Crime Story

Kirk Wong's determination to play this straight (there's no space for any of Jackie Chan's comedy schticks, and not much for set-piece stunts either) makes this the best pure thriller Chan has ever starred in. He plays a cop assigned to rescue a wealthy but morally dubious property developer (Law) from the gang which is holding him to ransom. But even his most ingenious efforts to trick the kidnappers go awry - because his corrupt superior Inspector Hung (Cheng) is secretly behind the whole thing. Moody visuals, expertly paced montages and climactic sequences aboard a rusting sea-tanker and in a burning slum tenement all deliver above and beyond genre norms.