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Hi, I'm Steve Lawson, filmmaker and
long-time scholar of Jackie Chan movies.

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I'm going to be taking
a look at the differences

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between the US and the
Hong Kong edit of The Protector.

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Some of the differences are
quite well known, like the end fight,

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but some of them are a little bit
more subtle and quite interesting.

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So let's take a look.

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So we'll begin right at the
beginning with the opening titles.

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And the interesting thing about the
opening titles of the Chinese version

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is sort of the difference in who
gets credited first and who doesn't.

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So, and first of all, we've got the two
different Golden Harvest logos, of course.

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But if you look at the
Chinese version, which

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is on the right of the
screen, obviously,

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that credit essentially matches
up, says Golden Harvest,

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because it's the same
as the Chinese version.

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So if you look at the Chinese version,
which is on the right of the screen,

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then here, instead of a
James Glickenhaus film,

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we get a credit that says sort
of leading actor Jackie Chan.

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So Jackie gets credited first here.

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And we also get that little extra
subtitle there, which says New York,

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because I guess American
audiences could easily recognise

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that this post-apocalyptic
landscape is meant to be New York.

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And then for the title of
The Protector, those Chinese

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characters there say, it
says Wei Long Mang Tam,

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which essentially means
something like powerful detective

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or powerful cop, which I
think is a pretty good title.

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It's a good title for this, better than
The Protector, which means nothing.

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It has no relevance to the film.

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But now, as the credits go on, you'll
see on the English language side,

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various people like casting and composer
and all these people are getting credited.

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On the Chinese side, it's all the
Chinese actors are getting credited.

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So Moon Lee gets a credit,
Sally Yeh, Peter Yang and

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Roy Chow all get credited
in these opening titles,

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instead of these various sort of
crew members that you see in the film.

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In the American version.

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And also, now you'll
see that the two screens

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have sort of gone out
of sync with each other.

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That's because the Chinese
version has been cut slightly quicker.

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The shots are shorter
and they've just cut that

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little bit quicker to pace
the scene up a little bit.

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And that happens quite
a lot throughout the film.

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There's about 10 seconds in
difference in running time, actually,

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between the two versions of this
scene, if you let them play out in full.

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Just a quickie here.

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Look at that.

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Hideous day for night effect that's
been put on the American version there.

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And also look at that quick cut.

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We've faded straight away
to the guys arriving at the bar,

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whereas the American version just sits
on that establishing shot for much longer.

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And that's something that
happens an awful lot in this film.

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The establishing shots are really,
really long in the American version.

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But yeah, just to point out, look
at that day for night, that blue tint.

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It looks awful.

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In fact, I've never seen that before
on previous versions of the film.

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It's just on this remaster.

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So someone's decided that was a good idea.

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Now we're going to
get our first little piece

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of re-shot footage from
the Hong Kong re-shoots.

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And this shot here, I believe
this was shot in Hong Kong.

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You can tell it's a re-shoot.

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Jackie's hair isn't quite right and
his jacket doesn't look quite right.

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That little piece there was added basically
because if you watch the original edit,

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and I've always thought this, this
whole chase sequence is really weird

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because the bad guy is miles ahead of
Jackie running around random locations.

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And yet somehow Jackie's character...

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which seems to know exactly where he's
gone and gives chase all the way there,

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all the way to the
harbour, despite the bad

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guy clearly not being
in sight at any point.

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So I think they obviously
decided to add that

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little bit where basically a passerby
sort of says, "Oh yeah, he went that way.

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" And it doesn't really
solve the problem because

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it's still evident that the
bad guy is not in sight

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at any point during this chase.

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But I guess it was
just a little attempt they

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made there to kind of
slightly improve this chase.

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The other thing they've done is,
again, they've cut it much tighter.

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So the chase lasts about
30 seconds longer, this whole

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sequence in the American edit
compared to the Hong Kong edit.

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So again, that sort of just
tightening up of the pace

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is something we'll see again
and again throughout this.

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And speaking of tightening
up the edit, this boat

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chase sequence is the
primary example of that.

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This actually runs considerably shorter.

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You can see already the
two screens are out of sync.

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Although surprisingly
they didn't cut out that

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shot where you can see the shadow of the...
camera helicopter, which always bugs me.

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I would have cut that out, personally.

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But yeah, straight away
you can see both of these two

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screens, the left and the
right, are totally out of sync

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because a huge amount has been
cut out from the Chinese version.

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In fact, in total, it's a
minute and a half has been

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removed if you run the
whole scene side by side.

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And bearing in mind this
is an action sequence, a

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minute and a half is a
heck of a lot of running time

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to be able to trim out and still
essentially leave the entire scene intact.

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You know, there's... a minute and a half
gone but there's basically nothing missing,

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which is, you know, very
interesting when you think about it.

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In my opinion, what I suggest is that I
think the director, and possibly the editor,

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were just so in love
with this footage of this

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boat chase that they
just wanted to use all of it.

