Is the HK version of Jackie Chan's "The Protector" any good?

[SpartainX]

On 2/19/2020 at 8:49 AM, Master with OK Fingers said:

I grew up only watching the US version and while I liked it, it always lacked the feel of the usual JC films I was used to. Then I saw the HK version from the recent 88films release and the extra fight scenes between JC & BW and it was like, Holy shit this is the JC film it was supposed to be for all those years. Whether the nudity is in there or not doesn't bother me, I'm here to JC  at his best. Those extra fight scenes at the end change it from being an early JC film trying to crack America, to this was a JC film that I didn't know existed.

The only good thing outside of the extra fights in the HK verison aside.  It inspired Jackie to make Police Story.  

[Master with OK Fingers]

It shows how much more JC knew his audience, that with the re-edit of The Protector and his own Police Story, he made two better films than what the US director put together originally. 

[DragonClaws]

On 2/19/2020 at 11:02 PM, CT KID said:

I don't know if Wallace was in any more movies beside this and A Force of One but  pretty sure Bill has never looked better on screen than in his fight with Jackie in the HK version of The Protector.

 

He appeared in a few more movies, these are a few I can think of The Manchurian Avenger, Los Angeles Streetfighter, Fight to Win. I'm sure @AlbertV could name even more titles?.

[CT KID]

5 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

 

He appeared in a few more movies, these are a few I can think of The Manchurian Avenger, Los Angeles Streetfighter, Fight to Win. I'm sure @AlbertV could name even more titles?.

I remember about the film The Manchurian Avenger now that you mention it but have never actually seen it, would like to see how his fight with Bobby Kim turned out.

[One Armed Boxer]

15 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

He appeared in a few more movies, these are a few I can think of The Manchurian Avenger, Los Angeles Streetfighter, Fight to Win. I'm sure @AlbertV could name even more titles?.

He also appeared in the Indonesian action classic ‘American Hunter’ opposite Chris Mitchum.

[Killer Meteor]

OK, I'm going out on a limb here but...

 

...I prefer the Jackie vs Bill fight in the US version.

[CT KID]

41 minutes ago, Killer Meteor said:

OK, I'm going out on a limb here but...

 

...I prefer the Jackie vs Bill fight in the US version.

I can understand that, in that it might be more realistic looking and not as theatrical...

[Killer Meteor]

5 hours ago, CT KID said:

I can understand that, in that it might be more realistic looking and not as theatrical...

Yeah, it just was a nice change of pace.

 

The film is still an awful tease not letting Jackie fight those Bronx midgets!

[TheKungFuRobber]

Both versions have their merits, but I prefer the US version as a movie. The Hong Kong version seems tacky in editing in parts, although I did like the additional fight scenes but it was altered completely from James Glickenhaus' vision, which was to be an action movie which would emulate the success of his brilliant vigilante flick The Exterminator. The fight scenes in the American version, are brutal and realistic looking. We understand that every hit Jackie recives is extremely painful, it's a brutal fight. You see Jackie's martial arts is very good on screen and is largely his clever editing techniques and undercranking that make him look superhuman. James Glickenhaus exposed Jackie with this movie. Honestly, I think it's a very good film if you can get by the 80's gimmicks and silliness, I wanted to see a Protector II. In recent years I think Jackie has revisited the idea of making violent action films of similar nature, with his recent film The Foreigner which I think is his best movie in years.I think the Protector is a misunderstood movie. It's a good movie, just not a martial arts movie and certainly not anything like any of Jackie Chan's other movies (other than maybe Dragon Fist which was a much more violent than his films of the time and my favorite of his films from the 1970's, but still follows his formula of choreography all the same).

Edited February 26, 2020 by TheKungFuRobber

[reason108]

It’s the icing on the turd-cake. 

[DiP]

Watched the original US cut for the first time. I really enjoyed it, and I must say that Jackie's English here was no different from that in Rush Hour (first Hollywood movie since this movie) and could've gone on to be huge by that time if it weren't for the particular circumstances (marketing, displeasure of working on the movie, his action style being compromised by the Hollywood system etc) that plagued the production during and after. But imo, this isn't as bad as its' reputation.

Overall, I think the original US cut is a better movie than the HK version. It's better paced and takes time showing the characters the way they are for us to invest in them. The latter may have much better shot action scenes but the whole thing is rushed in comparison.

[Cognoscente]

The Protector is another example of Jeff Yang screwing up the chronology of Jackie's first memoir. Jeff claimed that the movie was made after the Lucky Stars movies and Heart of Dragon, but there's a late 1984 issue of Cinemart which has photos of Jackie in different scenes of The Protector.

