Film

Police Story 3: Super Cop

Name: Police Story 3: Super Cop
Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller
Released: 1992
Cast: Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh, Maggie Cheung, Kenneth Tsang, Yuen Wah

The one where Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh both do their own stunts and somehow top each other doing it. It's an undercover-cop thriller stretched thin over the greatest stunt sequence ever put on film — a motorcycle chasing a moving train — with comedy, real danger, and zero CGI safety net throughout.

TMDb rating

3.5

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love stunt work staged in wide, messy spaces where every punch and prop stays visible, and you enjoy Jackie Chan's brand of physical comedy running alongside a tense police thriller.

Skip it if you want a slow-burn detective story with careful plotting, since this is mostly a loud, kinetic run of set pieces and the drama is thin beside them.

What it asks of you: At about ninety-five minutes of nonstop motion, with little breathing room between big sequences and a light touch on characterization, you mostly go along for the ride.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Police Story1985

The film that started it all — Chan smashing through a shopping mall of glass and neon, inventing the template Super Cop perfects. Funnier, scrappier, and just as reckless with his own bones.

But Rougher production values and a thinner plot than the sequel; it's the blueprint, not the finished house.

Drunken Master III1994

Chan at his absolute physical peak, combining slapstick kung fu comedy with a finale (fighting on hot coals) that's as punishing as anything in Super Cop. Pure, joyous mastery of the form.

But It's period kung fu rather than modern-day cop action, so the tone and setting are a big shift.

Project A1983

Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao together, with a clock-tower fall that's genuinely one of cinema's great stunts. Slower to start but builds to set pieces every bit as insane as Super Cop's.

But The pacing is more old-fashioned and the plot meanders before the action really kicks in.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Police Story 3: Super Cop

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Infernal Affairs2002

Same city, same genre, same buried-identity premise as Chan's Ka-Kui/Lin Fu-Sheng — but stripped of every joke to show how bleak the setup really is underneath.

Take the undercover-cop premise Super Cop plays for thrills and comedy, and watch a different Hong Kong crew play it completely straight — paranoid, tragic, and morally exhausting.

But There's no comic relief and barely any action; it's tense, interior, and ends in genuine despair.

Hard Boiled1992

John Woo's HK cop thriller made the same year, trading Chan's stunt-comedy for balletic gunplay and a hospital shootout that redefined action cinema. Same city, same era, wildly different toolkit.

But No comedy at all, and the body count is enormous — a much darker, bloodier experience.

Once Upon a Time in China1991

Jet Li's wuxia answer to the same stunt-driven tradition, wire-assisted rather than gravity-assisted, but chasing the same high: watching a body do things bodies shouldn't. Gorgeous, propulsive, historically minded.

But Wire-fu and period costume drama trappings feel quite different from Chan's grounded, real-world stunt work.

Rumble in the Bronx1995

Chan's Hollywood-crossover hit, jumping between buildings and hovercrafts with the same gleeful disregard for personal safety. A great, more accessible entry point if you want more Chan without subtitles.

But The New York-via-Vancouver setting and dubbed English dialogue feel a bit stranger and less polished than the HK originals.

Supercop 21993

Michelle Yeoh steps fully into the lead here, no Chan required, proving Super Cop's best stunt performer could carry a whole film of car chases and hand-to-hand combat herself.

But Weaker plotting and a lower budget than the film it spins off from; it's a fun footnote, not a peer.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon2000

See Michelle Yeoh again, this time in wire-fu wuxia mode — elegant, mournful, and just as physically committed, proving her range stretches far beyond bone-crunching modern stunt work.

But It's a slow, romantic, melancholy film — nothing like the breakneck comic energy of Super Cop.

The Heroic Trio1993

Michelle Yeoh and Maggie Cheung reunite, this time as superheroes fighting a baby-stealing cult in gloriously trashy, low-budget style. Deranged, campy fun from the same HK stable.

But Cheap effects and a genuinely bizarre plot make this a much sillier, rougher watch than Super Cop.

Steamboat Bill, Jr.1928

Chan has named Keaton as his direct hero and model — the shared idea that the danger has to be real for the comedy to land, no cuts, no doubles.

Buster Keaton, decades before Chan, doing the same thing — genuinely risking his life for a laugh, most famously nearly getting crushed by a collapsing house facade. Silent, stunning, and still funny.

But Silent-era pacing, black-and-white, and title cards instead of dialogue will feel very foreign if you've never sat with old cinema.

Jackie Chan: My Stunts1999

Same body, same era, but the register flips from breathless entertainment to sober reckoning: this is the bill for everything you just watched him survive.

Chan himself, breaking down how the Super Cop-era stunts actually worked — the injuries, the failed takes, the sheer stubbornness required. A fascinating, humbling companion piece to the spectacle.

But It's a low-budget instructional documentary, not a narrative film — more interesting than thrilling.