The Protector TV ad looks good, but is RZA added in movie?

[Guest udar55]

He told me that it is true and he believes that they were trying to do what Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez are doing with their upcoming film Grindhouse by making Tom Yum Goong look like some old 70s kung fu film.

That is a good point. It does appear they were trying to make it look like that. I'm surprised they didn't add film scratches.

Oh, I should point out an error I made. In another forum someone mentioned he is reunited with the baby elephant. It wasn't like that when I saw it but the end to me looked like something was cut out in the print I saw by the theater. It was a real abrupt cut of Jaa getting up and walking to a title card saying, "Starring Tony Jaa." I might go check it out again tonight to verify that (and to see it with a bigger crowd to gauge their reaction).

[Guest Yi Long]

...about Weinsteins actually changing their ways.

Cant wait for the day they both die the most horrible death imagineable...

Anyway, Tony Jaa is in pretty close contact with his fanbase through fansites and stuff, right?

We should just bombard him with emails how much we love his work, and how we LOATHE that his work is being ruined by people like the Weinsteins and stuff...

Maybe he'll do a Miyazaki and demand that his movies will always be released uncut and subbed.

If he has any balls and any respect for his fans.

[Guest kungfusamurai]

I didn't realize this was Tom Yum Goong (yeah, I'm really out of touch with the recent stuff)! Well, I went to see the movie, and boy did it suck. It didn't help that there was a dipshit who brought his pre-teen two kids who proceeded to talk loudly throughout the whole movie.

While the fights were pretty cool, as a whole, the movie was a chore to watch. The editing was terrible. The acting was terrible. The camerawork was terrible. And what was up with some people being dubbed in English one second, while subtitled the next. It didn't make any sense (Harvey Weinstein's fault?). I also found it annoying that the english speakers were speaking different words from how their mouths were moving. I take it the movie was shot old school HK indie style?

The long take was alright. I spotted it right away, even though usually I don't notice a long take until its almost over. I was impressed that Tony Jaa was able to keep going at a relatively good pace throughout the whole thing. I mean, in a long take like that, you increase the chances of someone getting seriously hurt if the person doing all of the fighting gets worn out early in the take. I could see that they mixed it up a bit where they had him bashing people's heads so he could recharge his batteries for the final 20 seconds or so.

Overall, the movie was pretty lame, but still worth checking out for the fight scenes. Too bad it was such a bad movie watching experience with those idiot kids talking in the theatre. I should have said something, but I just changed seats instead after putting up with it for most of the film. Oh well, enough of my grumbling....

KFS

[Guest Liu chung liang]

kungfusamurai you should watch the Original Thai uncut version... with English subtitles. I have the official Thai VCD version which is the best, but it has no subtitles. I ordered it long time ago, ...from Thailand . It was sweet, because I never ordered anything from Thailand before, and knowing Tony Jaa is from there. It was just... I don't know... special? lol. If you want to see it with english subs get the Korean version on DVD, but I don't know if that's uncut. The UK version though, is well recommended from the tonyjaa.org site, and they say it's uncut. You'll see how different it is from "The Protector".

I'm so PISS! at what the Weinstein Co. had done to the film. Those that said the film was weak... now it's weaker. I know some parts in the Original weren't that important. So it would had been fine if they knew which scenes to keep in and which scenes to dish out. What really gets to me is that... when the movie goes into certain fight scenes, they don't finish showing the full sequence and cut a little of the action out. Why the hell do that????? Jaa is known for his actions!

No wonder they re-named it "The Protector", because they changed the movie. It's like they made their own movie out of Tom Yum Goong.

I wonder if Tony Jaa knows about this.

[Guest The Running Man]

Here's an interesting question.

the uncut version of the bone breaking scene.

And here's the uncut version of the warehouse fight.

Now, for anyone who has seen The Protector, can you look at that and point out which parts of those scenes were cut out?

I assume these were the fight scenes that were cut unless there were others as well.

[Guest udar55]

I'm hopefully going to see it again this week so I will try to make as detailed list of the differences in that scene as possible.

[Guest gfanikf]

I'm really not sure what was cut if anything from the fights and I've seen the protector twice in the last two days. The may have been something cut but it wasnt large enough to really stand out unless its mentioned specifically.

[Guest Yi Long]

You are paying TWICE to go to the cinema to see an ass-raped and butchered movie!?

Way to go(!) Why not just send Harvey a check directly, telling him to keep doing what he's doing...!?

