Word count: 500
Introduction
The mall fight in Police Story is the scene people think of whenever this movie is brought up, and was arguably one of the most realistic and stunningly made action set-pieces ever. The featured location was Kowloon’s Wing On Plaza, a medium-sized shopping mall.
I physically studied the mall just a few days ago. Though I took dozens of photos, due to the limit, only one of them is put within the essay (a selected few are put in the Appendix section).
Our protagonists enter into this shot, establishing the arena for their final showdown with the main villains.
Here, we the audience can already get a loose understanding of the environment and expect what is to come: multi-story compact, crowded interior spaces surrounding an open area in the center, peppered with festive decorations.
Two main themes this act of the movie employed are 1) a full use of the environment and 2) verticality.
Full use
Jackie Chan blockbusters are famous for their creative choreography design. The characters always fight in such a realistic manner, utilizing whatever is around them to their advantage. With solid martial arts as the foundation, Hong Kong-style action scenes were mesmerizing without the need for flashing editing or camera tricks.
In Police Story, as the protagonists navigate through this urban maze, almost every onscreen element could be used as a weapon: counters, clothing racks, a motorcycle (seriously). The choreographers especially liked to throw characters onto anything that could break, from glass display cases to tables to picture frames on the wall.
Great effort was put in to maximize the visual impact the environment could bring to the audience. One of my favorite compositions was this shot below. The mirror on the right and the mannequin on the left fill up the empty space next to the characters, the reflection provides a helpful alternative perspective. And of course, the mirror itself is getting smashed by the goon’s head in the very next shot.
Hong Kong’s most defining characteristics definitely include its modernistic skyscrapers and hilly landscapes. Police Story incorporates the sense of verticality by making the characters ascend and descend the different levels constantly. Much complexity is introduced as this box-like structure transcends a 2D battlefield.
After many hard falls and escalator shenanigans, Jackie’s character reaches his final obstacle: reaching an important briefcase four stories below. Of course, he uses the most direct method, hidden in plain sight – sliding down this electrifying pole of festive decorations.
As iconic as this scene was, the more interesting thing to me was how alive this setting felt. With all the bystanders and so many elements in this structure utilized in creative ways, Wing On Plaza felt truly lived-in and almost became a living entity that played just as important a role as the main cast. The mall captured in this scene represented a glimmering, dazzling past, one that we cannot return to. The mall today, obscured in the fog of disease and obsolescence, displays a sharp contrast.
Appendix (more images)
Reference:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089374/?ref_=ttrel_rel_tt
Ka Hang Liu 3035939781
Enjoy your analysis of the Wing On Plaza atrium in both the film and your observations during your visit. Also appreciate your analysis of the visualization techniques. Could you share more about your fieldwork methods? What time of day did you film it? Was it similar to that in the film? As this is a 1980s film and you visited it in 2022, what elements and details of the atrium did you observe are similar and different? It would be great if you could annotate your images so that you can point out your observations of the specific spaces that you focused on – the main stairs and escalator of the atrium, and the passageways where the shops are? What other sources of materials, including ideas/concepts learnt from the coursework, did you refer to in this analytical writing? Is the “obsolescence” you refer to similar to or in dialogue with Abbas’ idea of disappearance?