crossover here with the first track but also a lot of information that is exclusive to this second commentary.
Up next is a new interview with Jackie Chan’s Best Stunt Double, Mars Cheung where he talks about for fifteen minute about how he arrived in Hong Kong as a kid, how and why he got into the film business, getting his start as a stuntman, the state of the Hong Kong film industry after Bruce Lee passed away, how he came to work with Jackie Chan, Chan's rise to superstar status, memories of shooting some of the specific scenes from Project A including Chan's fall from the clock tower and the injuries that he incurred, shooting some of the boat sequences and the bicycle scene and more.
Dancing With Danger is an interview with Stunt God Mars running fifteen minutes where he talks about his background in Peking Opera, how he was able to take a lot of what he learned in his training to the film industry, how a car accident in Thailand led to his having to get stitches in his head, the importance of being in control when shooting action scenes, how he came up with the stage name of Mars, getting his start as a child actor, how the stunt industry has improved and gotten safer over the years, his work with the Jackie Chan Stuntman Association, working with Chan to create different fight scenes on projects and how home video has changed the movie industry.
Master Killer interviews Grandmaster Lee Hoi-san in a twenty-two minute piece. He talks about getting his start in the film industry, initially working on movies for fun rather than as a profession, his background in Wing Chun, the importance of following the action director's instructions on a film set, why aesthetics can be more important than realism in a martial arts movie, working with weapons on set, the reasons for Project A's enduring popularity, memories of shooting certain scenes from the film, getting along with his fellow cast members, learning through doing in his career, how the talent pool in Hong Kong has expanded since the eighties and how the industry has changed, his thoughts on playing a villain, some of the director's that he's worked with and his own ambitions in that arena.
In The Elusive Dragon we get an interview with Yuen Biao where, over eighteen minutes, he gives us background information on his training and entry into the Hong Kong film industry, his background in Peking Opera, why he took on the Yuen name, meeting Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung during this period, learning different martial arts styles and techniques, his work handling fight choreography behind the camera, the importance of Bruce Lee to martial arts films, other Peking Opera students that have made it in the film business, why he feels he is the introvert compared to the rest of his "brothers" from his Peking Opera days and his relationships with Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan.
The Pirates Den interviews Dick Wei for fourteen minutes. Here, he covers his martial arts background and fighting style, how he got invited to work for Shaw Brothers with Chang Cheh, evolving as an actor over time, working with Sammo Hung and how that lead to him working with Jackie Chan, the differences between their two directing styles, memories from some of his career highlights, making a career out of playing villains, why he decided to leave Hong Kong and his work as a fight choreographer.
Can’t Stop the Music is an interview with Composer Michael Lai that runs seventeen minutes. He talks about his background in music composition as well as how he came to work in the film business in general and specifically with Jackie Chan. He also talks about acting as a child star at five years old, making connections that way, his friendship with Chan, producing Jackie Chan's first album, what his composing process is like and coming up with a theme song, trying to compose music to suit the tone of the action and humor in his work with Chan, using a live orchestra to create the music and the importance of being a righteous person.
A new featurette titled Project Collector talks with Paul Dre and Matt Routledge for sixteen minutes about Dre's insane Jackie Chan collection, initially specifically his Project A memorabilia which includes everything from home video releases to posters to lobby cards and promotional items. They also go over quite a bit of the collection as it relates to various other Chan movies. It's pretty impressive!
Plan B — Writer Edward Tang On Project A is a fifteen minute talk about his work on the film, writing dialogue, his script contributions, how he became the staff writer at Golden Harvest, the necessary ingredients needed to connect with the audience, thoughts on how specific scenes turned out, what went into financing the movie, how certain scenes translate into English and thoughts on some of the other Chan films that he's worked on.
Finishing up the extras are twenty-for minutes of outtakes, the alternate two minute Japanese Version Ending, a twelve minute archival The Making Of Project A EPK piece, a four minute Lunar New Year Introduction from Jackie Chan himself, a Hong Kong trailer, an English trailer and a still gallery.
