Police Woman (1973) User Reviews

Jackie Chan as a ruffian gang member...

[paul_haakonsen · 4/10 · 8 July 2012]

I am a big fan of Jackie Chan, and that includes even the older Hong Kong movies that he was in prior to becoming a worldwide movie star. And "Rumble in Hong Kong" was made way, way before achieving fame, and it is painstakingly obvious that he was put on the DVD cover after achieving stardom and the video was transferred directly from VHS to DVD and put on the market.

The quality of this movie, I mean the picture, not the actual contents of the story, is amazingly poor. It is so clear that it has been transferred from VHS directly to DVD without any finishing touches or polishing up. The picture is grainy and lots of the times all of what was supposed to be on the screen wasn't even there; for example you'd see less than half a face or no face at all, and other such stupid flaws. A couple of times you even saw something that looked like the VHS tape was about to snap because the picture buckled and folded. It was just shameful to be witness to.

But it doesn't stop there, no. They had to release it as an English dubbed version, without the possibility to change audio and go for the original Cantonese language. Why? By all that is sacred to movies, why? English dubbing is the epitome of lameness. It is so bad and sounds like people weren't even putting any effort into it. They should have gone with releasing it with the original language track, as all movies should be.

As for the movie itself, well being shot in 1973 (2 years before I was even born), I assume that this was top notch action. Of course you have the mandatory halting dialogue and the overdone sound effects when people fight. The story reminded me somewhat of an episode of Kojak. A gang of thugs are terrorizing and bullying people around, and go to far as they kill a woman. Before dying, the woman hides a purse in the taxi that she died in, and now the gang wants the purse, going to extreme lengths to get their hands on it, bullying and terrorizing the taxi driver and his family.

Moving back to putting Jackie Chan on the DVD cover, it was done solely because of his fame and because he sells, though it does move to wonder, as he is not the lead role in "Rumble in Hong Kong". Despite this, then I found it actually quite a change of pace to watch Chan in a villain role for a change. And I noticed that some reviewer here on IMDb was whining about his big mole on the cheek, what? Are you kidding me? This is a movie. People assume roles. What is the big deal about adding a mole to the cheek of a character in a make-believe movie? What is next? Whining about hairy hobbit feet? Pointed elven ears? Small grey men from outer space? And for your information, I used to live in Hong Kong and there was a large number of people with big moles and imperfections of the skin resulting in an odd dark-blueish coloration of the skin. Whining about a mole in a movie, sheesh!

Sure, "Rumble in Hong Kong" is not the best of Jackie Chan movies, but it is part of his legacy, part of his movie career. And bear in mind that this movie was made back in 1973, so don't expect it to be up to date in this day and age. I enjoyed it, despite its flaws and age, and not only because of Jackie Chan, but because it is a piece of Hong Kong cinema.

What is this?

[AwesomeWolf · 3/10 · 22 December 2004]

Version: English dub

Police Woman - What police woman? Rumble in Hong Kong - what rumble? Young Tiger - is he the taxi driver? Where's Jackie Chan? Who is Jacky Chan? Is he that guy who looks like Jackie Chan, but has a mole the size of large rodent on his face? So many questions, such a bad movie.

A female ex-gang member dies in taxi, and leaving behind a purse. The gang she used to belong to is looking for the purse, as is the Police Woman, who actually plays the side-kick to the taxi driver, who is the real hero of the movie. Wow. Jackie plays the gangs second-in-command, and frequently gets beaten up in his role as a thug.

Pretty boring movie overall. Boring fight scenes, bad dubbing, bad DVD transfer. The shining point of the movie is when the taxi driver and his buddies are talking about social values, arguing that 'the kids watch too many violent movies these days'. It might explain the lack of decent action.

3/10 - Don't watch this movie, unless you want to see Jackie Chan as a bad guy, or before he became a star - in that respect its much better than say, 'Eagle Shadow Fist'.

Hmm what the hell was this???