Dudes, stop giving this idiot your money. Instead, find a bootleg online and spread it among your friends (free) so they wont visit the cinema either to watch this crap...

[Guest gfanikf]

I've seen the original Thai version as I've had a boot for atleast 6 months and dont particular care for the original version. I grew in to loving Hong Kong films from first seeing these edited versions in theatres such as Rumble in the Bronx and Supercop. I was happy finally being able to see it on the big screen and SUPPORT Tony Jaa. The more his films make the better funding his future ones will get and The Protector helped expose a crap load of people to TJ who really enojyed his work more than just a dvd-r would have. Ong Bak was fairly untouched in comparision and thanks to Magnolias ass backwards marketing and booking the Protector has already topped the entire run of OB. Hell I wouldn't be suprisied if the Protector is the highest grossing Thai film (Thai made) in US box office history.

Plus I'm picking up Kill Zone tomorrow so he can have more of my money and Police Story on November 4th Thankfully I dont have issues giving money to TWC if I'm happy with the product or if I wanted to see the film on the big screen (even if it is bizzarely edited)

[Guest The Running Man]

Well, at the very least...can you call it "SPL" and not "Kill Zone"?

[Guest gfanikf]

Running Man,

Very true I think I was using KZ as an easy way to refer to the R1. Oh here are some pics of SPL from the new DVD shows how the title was intergreated and such.

www.bulletsnbabesdvd.com/...c&start=40

[Guest Liu chung liang]

hey Running Man, I got a confession :lol on that 'warehouse' clip that i called 'Search Turns Into A Chase'. I actually cut a tiny scene out from the beginning, if you notice. But I left all the action in, and I made it brighter so everyone can see it clearer. I know YouTube, and when you upload something there, the brightness and contrast are like on default. Many people on YouTube don't know that or maybe they just don't see it or don't care, but if you upload a scene from a movie, it's usually very dark. Anyway what I cut out was, when you see Jaa doing the jump turn kick in slow-motion, they show Johnny Nguyen next. He says something like "Make sure he's dead." ...That part I cut out. Because on my VCD, when anyone in the movie weren't speaking Thai, we see Thai subtitles on the bottom. :lol

[Guest The Running Man]

hey Running Man, I got a confession on that 'warehouse' clip that i called 'Search Turns Into A Chase'. I actually cut a tiny scene out from the beginning, if you notice.

No I know you did.

It was really good editing too. Although when I first saw it, I wondered why was someone off screen yelling, "sh!t" during the clip.

[Guest Markgway]

I heard that "@#%$" too. What was going on? :\

[Guest gfanikf]

just to repost since this seems to be the new thread

Also may be seeing it with friends for a third time tonight. Hey I dont get to see great MA (or really any) on the big screen that often

I have to say that I agree with everyone about the bizzare edits and weird films prints. However, I really didnt feels the fights were cut much (weird pans aside though) at least enought to bother me (I think the leg break maybe because of the MPAA I know why did all the other stuff get left in but hey its the MPAA). So many weird plot cuts and stuff made the film feel like it was on Meth (which in a way was a nice plus) but I never liked the Thai Directors cut of the human drama (besides the action with the elephent) so it didn't bother me as much but I can see how it can easily bother people.

HOWEVER that said, I saw the second coming of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan tonight. I was at a 75% full showing at 10:45 in Downtown Philadelphia and people were in love with the both cheering for Tony, groaning at a bone crunch, going OMFG when TK first appeared and his three henchman and also during stunts and going nuts during certain moves during the orgy of the broken . I have a feeling that Tony Jaa is going to start getting over very big in this country (Ong Bak laid the groundwork). I happy it was able to get in to theatres (alot more than Ong Bak ever could) even in this format as it exposed a lot of people to TJ and its only going to help in the future. Say what you will about TWC but they have the clout to get stuff in to a lot of theatres when they want to. That said Dragon Dynasty should definatly put both cuts of the film on the DVD because I have a feeling both will have there fans and it just makes sense in this day and age and there is no reason why not too.

So trust me go out and see the flick you may laugh at the edits and such but man will the action ensure you dont feel jipped at all. Don't miss this great expereince and bring some friends too.

[Guest The Running Man]

I heard that "@#%$" too. What was going on?

It's from a missing shot of when the drug dealer leaves after seeing Tony Jaa coming in. I don't know how the audio was left in though.

