Film fans in and around Leicester are about to get the chance to gain unrivalled insight into the skills, daring and influences of a genre which regularly tops cinema box office charts and has created a century’s worth of stars.

Between 27 November and 29 November (Wed-Fri), Electric Shadows: Leicester Chinese Film Festival 2024 and the Phoenix Cinema will be among more than 70 venues UK-wide taking part in ART OF ACTION, a thrills and spills-filled season presented by the BFI Film Audience Network (BFI FAN) thanks to BFI National Lottery funding.

What we have chosen for our festival audience and the local art cinema venue in Leicester are the Police Story Trilogy 4K restoration.

Featuring some of the most dangerous stunts ever performed on camera, these three films represent the pinnacle of Jackie Chan’s unique style of Hong Kong action filmmaking. A dazzling blend of gritty action cop drama, impeccably choreographed martial-arts sequences, and bone-crunching stuntwork – this series of films revitalised the Hong Kong action genre and established Jackie Chan as a worldwide superstar.

Police Story (dir. Jackie Chan, 1985) – considered by Jackie Chan himself to be his best film in terms of pure action, Police Story stars Chan as “super cop” Chan Ka-Kui, who goes up against a notorious crime lord in a series of escalating set-pieces that resulted in many of Jackie’s stunt team being hospitalised.

Police Story 2 (dir. Jackie Chan, 1988) – Demoted to traffic cop after the events of the first film, Chan Ka-Kui is reinstated to the detective unit when a deadly gang of explosive experts blow up a building and threaten to blow up more if their demands are not met. Featuring yet more bravura stunt work, and even more injuries to its cast and crew, Police Story 2 is to this day considered one of the best action films ever made.

Police Story 3: Supercop (dir. Stanley Tong, 1992) – Action superstar Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once) joins the series as Inspector Yang Chien-Hua, who teams up with Chan Ka-Kui to take down an international drug ring. With some of the most outrageous stunt sequences ever committed to film, Police Story 3: Supercop is an action masterpiece that must truly be seen to be believed.

For more information or to book, please visit Phoenix Cinema’s website. 

Full screenings list across the country is also available from www.bfiartofaction.co.uk/