[edge_crusher01 · 3/10 · 22 October 2002]

Well all i can say is that this had the worst dubbing in movie history, if you see it i am sure you will know what i mean. The movie was bad but no extremely bad, there was some okay action between Jackie Chan and Charlie Chin, yes it was nice to see Jackie as a bad guy, but not with a stupid mole on his face the size of a football. The story was incredibly pointless, and all the titles are misleading, the police woman has a small part, and has NOOOOO comparison to rumble in the bronx. Chan fans may want to see him on the other side of the badge, but anyone else do not see this, even if you like Chan be prepared for a terrible film with average action.

DO NOT SEE THIS if you like Jackie Chan movies

[Hendu · 24 July 1999]

This is one of those re-releases trying to cash in on Chan's fame. It has nothing to do with Rumble in the Bronx. It is a far cry from that excellent movie. It's about a female police officer. Chan plays the villain and he has an embarrassing mole on his cheek with hair growing out of it. It's only like his second film and he only in about 5 minutes. DON'T BE FOOLED BY THE BOX ART! This is not a chan film! Rating 1/10

A Bad Chan Movie

[CitizenCaine · 1/10 · 9 October 2003]

This is a very bad Jackie Chan movie. He plays a villain with only a handful of scenes in the movie. The police woman does not have a prominent role either. The movie was renamed Rumble in Hong Kong for obvious misleading marketing purposes. This movie is not included in The Essential Jackie Chan Sourcebook in his list of films. After seeing it, one can can understand why. Chan is not a main character and walks around with an eight ball sized hairy mole on the left side of his jaw. It looks like a mouse attached to his faced. The plot concerns a bunch of people after a purse or the contents thereof. The fight scenes are unspectacular, but dig those 70's clothes and the TV show-like soundtrack from the 70's. The movie ends rather abruptly, as if the producer ran out of money to either develop the remaining footage or to actually shoot more footage. The dubbing is laughable also. This is perhaps the worst example of an early Chan movie. 0 of 4 stars.

Bad movie but good for laughs

[wendell_watkins · 2/10 · 13 June 2020]

This was a terrible movie with a story both ridiculous and unnecessary BUT some of the fight scenes are absolutely hilarious.

Dreadful, dated tosh.

[Antzy88 · 1/10 · 8 November 2001]

I only saw this when I was round a friend's house a few years ago. I had to restrain myself from falling asleep.

The plot was rubbish, the dubbing was among the worst I'd ever seen, the acting was rank and the whole story was a bore. Its only redeeming feature is seeing Jackie as a baddie, and even that's not enough to save it from the mire.

All Jackie Chan fans - STEER WELL CLEAR OF THIS ONE!

2nd worst film ever...

[razorlazon-1 · 1/10 · 2 March 2007]

this was the worst film I'd ever seen until I saw the film kickboxer king (read my review), as a big jackie chan fan I was very excited to find out about a film I'd never heard of before, and I got it as a new release for 5 quid! how could this be I asked myself (I like to talk to myself), well the reason was that it's a pure pile of crap! it is the most boring and false marketed film ever (except for kickboxer king as already stated) as another reviewer stated jackie has a huge false mole on his cheek for most of the movie, I say most because it's not always there or sometimes it's on the other cheek, I figured it was some sort of "magic mole" but that part of the plot never came into it unfortunately, that might have been interesting at least, also jackie is barely in the movie and has no decent fights, plus to make matters worse there was no sound on my version for 10 minutes near the end...not that it really matters as I'm sure they were just spouting on about "ang chang chong" and the likes...rubbish

DON'T BE FOOLED!!!!

[moonisgod · 2/10 · 3 July 2000]

This is a sad example of bad marketing on everyone's part. Jackie Chan appears on the box and headlines the credits although he's only in the movie for a handful of scenes. I guess it was retitled "Rumble in Hong Kong" by the Americans to cash in on "Rumble in the Bronx"'s fame, even though the two movies have nothing in common. Even the Chinese title "Police Woman" is misleading; sure, there's a police woman in the film, but she's not the main character and the story doesn't follow her like the title suggests.

