Overview: Starring as a swashbuckling turn-of-the-century coastguard, hot on the trail of cut-throat pirates, smugglers and free-wheeling police officers, Jackie Chan treat his audience to a fun-filled, action-packed motion-picture, experience, which shows him at his most reckless and brilliant and has become a benchmark standard for other filmmakers to follow.

PROJECT A - Dragon Ma (Jackie Chan, Rush Hour) is a lieutenant in the 19th-century Hong Kong marines. Pirates have been terrorizing local waters, with assistance from the corrupt authorities. Dragon Ma hopes to defeat the evil pirate clan led by Sanpao (Dick Wei), but his plan is short-circuited. Ma then teams with a navy admiral (Hak Suen Lau), a police captain Tzu (Biao Yuen) and a crafty thief (Sammo Hung) in a new round of high-seas battles with Sanpao and his pirates.

PROJECT A: PART II - Corrupt police inspector Chun (David Lam) has made himself the most powerful law enforcement officer in Hong Kong by staging high-profile arrests of the criminals and mobsters with whom he’s in cahoots. The British authorities know Chun is a dirty cop but have not been able to infiltrate his inner circle. Enter fearless and incorruptible military policeman “Dragon Ma” Yun (Jackie Chan), who comes back to his hometown to pose as Chun’s new right-hand man and take down both cops and criminals.

4K Blu-ray Verdict: We begin with PROJECT A (1983). Directed by and starring Jackie Chan, Project A is a martial arts classic, a lavish late-19th century adventure featuring some of the most incredible fight action and death defying stunts imaginable.

Chan plays Navy recruit Dragon Ma Yue Lung, who teams up with police captain Tzu (Yuen Baio) and lovable thief Fei (Sammo Hung) to try and bring to justice the pirates (led by Lor Sam Pau, played by Dick Wei) who have been marauding the Hong Kong seas.

Even though the film’s plot is slight and contains plenty of the broad slapstick comedy that I often struggle with, the quantity and quality of the action still qualifies the film as unmissable, Chan, Baio and Hung, at the top of their game (causing plenty of pain for the poor stuntmen extras).

Chan, in particular, delivers some of his finest moments, including a brilliantly choreographed scene involving bicycles and narrow alleyways, a fight amongst the gears and cogs of a clock tower, and, most memorable of all, a bone-crunching high fall guaranteed to make the jaw drop.

The excellent finale sees our three heroes take on Lor Sam Pau in the pirate’s island hideout, and is well worth the wait, all four fighters providing impeccably timed and expertly executed feats of physical prowess.

Up next is PROJECT A: PART II (1987). The sequel sees Jackie Chan back as Dragon Ma who has now been promoted to shadow a police chief to fight against corruption and crime in his town. He hasn’t got his handy sidekicks that he had in the first movie, but he brings along some other agents to help him fight against crime.

The Pirates are now seeking revenge after Dragon Ma (Chan) crippled there business in the first movie and he has to fight against corruption in the police force. After building a relationship with the head of the coast guards in the first movie, he helps him in a few tricky situations involving gangsters and then Pirates so it’s full of action from beginning to end.

Personally, I got confused with who was who and what was what. As usual, the death defying stunts are great and the authentic Kung-Fu scenes were well put together, but it seemed like it was never going to end at times. Jackie Chan’s character is slightly more serious in this movie, which is a plus in my opinion, but there is way too much going on, sorry.

It starts off quite simple but once all the different characters come into the movie, I was completely lost, in truth. It also seemed quite dated for this day and age, which is good in a way because you don’t get all of the new stuff they use today to manipulate the action, but man, overall, it is still mighty worthy of a watch (perhaps just for the amazing Kung-Fu scenes, in truth).

Bonus Features:
4K (2160p) UHD presentation of the Hong Kong Cut [106 mins] in original 2.39:1 Aspect Ratio with Dolby Vision encoding (HDR10 Compatible) 4K (2160p) UHD presentation of the Taiwan Cut [115 mins] in original 2.39:1 Aspect Ratio with Dolby Vision encoding (HDR10 Compatible)
Cantonese-language options in Dolby Atmos and Cantonese 1.0 and with newly translated subtitles + English Dub
BRAND NEW 2024 Interview with Stuntman Mars
Interview with Jackie Chan
Interview with actor Lee Hoi San
Interview with actor Yuen Biao
Interview with actor Dick Wei
Interview with producer Michael Chan Wai-Man
Interview with composer Michael Lai
Interview with writer and producer Edward Tang
Interview with stuntman Mars
LIMITED EDITION EXCLUSIVE - Perfect-bound book
LIMITED EDITION EXCLUSIVE - Six Replica Lobby Cards
LIMITED EDITION EXCLUSIVE - Double-sided foldout Poster
LIMITED EDITION EXCLUSIVE - Slipcase with brand-new artwork from Kung Fu Bob
And more!

Official Purchase Link