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And it's understandable
because it's great footage

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this, it's an amazing sequence
when you think, you know,

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it's a really big budget action
scene, like something out of a

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Bond movie, you've got speedboats,
helicopters, New York harbour.

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It's great stuff.

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And I just think they were so
in love with this footage that

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they just wanted to
extend this sequence longer

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and longer and use
every little bit of footage.

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Especially towards the end
when, you know, it's been

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set up, we know what's
going to happen, you know,

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the helicopter rope's
coming down and the boats

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are heading towards
each other and we think,

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"Ah yeah, we know he's going to ram the
boat and jump out, you know, just in time.

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" And it's so telegraphed
that there's sort of

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the build-up to that
stunt goes on for so long

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that you're kind of bored by
the time it actually happens.

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One thing I've noticed in
other James Glickenhaus

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films, whenever there's
going to be a big stunt,

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he just spends ages telegraphing
what's going to happen

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and setting it up and
setting it up and setting it up.

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So yeah, I would say this sequence
much improved in the Chinese edit.

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And that's not the case for
everything, you know, I'm not going

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to sit here and just bash everything
that James Glickenhaus did,

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I know a lot of people
do, I don't think that's

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fair, I think this is
actually a great movie.

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But yeah, this is certainly one sequence
where it really should have been trimmed.

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But yeah, this is certainly a great movie.

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But yeah, this is certainly a great movie.

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I'm also just going to
point out an interesting shot

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that's just coming up now
when they lower the rope down.

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I'm also just going to
point out an interesting shot

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that's just coming up now
when they lower the rope down.

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Coming up, coming up, coming up.

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This shot here, clearly not Jackie Chan.

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Even though it's a full face shot
looking down into the camera.

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I never noticed that because
on VHS you can't really tell.

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I believe that's Mars doing the stunt.

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Jackie's long time double from the 80s.

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And also if you freeze
frame before the explosion,

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there's a really bad dummy
on that boat that's very funny.

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But yeah.

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And also if you freeze
frame before the explosion,

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there's a really bad dummy
on that boat that's very funny.

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Very much tightened
up in the Chinese version.

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Okay, this is just a short one.

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You'll see that the Chinese version
cuts now directly to the police station.

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Whereas in the original
version, the American version,

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there's this funeral
scene for Jackie's partner.

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Which I guess if you're
going to lighten the tone of

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the movie, it makes sense
to cut out a funeral scene.

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I guess that's the reason.

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Yes, sir.

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I called this section travelogue
because this is a scene

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where obviously Jackie and
his partner travel to Hong Kong.

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And in the U.S. version, we
get this extremely long aerial

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shot looking out over Hong
Kong, which is very nice.

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But it does go on for quite a long time.

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And after getting that
aerial shot finally over and

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done with, it's still going,
still going, still going.

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Eventually, you know,
we cut to the airplane shot

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that we've already seen
in the Chinese version.

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And this is a scene where Jackie
and his partner travel to Hong Kong.

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This is a great shot of this plane
coming down over Hong Kong.

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It's a beautiful shot.

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But do we need to
see it for quite this long?

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Maybe not.

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Still going.

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And then after enjoying this
lovely shot of the airplane, any

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minute now, we're going to
get another shot of the airplane.

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Still waiting.

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Here we go.

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Let's just taxi around
the airport for a bit.

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So, yeah, this is just some
really unnecessary B-roll footage.

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Again, I think it's nice footage.

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It looks good.

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And I think, again, James Glicknash
just thought, this looks great.

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It looks big.

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Big budget.

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Looks glossy.

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Let's put it all in.

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But it really slows down the story.

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Okay, next up is the famous
massage parlor scene.

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And this is the first
time, actually, that we're

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seeing censorship
requirements coming into play.

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You know, this scene's
been cut for that reason.

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And I have to say, the editing job
they've done on this scene is amazing.

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Because if you were to
watch the Chinese version

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with no knowledge of
the American version,

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you would have no idea there
was anything amiss with this scene.

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It flows perfectly well.

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None of it looks choppy or weird.

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And yet they've
actually cut out this quite

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extensive sequence with
the naked massage girl.

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But it's really, really well done.

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It's a very, very good
piece of editing, this.

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As I say, you would just have
no idea anything was amiss.

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And that can't necessarily
be said for some of

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the other scenes that we're going to see
later on, where nudity has been removed.

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Okay, a very minor but important
change in this fight scene.

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It's going to come up.

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I call it the hanging basket.

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If you've watched the American version
before, you probably might have noticed,

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especially if you're interested in sort
of filmmaking and shot composition,

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there's a shot coming up
that's just absolutely awful.

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And I'm amazed that
anybody would even think of

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putting a camera in the
spot where they put it.

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It's the next shot coming up now,
where Jackie is basically there,

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hidden behind a hanging
basket, and you can't see him.

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I mean, what a terrible shot.