But as a film it isn't really 100% bad. Ignoring the unfairness of using Jackie's image and the misleading titles, the film is a basic "police vs. evil crime lord" story with the usual twists and turns, good guys and bad guys and the occasional action sequence. A good movie to see with friends, but kind of gets boring if you watch it alone. The hero isn't a police woman though, it's a taxi driver. Go figure.

Hardcore fans of Jackie's will like this film because you get to see him play something other than the hero. He's not the main villain though, only one of the henchmen, so everyone else will be disappointed by his amount of screen time. Deprived of his characteristic moves, humor, and even basic character development, he becomes just another thug (they give him an enormous ugly mole on his neck too, for reasons unknown).

So as a whole the movie's ok, just don't expect to see a lot of Jackie Chan or police women.

This film is rubbish

[nathan-tay · 2/10 · 26 October 2005]

I agree, this film isn't good. For a start Jackie is a bad guy? Which is weird to see, also he fights badly, even the taxi driver can beat him. No one in the film is bothered to fight, every character, at least once tried to run over someone! The filming wasn't done very well either, the camera keeps cutting of people while they're talking so you can see the person stood next to them and a tiny bit of the person talkings face. There isn't any chemistry between the main character, when the Taxi driver goes to rescue her, it just seems pointless and we think that he wouldn't bother in real life, just phone the police. Jackie Chan is hardly in it, and when he is, he isn't convincing as a bad guy. Jackie stick to the good guy and don't put that mole on again!

A film to be avoided by all but the most ardent of kung fu fans

[Leofwine_draca · 2/10 · 6 December 2016]

One in a handful of early Jackie Chan films picked up by cheap distributors and renamed to make them sound like some early action outing for the stunt-mad starrer, YOUNG TIGER is a bottom-of-the-barrel example of kung fu movie-making from the mid 1970s. A contemporary tale of cops and robbers, and innocent folk turned heroes, this short-but-boring story mixes in some minor scenes of action with a predictable plot involving a vital document and the attempts to retrieve it by a criminal gang. I couldn't even tell you what this document was, as my attention was wandering so much during the course of the production through sheer boredom. Of course it inevitably turns out that only a young, innocent and heroic taxi driver has the power to combat the criminals. A taxi driver played by...

If you said JACKIE CHAN just now you would be sorely mistaken. Instead, some relative unknown plays the part of the hero and I can barely remember his face twenty minutes after it finished, so that shows how memorable he is as an actor and fighter. Instead, our hero Jackie is relegated to a fairly minor role as one of the criminal henchmen set out to antagonise the heroic character. Jackie does get to take part in some martial arts action but it's far from his best work, although a brief stint hanging to the roof of a speeding car foreshadows his later affection for dangerous stunt work and on-the-edge heroics. Sadly, the most memorable thing about Jackie is the huge unsightly wart the film-makers have stuck to his cheek, possibly to make him look less normal and more evil as a bad guy. The result is ludicrous.

Elsewhere, the film suffers from appallingly stilted dialogue - expect long pauses of silence and no attempts at lip-syncing anywhere in the production - which occasionally lapses into Cantonese at some moments. The picture quality is cheap and poor, made worse by terrible cropping which removes half of the picture and most of Jackie's presence from the film. The characters are uninteresting, the script mundane, and not an ounce of originality or imagination has gone into the production at any particular point. In fact, it's so routine in every low budget way imaginable that I have got to rate it as one of the worst I've seen. Definitely a film to be avoided by all but the most ardent of kung fu fans.

Confused

[P_A_R · 10/10 · 14 July 2022]

I have NO idea how this film got a 3.5! That makes no sense! I don't get what people were expecting. This film is definitely a classic of films Jackie chan has done. There's a nice balance of fighting, jokes and action!

I guess I saw a better cut

[Promontorium · 7/10 · 23 March 2011]

From reading about the edits, and people's complaints, I think I've seen a much better cut.

Certainly the physical quality is that of a 70s low budget Hong Kong film, but that's understandable.