Project A - Part II:
The second film gets an audio commentary by Frank Djeng and FJ DeSanto for the Hong Kong Cut. In this talk, the pair goes over the film's different titles and release history, box office performance, cast and crew details, historical context for the story, how dense the story is in the movie, how the pacing compares to that of the first movie, how much more advanced aspects of the filmmaking is compared to the first film, the sense of danger inherent in the sets and lighting and how the cinematography captures this, thought on the different characters in the movie, the different subplots in the movie, the film's depiction of police corruption, The second film gets an audio commentary by Frank Djeng and FJ DeSanto for the Hong Kong Cut. In this talk, the pair goes over the film's different titles and release history, box office performance, cast and crew details, historical context for the story, how dense the story is in the movie, how the pacing compares to that of the first movie, how much more advanced aspects of the filmmaking is compared to the first film, the sense of danger inherent in the sets and lighting and how the cinematography captures this, thought on the different characters in the movie, the different subplots in the movie, the film's depiction of police corruption and lots more.
Up next is a new interview with Anthony Carpio that runs twenty-five minutes. Here he gives us some background information on his life and career, how he came to join Jackie Chan's Stunt Team and some of the early projects that he worked on with them, where the division of labor came in during the fight choreography, the different generations of the Jackie Chan Stunt Team, his work on Project A Part II and memories from the shoot, how long it took to build the period accurate sets, getting along with Jackie Chan and the other cast members, working with Golden Harvest, his team's relationship with Sammo Hung's team, what it was like on set and more.
The Big Boss is an interview with Chan Wai-Man who talks for twenty minutes about growing up in Hong Kong, his martial arts training and schooling, what he learned from Bruce Lee and the friendship that he had with him, competing in private and public martial arts tournaments, getting asked to do film work after winning a competition in Thailand, meeting and coming to work with Jackie Chan, how Chan's work differs from other collaborators he's worked with over the years, how Bruce Lee kicked down the door for other martial arts actors to follow in his wake and how much he respects Sammo Hung.
Someone Will Know Me is a thirteen minute vintage documentary from 1988 that focuses on three members of the Jackie Chan Stunt Team - Mars, Chris Lee and Rocky Lai. In this piece, we get to see Chan and company preparing for shoot and see some behind the scenes footage while a narrator gives us background info on each of the three men. Along the way we learn thoughts on what it takes to be a stuntman, what it's like working with Jackie Chan, getting injured on job, why they do what they do and other details surrounding their work.
Finishing things up on the second disc is a the alternate four minute Japanese ending, a three minute Jackie Chan recording session, Hong Kong trailer, an export trailer, a Tai Seng Video trailer and a still gallery.
As to the packaging, 88 Films has done a really nice job here. Everything is stored inside a sturdy, rigid slipcase featuring new art by “Kung Fu” Bob O’Brien. In addition to the two black cases that hold the four discs in the collection, we also get a set of six double-sided collectable art cards and double-sided foldout posters for both films. Additionally, the set includes a one-hundred page fully illustrated collectors’ book featuring a few essays on the movie – ‘Labor Of Love: Jackie’s PLAN A Worked Out’ by Thorsten Boose, ‘Project A, No Plan B: A Look into how Project A I & II Defined The Jackie Chan 1980s Style’ by Paul Bramhall and an interview with Assistant Director Roberta Chow titled ‘Someone Will Know Me’ – along with cast and crew credits for both films and a load or archival stills and promotional imagery from the two movies. Lastly, each case includes some double-sided artwork for both sleeves featuring new art by O’Brien on one side and the original Hong Kong posters on the reverse. There are also a set of postcard-sized lobby card reproductions included for each film inside their respective cases.
The Project A Collection - The Final Word:
88 Films has done a bang up job on their UHD/Blu-ray release of The Project A Collection. Both films look and sound great and are presented with loads of extras and some very nice deluxe packaging. Highly recommended!