Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2004: Daniel Wu in New Police Story

Daniel Wu did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Joe Kwan in New Police Story. 

New Police Story follows a superstar police officer Chan (Jackie Chan) as he faces off against a team of young criminals. 

Daniel Wu plays Joe Kwan, the head of those criminals who solely exist to pester Officer Chan, and appear early on as a masked crew who entrap Chan’s fellow officers, putting them in a death trap then forcing Chan to play various games of skill unless they kill the officers. Wu is the figurehead of this group and essentially plays the part as very much the smug snake. There isn’t too much complication early on as he just smiles with a casual disgust for Chan and in every delivery basically pronouncing his own greatness compared to Chan, as he kills those officers with only a bit of joy and certainly without any hesitation. He certainly is one of the villains that exist in an action movie. 

This sends Chan down a spiral, only becomes reinvigorated when a young police officer Frank (Nicholas Tse), who also reinvigorates the movie by being the best part of the film, through his easy going charisma, natural humor he finds throughout but also very much delivering on the stakes even when his co-stars aren’t quite as convincing. Tse’s simple fun to watch in bringing that endearing energy through every scene he is, including the action scenes where he's sort of more surprised though trying to go with the flow demeanor just adds to each and every one. Although this is common for Tse, and by that I mean I seem to be often reviewing a different performance from a Hong Kong film where Nicholas Tse is the best part. Back to the requested performance, Wu on the other hand I don’t find particularly or endearing or menacing, as we learn his character is the privileged, screw up son of the chief of police. An element that doesn’t exactly make him more menacing or sympathetic for the most part. Rather as Wu played the note of smugness as the villain, as the son he presents a very generalized fed up rebellion and not much more. We proceed then to follow the heroes, who become a bit more interesting thanks to the efforts of Tse. He brings a bit of wily conviction as we learn he’s a fake policeman who pretended to be one to avenge his family against the gang. An element Tse does what he can with and again makes for the one character I actually care about fully in the film. 

This eventually leads to some fights between the sides, where we mostly get Wu doing his best, I’m smelling something face, followed by that overly satisfied smile as he gets away. Pretty much rinse and repeat until the final confrontation, where he and Chan play one more game of put together the gun and shoot it. That’s where Wu is at his best because the loss of that smug face as he sees Chan will win, is a more than decent moment. Followed by Joe choosing to get killed by the cops then turn himself in to his own father. Wu is good to bad in this moment, as his initial reaction of anguish at this realization of his humiliation and there is some sense of the years of that relationship with his father. Then he falls into just some emotional mugging and becomes considerably less good by the end of it. Leaving this to be a not particularly impactful villainous turn in any way. Tse on the other hand makes for a strong surprising sidekick who quite frankly steals the film from Chan, to the point you wish he had more to work with, more to do as what only holds him back is the film is only kind of interested in his character.