[Cognoscente]

There's also a late '84 issue from Milky Way (i.e. December a.k.a. issue #315).

[dionbrother]

On 5/23/2021 at 11:42 PM, Cognoscente said:

The Protector is another example of Jeff Yang screwing up the chronology of Jackie's first memoir. Jeff claimed that the movie was made after the Lucky Stars movies and Heart of Dragon, but there's a late 1984 issue of Cinemart which has photos of Jackie in different scenes of The Protector.

Jeff Yang is a terrible writer and lacks basic journalism fundamentals.  The movie sucks in both versions, but is not without some "so bad, it's good" elements.

[Cognoscente]

What I can never wrap my head around is why Jackie would create a sub-plot with Sally Yeh when he could have used the extra time to develop Moon Lee's character, who was more relevant to the plot.

[dionbrother]

8 hours ago, Cognoscente said:

What I can never wrap my head around is why Jackie would create a sub-plot with Sally Yeh when he could have used the extra time to develop Moon Lee's character, who was more relevant to the plot.

I suspect Moon Lee was busy with another film(s), while Jackie shot additional scenes for a movie so bad it was shelved for some time in both Hong Kong and America.

[Josh Baker]

On 6/17/2021 at 3:41 AM, dionbrother said:

I suspect Moon Lee was busy with another film(s), while Jackie shot additional scenes for a movie so bad it was shelved for some time in both Hong Kong and America.

Haha pretty harsh verdict haha but I personally think the HK cut is a far superior version in its filmmaking, tone and action sequences, though the editing is slightly choppy in places, but that almost cant be helped when Jackie is pasting in new (superior) footage over an already completed film. Tbh I wish hed reshot MORE of the film for the HK market, especially the end fight with the big guy on the crane which is clunky as hell, and the opening 15 minutes (the bar shootout, replace whatever the opening scene is supposed to be with an opening fight or something) but he wasnt going to spend that much time on a film he wasnt particularly fond of and wanted to move onto Police Story.

Also I knew the film was shelved in Hong Kong, but I didnt realise it was also shelved in Hong Kong? 

Makes sense considering Warner Bros did nothing to promote it and it made less than a million domestically lol

[Josh Baker]

On 6/16/2021 at 7:04 PM, Cognoscente said:

What I can never wrap my head around is why Jackie would create a sub-plot with Sally Yeh when he could have used the extra time to develop Moon Lee's character, who was more relevant to the plot.

Its a shame there were no Moon Lee fight sequences- was this film made before Moon Lee made her first action film or this more of a case of both directors having a dim view of women taking part in martial arts fight sequences?

Edited June 19, 2021 by Josh Baker

[Cognoscente]

Probably a Glickenhaus thing that Jackie had no choice but to respect for the sake of continuity. That said, Jackie wised up to the idea of female fighters in Armour of God and Police Story 2.

[Josh Baker]

3 hours ago, Cognoscente said:

Probably a Glickenhaus thing that Jackie had no choice but to respect for the sake of continuity. That said, Jackie wised up to the idea of female fighters in Armour of God and Police Story 2.

It took him till Police Story 3 to fully respect it though, the female fighters in the films you mentioned still had a comedic edge to their portrayals, Michelle Yeoh was the first to be an equal to Chan.

[Cognoscente]

But the women were still formidable...much like Jackie - silly but intense.

[dionbrother]

Glickenhaus was hired because he could make a good looking pseudo James Bond movie for cheap, kind of like THE SOLDIER.  Golden Harvest did not want to spend much money on Jackie's "American attempts" so Glickenhaus was a bargain.  The movie was never meant to be much of anything.

[Josh Baker]

8 hours ago, dionbrother said:

Glickenhaus was hired because he could make a good looking pseudo James Bond movie for cheap, kind of like THE SOLDIER.  Golden Harvest did not want to spend much money on Jackie's "American attempts" so Glickenhaus was a bargain.  The movie was never meant to be much of anything.

Really? So are you saying Raymond was more interested in getting Hollywood Stars like Burt Reynolds and Tom Selleck, than making Jackie a hollywood star in his own right?

[Cognoscente]

Makes sense. If Jackie was allowed to work with respectable talent and bigger budgets, GH could lose him like how they were on the verge of losing Bruce Lee and like how they later lost Jet Li.

[Josh Baker]

10 hours ago, Cognoscente said:

Makes sense. If Jackie was allowed to work with respectable talent and bigger budgets, GH could lose him like how they were on the verge of losing Bruce Lee and like how they later lost Jet Li.

Ahhhh of course!