Chan plays Commander Zhong, an exhausted police officer who gets lured into an elaborate trap set by shady night-club owner Wu Jiang (Ye Liu). Zhong doesn't recognize Jiang, but is assured that they've met before. In fact, all of Jiang's other hostages have ties to him, though none can recall who he is. Zhong and his fellow captives--including daughter Miao Miao (Tian Jiang)--must nevertheless figure out how they're connected after Jiang kidnaps them, and uses them as leverage with the HK police to arrange the release of a long-incarcerated prisoner.
Zhong's dilemma is, for starters, not particularly action-packed. He's stuck in dialogue for the most part, though there are a couple of decent fight scenes. During these scenes, we see Chan acting his age. One especially memorable action set piece shows Zhong getting pummeled by a huge, not-particularly-athletic type while fellow hostages beg him to be careful. Chan is not a pushover in this scene: he fights like James Brown sings, and therefore even looks good when taking a beating. Ultimately, Jackie Chan is still Jackie Chan, and the fight is won based on sheer bull-headed perseverance.
Therein lies the biggest reason to see "Police Story: Lockdown:" Zhong is a role that only Jackie Chan could play. It's a role that compliments various aspects of Chan's personality, both on-screen and off. Zhong's fighting style is more like brawling than balletic, choreographed fighting. This was also true of Kevin Chan, the superhuman, crime-busting protagonist Chan played in the first four "Police Story" films. Zhong is also an unsentimental cop whose idealism and civic duty leads him to irrational actions that no one but a legit superhero would think to do. In one flashback, Zhong tries and fails to recall where he knows Jiang from. He remembers a high-speed car chase that forced him to leave a small child behind so he could pursue a criminal alone. Writer/director Ding Sheng goes out of his way to show that the child wouldn't be stranded for long: two squad cars can be seen approaching. But you can see why Chan has such respect for the police based on that seemingly callous, but actually thought kind of snap judgment. Sheng ("Little Big Soldier," one of Chan's best recent vehicles) similarly takes time to show how competent and well-trained the police unit that tries to rescue Zhong is. These square-jawed characterizations are what make a Jackie Chan film unique.
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