(may contain spoilers)
Douban rating: 8.2
Director: Larry Yang
Starring: Jackie Chan, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Zhang Zifeng, Ci Sha
Douban Comments: “Watched the early screening on 8/11. Honestly, this is the first Jackie Chan movie in years that didn’t make me leave the theater grumbling. Not sure when his reputation dropped this much. At least this script feels like a real script. Sure, there are plenty of plot holes, but with action movies it really comes down to how good the fight scenes are.
There are quite a few hand-to-hand fights, and they flow pretty smoothly. The villains’ parkour escape and costume changes at the beginning were flashy and eye-catching; it felt like a throwback to New Police Story. Plus, Zifeng looks like a gender-swapped version of Feng, with ‘I want to be a cop’ written all over her face.
And Jackie Chan? He’s still Jackie Chan. He’s outlasted one whole generation of young actors and now he’s working with the next. Maybe he really can keep fighting for another 20 years.
But the one who really stands out is Tony Leung Ka-fai. His character, Fu Longsheng, is written with such weak logic, yet he managed to play the madness with real style and depth. Way crazier than Pan Chengfeng and Qiu Gang’ao put together, like a tiger devouring its own cubs, and still wiping its mouth clean afterward.”
“The opening is flashy, but the whole thing turns out to be a messy show stuffed with every trendy element possible: veteran actors, rising stars, traffic-attracting idols, plus gunfights, fistfights, car crashes, explosions, you name it. They pile on the traditional cops-and-robbers vibe with high-tech and AI, sprinkle in some thriller suspense, and top it off with a twist ending.
The remake of the classic ‘tracking’ sequence is just painful to watch. The elite surveillance team is reduced to a rookie squad trained for a few days, more like a petting zoo than professionals. A bunch of clueless newbies led by Zhang Zifeng suddenly think they can hunt down Tony Leung Ka-fai’s ‘evil dragon’. Jackie Chan, playing a famous cop constantly in the public eye, somehow dares to confront Leung head-on without ever worrying about blowing his cover. And the so-called AI investigation leader is basically just a plot that does whatever the story needs.
Then you get absurd stuff like gangsters turning on each other, Leung going full berserker mode with no effort, mercenaries storming into a police HQ like it’s nothing. The further it goes, the harder it is to take seriously.
Sure, people will say there’s no rule that it must follow the old version. But anyone who’s seen the original will inevitably compare. And compared to that sharp, lean storytelling, this remake is nothing but hollow flash. All show, no substance.”
“I was deeply moved. In this virtual age stuffed with ‘all-powerful’ spectacles, this film feels like a return to the golden era of action movies, where physics and defying physics collide, where the limits of the body are pushed, and where pain still feels real. It’s not about good versus evil; every twist comes from moments of vulnerability laid bare. There’s no need for grand sets; every corner of the city can become an arena for battle.
The darting glances, sudden strikes, near-manic shifts in speed that still keep rhythm; all of it is gripping. And the dramatic scenes aren’t just filler; the sheer power of the performances is astonishing. Clear relationships at the start gradually dissolve into chaos, while the emotional layers keep building, pulling the audience’s heart back and forth. The story’s tension stretches all the way to the final seconds of the post-credits scene. To see something this unified and fluid today is truly rare.”
“This isn’t just Jackie Chan’s best work in years, but it’s also the peak of the director’s career. While keeping the core setup of the original, the film adapts it into a version that resonates more with today’s context. The dramatic conflict between cops and criminals is built around the tension between the ‘old’ and the ‘new’.
On the police side, high-tech AI makes investigations fast and efficient, leaving the traditional surveillance team feeling obsolete. On the criminals’ side, the old-school leader is cautious and paranoid, frustrated with the recklessness and defiance of his younger subordinates. The contrast between the two groups gives off a sense of helplessness: time keeps moving forward, but some people are trapped living in the past. Jackie Chan and Tony Leung Ka-fai both push their characters to prove they’re still capable, a struggle that mirrors their own real-life careers.
At the same time, the generational dynamics reveal complex emotions: on one side, characters seek understanding and release from guilt; on the other, younger figures resist the shadow of patriarchal control. The action scenes are sharp and thrilling, with pacing that rises and falls at just the right moments. Yet by the end, I felt a tinge of sadness, as if trying to hold on to the fading glory of the golden age of action cinema, only to realize it was nothing more than a gust of wind in history.”
