Project 'A' part II ('A' gai waak juk jaap, Jackie Chan, 1987)

If this film doesn't convince the viewer that Jackie Chan will go to any lengths to entertain, nothing will. This is a very indirect sequel to Project 'A' (1983) which followed the adventures of agent Dragon Ma and his fight against pirates. This one follows the same hero who now does his fighting against enemies on land while his old enemies search for him. That's really it for story and plot. Such a limited narrative would normally ruin a film but this film frankly has no use for a plot. This is unpretentious entertainment that has no illusions about what it is: a kung fu action comedy that relies on humour, no-frills story and truly breathtaking stuntwork.

This sequel is very often considered superior to the original which must be considered highly unusual for a film of this nature. It has all the symptoms of sequelitis by repeating a winning formula but adding more of everything and making it all bigger in scale. But it unexpectedly works in this case and can only be explained by this films simply accknowledging what it is.

Jackie Chan combines the assets of legendary kung fu stars like Bruce Lee and the comics of the silent era, such as Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd and he references both considerably. He'll never be considered among the greatest of actors but there's nary a man who puts as much effort into his films as he does. He has broken almost every single bone in his body and he famously refuses to let others do his stunts, no matter how insane they might be. His films can confidently be called his own as he acts as executive producer, director, star, often supplies at least part of the score and supervises every step of the production. But his greatest asset may simply be his ability to make fun of himself, demonstrated by him being one of the pioneers of showing the bloopers over the final credits which mostly involve him embarassingly mutilating or maiming himself.