The story I watched made perfect sense. It had a logical ending, and overall I enjoyed it. I suppose if you're watching this purely for Jackie Chan, you will be disappointed. And I agree it is dishonest retro marketing to label it a Jackie movie. I saw a copy of Cannon Ball Run in Hong Kong that had Jackie Chan on the cover and said "Starring Jackie Chan" obviously Hong Kong loves their boy, get used to it.

Purely as a film I though it had decent action, a good story and I enjoyed the overall tone. I've seen a lot (probably not even half) of Chan's films, I think this did more to showcase his skills than everything he's done in America from Rush Hour on. He does some serious stunts here, he hit hard, he's quick. He even gets to fight the final showdown with the protagonist.

There are some problems. 1. Apparently the original name was Police Woman, there is a female cop protagonist, but she's given a supporting role, only appearing at the very beginning, and towards the end. 2. The dubbing is bad, the voice acting is very good, but the dialog is often off timed, which is a minor annoyance, the dubbing audio quality is as bad as it can get without being inaudible. 3. Some scenes are choppy, but there is one big screwed up edit that comes in right before the climax, it's so bad you have to pretend you didn't see it or nothing makes sense. 4. It might be a casualty of aspect crossovers, but many of the scenes seem to have the camera off to the side, missing the action. As with the editing and dubbing, your experience may vary based on which cut you have.

I enjoyed this simple city story about a taxi driver crossing paths with a street gang, I enjoyed that the "good citizens" and friends backed him up (going against the cliché' 'go it alone' story) I enjoyed the action, with Charlie Chin and Qiu Yuen as the unstoppable good guys, and the antagonists led by Jackie Chan actually being able to fight.

My votes are usually similar to the IMDb score, altogether, I think if everyone saw the copy I did this film would be rated much higher, at least a 6, I give it a 7/10 because I can overlook the dubbing issues and scratchy film quality which certainly didn't exist when it premiered.

The second funniest/worst movie in the history of movie-making.

[simiesque · 1/10 · 26 June 2006]

The funniest bad movie ever made was Street Fighter. This is a close second.

It is filmed on no budget to speak of whatsoever, has the worst-quality dubbing, the most pointless plot, the most dim-witted characters, and the poorest editing in the entire history of movie-making.

That said, it was ferociously funny. I use this as the centerpiece when I invite friends over. They watch it and laugh with gusto. I laughed until my guts retched up my esophagus. Nearly every single scene has something to laugh at. It is entertaining for that reason, and therefore highly watchable. Go see it and then humiliate it for generations to come! Also, the English dubbers have cute half-British accents that make it all the more entertaining. Notice how everyone is saying "HUH?!" and "Listen!" whenever they speak.

"Listen, you're making a mistake!" "Listen, shut up!" "Huh?!" "Listen, you all right?" "Listen..."

!!!SPOILER!!!

Look out for this scene: A fake policeman enters the hero's apartment. He asks the mother: "Can you read?" She says no. He shows her an EMPTY piece of paper (completely white) and says, "We're from the police." It matter that she can't read, god, if she can't tell that there's nothing on the paper she's got bigger problems than illiteracy!

Horrible

[Rejoicen · 11 November 2002]

I love watching some of Jackie Chans old movies. They usually have great action sequences, but not this one!!!! I had to force myself to actually finish it. It was so weird to see him as a bad guy, and he had this big hairy mole on his face. I mean, what's the deal with that? He was hardly even in it, and was not the main character. I also think his name is all over the box just because of his fame. Usually when watching his old films I usually can look past the fact that it's low budget, but this one I could not. It was really bad quality. The only thing I really found funny was seeing all of them run around in bell bottoms, and that chezzy 70's music in the background. So whatever you do, if you want to watch a good Jackie Chan movie DO NOT watch Rumble in Hong Kong.

Pretty poor, to be honest

[Bobson_94 · 3/10 · 7 August 2005]

This is an abysmal film, whose only saving graces are the ripped-off music (from better films such as Chinatown), and a few unintentional moments of humour.

