There’s pirates, fights, coast guard, more fights, police, still more fights, and stunts galore in Jackie’s breakthrough movie. The stunts are among the best ever put on film, and the plot isn’t bad either.

##Jackie and Samo and Yuen Oh my!

[[Jackie Chan]] finally got his big break with this movie. His first attempt
at breaking into Hollywood a failure, he went back to Hong Kong determined
to do things his way. He got his shot with [[Project A]]. He wrote,
produced, directed, starred, and coordinated the stunts. And it shows.

The plot (such as it is) has Jackie playing “Dragon Ma”, a young and
enthusiastic member of Hong Kong’s coast guard. He is assigned to be part
of [[Project A]], designed to take down a group of pirates ravaging the
local waterways. The plan fails miserably when the coast guard’s ships are
blown up. At this point, the coast guard is disbanded and the sailors are
told to report to duty as police men (their arch rivals), reporting to
their new captain played by Yuen Biao. After some adventure as a police man, Dragon decides to give it up and goes into business with his old
buddy played by Samo Hung. After some more misadventure, Jackie decides
that the only way to clear his name is to infiltrate the pirate gang and
take it down from the inside. Got all that?

Well, never mind. This movie works because of the energy of the “Three
Brothers”, namely Jackie, Samo, and Yuen. The comedy is wonderful, as is
the fight choreography and the stunts. It’s really hard to describe how
infectious this movie is, but when I saw it at the “Towne Theatre” in San
Jose, CA, the audience cheered out loud many times during the movie. They
also “ooood” and “aaahhhh” at the right times and booed the bad guys. It
was almost like watching an old melodrama from the early days of film.

What else can I say? If you ever get a chance to see this on the big
screen, jump at it. You’ll have more fun than you’ve had in a long time at
the movies.