[Guest The Running Man]

I really didnt feels the fights were cut much (weird pans aside though) at least enought to bother me (I think the leg break maybe because of the MPAA I know why did all the other stuff get left in but hey its the MPAA).

The movie was rated R. That means that no action, including leg breaks, were cut because of the MPAA. It was cut cause someone wanted it cut down (obviously not ol 'Harvey).

[Linn1]

in France. Harvey bought the rights to distribute their version of the film, which was already cut. He just cut it some more.

[Guest The Running Man]

Yeah, I mentioned that before on the first page:

Interesting story on this one fellas. Apparently, the film already had an international version prepared which was 15 minutes shorter. Harvey then took that very version and cut out an additional 10 minutes.

[Guest gfanikf]

That makes more sense but remember the MPAA is weird, Kung Fu Hustle anyone?

[Guest The Running Man]

BTW, for those that want this movie on a English language friendly DVD and totally uncut, then get your pre-order engines ready for the Oct. 30th release of Premier Asia's 2 disc DVD release of it.

[Guest ShaofuSage]

I saw The Protector last night and in it's siginficantly shortened version it's like Tom Yum Goong on crack....the action is all there, with a barely noticable cuts (which makes no difference), but the storyline is chopped up to the point where you don't really notice it as the film takes you form one action piece to another. Overall, I was not disappointed and I hate to say this, but the movie may be better in its butchered state. Sadly, the theatre was empty on a wednesday night, so I couldn't really get a good idea of whether the other 9 people there were into the film. They were probably sitting there thinking...."I don't know what the f*ck is going on, but I like it".......Irrelevant of the irrelevant plot, we all know that 99% of movie goers have never seen action like that before, and even though after the film was over, most (like I) were left with an empty feeling, the action probably left an impact on everyone.

[Guest The Running Man]

See, I believe with smart edits and alterations, the movie could be taken from "unwatchable" to "below average".

The thing is, Harvey shreded it so much to pieces that most are saying it's actually worse. It shows that he just doesn't really care about Asian films and has no idea what he is doing.

[Guest ShaofuSage]

The reason that I don't think that the complete butchering of the storyline matters much is because it wasn't a good storyline in the first place. After hundreds of posts about the movie on this postboard we should be able to agree on one simple thing: Tom Yum Goong = great action + sh*tty story. Now, if the action was severily tampered with, then all hell needs to rain down upon the Weinsteins because this was what saved the film....or made it remotely watchable to some. But they messed with something that was already faulty, whether they made it better or worst, should not be that big of a deal cause the positive (action) is still there. On the whole, what the Weinsteins do to Asian cinema after they gain the rights is terrible; no one should be allowed to tamper with anothers work, but we all know that it's all about the money and not about artistic integrity. We have to live with what these goons do, even though we don't like it, and in this situation, and probably for the first time, I think they might have done the general public a favor. Tom Yum Goong on drugs may be better then it's sober counterpart.

[Guest The Running Man]

The reason that I don't think that the complete butchering of the storyline matters much is because it wasn't a good storyline in the first place. After hundreds of posts about the movie on this postboard we should be able to agree on one simple thing: Tom Yum Goong = great action + sh*tty story.

It's not just sh*tty story but sh*tty film making period. The movie is horribly put together. Scenes begin and end with no real connection, characters come and go, dramatic scenes come forth as unintentionally hilarious, etc.... Prachya Pinkaew is an atrocious film maker. The fact that Tom Yum Goong makes his previous Ong Bak look like a legitimately good film says loads of how bad he is. He seriously is at the level of Uwe Bolls and the only thing that saves him from being seen as that is the fact that he has Tony Jaa.

I don't think the action in Tom Yum Goong saved the film. The film is so bad that it doesn't matter how good the action was. However, I think Tony Jaa is saving Pinkaew's ass right now from being truly seen as the talentless man he is.

Perhaps you are right that by deleting so much of the film's story, it made it better but only in the sense that you have to deal far less with the really bad parts of the film. But almost all opinion seems to indicate that it has made it even less credible (something I still find hard to believe). That's why I believe that Harvey Weinstein is an ass-hole because if he really did want to "improve" these films like he claims he does, then here was his opportunity to do it and instead he just cut the movie to absolute shreds like he always does.

I still believe though that the film could have been raised from a level of "total waste of celluloid" to "well it wasn't the worst piece of crap I have ever seen" with smart alterations.