One such example would be a "threatening" phone-call to the police office asking for a purse. My 4 year-old brother laughed for about 10 minutes in a badly cut scene where Lee Man Tai puts his trousers on (having thought he had slept in the Charlie Chin's bed). Go figure.

There are few films more exploitative in their packaging, as Chan only appears fleetingly throughout the film, and in those scenes, there are no moments at all where Chan shines in this movie.

As the lead, Chin is wooden and unconvincing, he is put to better effect in his later collaborations with Chan. All in all, it is advised that you seek the films that the title apes, namely Police Story and Rumble In Hong Kong.

Police Woman 74

[vetteski42 · 3/10 · 2 April 2006]

I've brought the DVD for 4 bucks at a used video store. I was sorta ticked off with the poor quality of the film. I know it's an old, foreign film but they should've put it on the box for those that may buy it new. But what i liked about the film was seeing Shu Qui. She came back to us in the Kung Fu Hustle as the Landlady. I always liked her films along with Shang Kuan and Chia Ling. As for Jackie, he was alright but the hype on the DVD cover should've been dismissed. Maybe the art director might read this and redesign the cover and title it " the Policewoman featuring Jackie Chan as the Villain". Maybe the viewers might not shoot the DVD after buying it.

An adorable little gem

[chilcosxi · 5/10 · 12 July 2019]

This movie is not great, but enjoyable to watch. Its blunt, preachy, dumb, awkward style of delivering pure-hearted messages is charming, and so are the characters in this movie. I found myself cheering every time the women in the film looked out for each other and fought the bad guys. As it's difficult to find such a portrayal in movies, it's refreshing to see.

Even Worse Than Fantasy Mission Force...No, Really...

[thomas-hardcastle-2 · 2/10 · 30 May 2008]

This is probably the worst Jackie Chan Film ever made. The film was originally called Police Woman, and Jackie plays the leader of a gang of Hong Kong Street thugs, with what has to be the gayest mole in the history of cinema. It looks like someone drew it on his face with a marker pen, and didn't stop drawing it: Half his face is covered in this ridiculous mole! The story revolves around some bloke who accidentally leaves his wallet in the back of a taxi. Cue Jackie Chan, who doesn't use any martial arts of any note at any point. This film is like a porno without the sex. The plot, characters, acting, dubbing, and cinematography, if you really want to call it that, are all of, "no wait - is this a joke?" quality.

Once Jackie became really famous, and with some bright spark who snapped up the distribution rights for this film coming up with a nice idea, the film was re-named Rumble in Hong Kong, which fooled people into thinking that this was a prequel to Rumble in the Bronx.

The film ends abruptly, and on the version I saw, there is a, "big, important," scene near the end, where the vision is there, but the dialogue has not even been dubbed! The voice-over actors found this film so bad that they fell asleep, too.

Never ever watch this film. I'll give you my copy for free, if you really want to waste a couple of hours of your life. But if you really do want to waste time, come round and do my garden for me. I'll draw a giant mole on your face as payment...

Why didn't I read the reviews about this movie before?

[carstenschmidt · 1/10 · 12 June 2010]

I should have read the reviews before watching this movie: now I am another victim who has wasted his time. I totally agree with all remarks about the bad quality (such as the awful action: martial arts for beginners - of course, no one shall get hurt, but it is boring to see the safety-distance of the actors when they try to "hit" each other and clearly never get close to a touch... Even the cars in that movie should not get "harmed", you could "smell" the low budget... The embarrassing mole on Jackie Chan's face...), so I don't need to repeat all of that. I just want to add that the German dubbing which I watched is also one of the worst I have ever seen - obviously similar to the English dubbing. And yes, the director seems to be an upholder of moral standards, and that leads to some awkward scenes!

Avoid unrealistic expectations and enjoy an average movie

[ckormos1 · 5/10 · 22 June 2019]

Yes, the proper title for this movie is "Police Woman". All the other titles came because of the VHS rental craze. When there was a Mom and Pop Video Rental Store on every street corner in America a flood of martial arts movies arrived from China. The question of what to put on the box was answered with "whatever draws attention and makes a rental". There was no need for the box to accurately reflect the contents. The box was to get rentals.

