Police Story 4: First Strike 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		0.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		4.0

Police Story 4: First Strike 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 25, 2026

Note: This film is available in 4K UHD as part of Arrow Videos's Jackie Chan's Breakout Hits! 4K collection.

Arrow's set of Jackie Chan movies spans the years 1994 to 1998, when Chan seemed to burst (in more than one way) out of virtually nowhere, at least to non-Asian audiences, to become a global superstar, an achievement that perhaps was officially accomplished per some verbiage on the slipcover of this release when Rush Hour (not included in this collection) became such an international sensation. Most of the films in this set have had prior 1080 releases (links to reviews will be provided in the appropriate reviews of the 4K editions), evidence in and of itself of how enduringly popular this particular era of Chan outings has been. Arrow's set includes a number of alternate cuts (some of the films in this set have so many alternate cuts the different versions are spread across two discs) and new 4K restorations culled from original negatives, along with their typically bountiful supply of on disc supplements. The set comes with Arrow's also typically handsome packaging which in this case includes a much heftier than average collector's booklet and a veritable host of non disc swag.

The International Cut of this film entitled Jackie Chan's First Strike had a 1080 release courtesy of Warner Brothers. Michael Reuben's Jackie Chan's First Strike Blu-ray review offers plot information, a list of supplements, and reaction to the technical presentation.

Police Story 4: First Strike 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: This release does not include a 1080 Blu-ray, so these screenshots are taken directly from the 4K UHD disc and downscaled to 1080 and SDR. Color space in particular is therefore not accurate, and I recommend those interested to look at some of the screenshots in the above linked 1080 review for a probably better representation of the palette. Since this release does not include a 1080 disc, the 2K video score above has been intentionally left blank.

Police Story 4: First Strike is presented in 4K UHD with an HEVC / H.265 encoded 2160p transfer in 2.39:1. Arrow's War and Peace size insert booklet (that's a joke, but maybe not by much) lumps all of the films in this set together on two pages offering the following information about the presentations:

Drunken Master II, Rumble in the Bronx, Thunderbolt, Police Story 4: First Strike, Mr. Nice Guy and Who Am I? have been exclusively restored for this collection by Arrow Films. The original feature film camera negative elements have been used as the primary source materials for this work, but extensive research was also undertaken to locate and identify additional materials to restore original logos, credits, cut scenes and reconstruct alternate release versions. The films are presented in 4K resolution in HDR10 and Dolby Vision.

The Hong Kong Cut of Drunken Master II is presented in its original 2.39:1 aspect ratio with Cantonese mono (both the original theatrical mix and an alternate home video mix), Mandarin mono and English (export dub) mono audio. The International Cut is presented in its original 2.39:1 aspect ratio with English (export dub) mono audio. The US Cut, re-titled The Legend of Drunken Master is presented in its original 2.39:1 aspect ratio with English 5.1 audio.

The Hong Kong Cut of Rumble in the Bronx is presented in its original 2.39:1 aspect ratio with Cantonese stereo and English mono audio. The International Cut version is presented in its original 2.39:1 aspect ratio with stereo and 5.1 English audio, and the burnt-in subtitles are presented as per the original theatrical release.

Thunderbolt is presented in its original 2.39:1 aspect ratio with Cantonese stereo, English (export dub) stereo and English (New Line dub) 5.1 audio. The Japanese Cut is presented in its original 2.39:1 aspect ratio with Cantonese stereo audio.

Police Story 4: First Strike is presented in its original 2.39:1 aspect ratio with Cantonese stereo and Mandarin stereo audio. The International Cut, re-titled Jackie Chan's First Strike, is presented in its original 2.39:1 aspect ratio with stereo and 5.1 English audio.

All three versions of Mr. Nice Guy (Japanese, Hong Kong and International) are presented in their original 2.39:1 aspect ratio with stereo and 5.1 English audio.

Both versions of Who Am I? (Hong Kong and International) are presented in their original 2.39:1 aspect ratio with English stereo and 5.1 audio. For the Hong Kong Cut, alternate English 5.1 audio with Cantonese-dubbed sections is also included.

The original 35mm camera negatives and additional film elements were scanned at 4K/16 bit resolution at Warner Bros / Motion Picture Imaging.

The films were restored in 4K resolution and color-graded at Duplitech.

Audio restoration was completed by Þorsteinn Gíslason.

All materials sourced for this new master were made available by Warner Bros.

Michael was very pleased with the old Warner 1080 presentation, and all of the positives he mentions in his review are certainly intact here, with some appealing improvements in things like highlights in the snow scenes courtesy of the HDR / Dolby Vision grades. The new nuance in highlights may also point out some interesting if subliminal things like distinct changes in the skies behind Chan early in the film circa 7:30 of the Hong Kong cut that may make it more apparent now that different cutaway shots to him may well have been shot on different days, or at least at different times. Compression encounters no real problems with either snow or mist, and in fact some of the most observable fine detail levels in backgrounds come in the skiing vignettes, despite insanely fast action. Scenes later in the film including some aquarium material look really warm with some luscious blues and teals, but a lot of the film tends to emphasize less bold colors. Some of the intentionally "warped" fisheye lens material probably can't help but emphasize detail levels in certain parts of the frame over others.

Police Story 4: First Strike 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Police Story 4: First Strike has a variety of audio options for each of the versions offered. The Hong Kong cut features two LPCM 2.0 tracks, one variously in Cantonese, English, Mandarin and Russian and another in Mandarin. The International Cut features English tracks in either LPCM 2.0 or DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. There are manifest differences in audio between the Hong Kong and International versions aside and apart from language or codec, including some kind of fun differences in scoring that may delight other film music geeks like yours truly. The Hong Kong version, for example, starts out with a theme seemingly obviously based on Monty Norman's great 007 Theme, while the International version has what I might joking call Dominic Frontiere Outer Limits fourths segueing into Quinn Martin detective series theme music. This is all simply to say there are some interesting differences to investigate for those interested. The multi-language track on the Hong Kong cut is probably the better balanced of the two and well imaged, though there's just some slight background, something that is also evident (though it sounds more like reverb) on the Mandarin version. The International version understandably provides the most bang for the buck with the surround track, which provides significantly more consistent side and rear engagement than, say, the 5.1 track on Thunderbolt 4K .

Police Story 4: First Strike 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One - Hong Kong Cut (1:47:20)

• Commentary by Frank Djeng & FJ DeSanto


• Breakout! Part 4: First Strike (HD; 7:33) continues the set's overviews with David West and James Mudge.

all
• Textless Outtakes (HD; 3:32)


• Image Gallery

Disc Two - International Cut (1:23:56)

• Additional Scenes from TV Version (HD; 10:22)


• Striking Out (HD; 11:49) is a 2025 appreciation by Frank Djeng who talks about the film's connection to Super Cop.


• US Theatrical Trailer (HD; 1:36)

Police Story 4: First Strike 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

One of Michael's few complaints about the older 1080 release of this film by Warner is that the Hong Kong version wasn't included, and Michael wasn't especially optimistic about that version ever being released. As with some other films in this set, Arrow has once again provided some long sought after "holy grails", as perhaps less than epochal as they may be, and this two disc set provides solid technical merits and some very appealing supplements. Recommended.