"I didn't see anything."

Disaster Year hero Jackie Chan turned 56 this week. To celebrate, here's the man himself at the absolute apex of his abilities in 1985's Police Story. If you haven't seen Chan's antics in at least the last week it's easy to subconsciously dial down his sheer mindfucking talent. "Surely no-one is that good?" your brain connives. Yes! Someone is! His name is Jackie Chan.

This excerpt is notable for a variety of reasons. First it's the culmination of a successful transplant of Chan's period noble bumpkin persona, here transformed into a good-cop struggling within a corrupt system. Police Story beats Chan's good-natured bobby down with process and indignity throughout, building to a identity meltdown climax where he has to absolutely destroy everything in his path. It's a feet physical take on Eastwood style vigilante justice, with Chan as the instrument of fascistic might-righting. Secondly, the way the sequence is shot is interesting, rather than wide vistas for the kung-fu choreography, you have tight cluttered frames that stress impact, without losing the limb geography. Every blow reads as extremely painful. Lastly, the clip marries Chan's physicality components in one breathless rolling sequence: we see him as both the relentlessly struggling fighter and the indestructible stunt doll. Glowering intensity was generally a poor fit for Chan, as demonstrated by the Lo Wei helmed Leesploitation flicks the star suffered at inception. In Police Story though, he nails it to the wall.