Concerning the manner of Jackie Chan in the movie. If you first noticed him because of "Rush Hour" and expected more of that you have set yourself up for failure. If you are aware that in 1973 Jackie Chan was a nobody in the movie industry then you would realize this movie was a chance to see the development of a future movie star now playing just a minor role.

It would also help to know that Yuen Qiu is the real deal. She is an expert at Chinese martial arts and Peking opera who studied under the same master as Jackie Chan. I consider her the best and most important female in the history of martial arts movies.

It starts with Jackie has his arm around Woo Gam and they want to have some fun. It's not that kind of fun, they are part of a gang and they mug a couple instead. Next some thugs pick on the wrong girl, Yuen Siu, the police woman.

There's only about seven minutes of fighting in this entire movie. The action is really good but there just is not enough. Those two factors even out and I rate this just average for the year and genre.

Jackie Chan's mole is an eye-sore to look at.

[isaacsundaralingam · 1/10 · 7 April 2021]

Whoever thought the mole on the cheek was a good idea has my eternal scorn. That aside, this movie still blows. It's boring and has zero redeeming qualities. What a waste of time.

If you can look past the poor marketing. . .

[Wildman_3j · 6/10 · 8 November 2006]

This is not such a bad film, yes its far from great. The problem of course is Jackie Chan Kong-sang being credited as the star, which speaks for most of his early films which he played a supporting role in. Also there is no decent version that I know of, only cheaply produced and horribly dubbed bargain bin DVDs and VHS'. Now, if we look past all that, this is not a really bad film. It has a story which is nothing we have not seen before, and I for one really like Charlie Chin Hsiang-Lin, and I though he did a great job. In fact he is the biggest reason I enjoyed the film as much as I did. I think its only his 6th or 7th film.

The action is weak, and the music is kinda hokey to say the least, but I enjoyed it for what it was. I believe there will never be a properly remastered version with original language etc etc. So this is what we get.

As for Jackie Chan Kong-sang. This is very early on in his career, in fact I think this may be one of the first times you see his face this clearly on screen. At this point he was not an international superstar. Everyone had to start somewhere, and to be honest you will not find a good Jackie Chan film that pre-dates his career launching "Snake in the Eagles Shadow".

I really bugs me when western companies take early films with famous people in small roles, and mis-lead people to make some bucks. However, on the other hand if Jackie was not in this film, it probably would never have seen the light of day in my part of the world in any way shape or form. So for that, I guess I can be thankful. . .

Attack of the Killer Mole!!!

[fluffchop · 2/10 · 4 May 2022]

Opening dialog, "Hey I think there's a mole in our organisation". You have to watch this movie not as a Jacky Chan film, but as a film he happened to be in. Now what was the reason for this hideous mole? And why the Police couldn't find a guy with a huge mole on is face is totally beyond comprehension. It's just not a good movie, but no worse than the crap America put out at that time. At least this has a bit of Kung Fu tossed into it at times. You have to appreciate this as a piece of classic Hong Kong cinema and just get through it.

Jackie as the bad guy

[ebiros2 · 11 November 2011]

This is probably the only movie where Jackie plays the bad guy. He's the right hand man of a crime boss in this movie.

The movie follows the old school format of movies of that era. Charlie Chin was enormously popular back in those days, and he was the lead in every movie he starred in. Young Jackie had to take back seat to him on this one. Charlie Chin's type of mellow movie would be usurped by kung fu action movies shortly, because the year this movie was made, "Enter the Dragon" by Bruce Lee would hit the theaters, and cause a kung fu action movie craze that is still on going today.

The story is about heroin trafficking in Hong Kong, and Jackie is one of the gangs. The movie gets to a very predictable ending, and production wise, nothing to speak of. But this type of movie was considered entertaining with a double feature at the theaters back then. In almost every other movie, you'd see Charlie Chin playing the star.

See the movie for the nostalgia.