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And you'll see in the Chinese version,
if you rewind this and watch again,

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the Chinese version cuts
that shot out completely.

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The other difference in this scene is
the Chinese version is slightly better.

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It's a bit more fast-paced.

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They've just cut it a little bit quicker.

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Okay, now we're going to start to
see some of the extensive reshoots

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or additional shoots that were done by
Jackie after the film had officially wrapped.

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And they start with this little scene
here, which I think looks absolutely fine.

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This blends in just fine, I
think, with the American footage.

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This actor is in the film anyway.

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They've just basically expanded his role.

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And the way that's shot
looks absolutely fine to me.

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Now, we get into the
whole Sally Yeh subplot.

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And I've sped this up to whiz through it,

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because there's about seven
or eight minutes of this now.

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And in my opinion, this just puzzles
me, because it doesn't seem necessary.

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And the way it's shot, the
way it looks, everything about it,

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just is quite clearly a standard
mid-'80s Hong Kong movie.

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No effort made whatsoever to blend this in,

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either in terms of the
visual style, the tone,

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the way it's shot, the
way it's put together.

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You know, this could
easily be sort of deleted

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scenes from My Lucky
Stars or something,

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especially this fight
scene, which is just bizarre

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and not actually very good, in my opinion.

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So, yeah, I've got to say,
I'm not a fan of all this.

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I can appreciate they wanted
to lighten the tone of the film,

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make it feel more like, you know, a
Jackie Chan movie, in inverted commas.

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But I don't think this is well done.

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OK, so having very briefly sort of
gone back to the American version

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and sort of timeline, I
guess you could say,

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00:11:31,875 --> 00:11:36,280
we're now into a huge section of
footage that's all from the reshoots.

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There's basically...
I've sped this up so we can get through it,

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but there's basically a
15-minute-long sequence now,

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entirely comprising new footage
that's not in the American version.

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The most interesting
thing to note, I guess,

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is that Bill Wallace
appears in these reshoots.

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He's the only one of
these sort of Western actors

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00:11:57,410 --> 00:11:59,320
who is hired to come back for the reshoots,

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00:11:59,560 --> 00:12:04,180
although quite a lot of the
Chinese cast appear again.

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00:12:05,930 --> 00:12:08,240
And, again, I'm not entirely sure

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00:12:08,890 --> 00:12:13,160
what the necessity was to change all these
elements and reshoot all these elements.

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Because, essentially,
as you might say, the two

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timelines, the US version
and the Hong Kong version,

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do actually converge again later
on, and we end up in the same place.

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00:12:25,950 --> 00:12:28,600
You know, Moonly's
father's character still dies.

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The extra characters here just disappear.

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As you'll see in a minute, they just go to
the airport and fly away and they're gone,

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which conveniently
ends that little subplot.

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I'm really not sure what
the purpose of all this is.

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00:12:42,570 --> 00:12:43,840
I just find it very, very weird.

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It's almost like watching
a Godfrey Ho film.

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00:12:46,761 --> 00:12:49,660
If anyone's familiar with how
Godfrey Ho would edit little bits

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00:12:49,661 --> 00:12:51,380
from other films together
to make a new film,

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it's just a bizarre
experience watching this

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00:12:53,821 --> 00:12:56,980
and seeing these new scenes
that really don't match at all

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00:12:57,480 --> 00:12:58,700
just kind of stuck in there.

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00:13:01,520 --> 00:13:05,500
Now, there's been a lot of work
done on this next set of scenes

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to try and hide all the nudity.

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00:13:07,241 --> 00:13:08,841
Straight away, there's been a cut there.

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00:13:09,510 --> 00:13:12,660
But more interestingly, this
here now is reshot footage

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and quite possibly a
reconstructed set altogether

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because all of this stuff was
blown up at the end of the scene.

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So probably what's happened
is they've rebuilt all this little set,

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reshot this stuff.

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00:13:23,581 --> 00:13:27,540
That's original footage
just there, that POV shot.

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But now this is all the reshot footage

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and essentially they've
replaced the naked women

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with a bunch of guys in lab
coats, which is fair enough.

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I think it works pretty well
and blends in absolutely fine.

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You wouldn't notice
anything was amiss so far.

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00:13:41,930 --> 00:13:48,780
Now things get a little
bit more interesting.

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Again, there's more reshot footage.

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00:13:50,461 --> 00:13:52,860
Jackie looks down here
and his point of view shows

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00:13:53,360 --> 00:13:55,220
instead of naked women, these guys here.

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00:13:55,221 --> 00:13:57,380
This is reshot and I think
that is supposed to be

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00:13:57,480 --> 00:14:00,481
the Laura Shapiro
character tied up in that cage.

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00:14:01,005 --> 00:14:02,800
But since they didn't
have the actress anymore,

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00:14:02,801 --> 00:14:07,040
all you can see is a bit of a vague shape
of a person with some rope around them.

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00:14:08,590 --> 00:14:13,360
By the way, I've blurred out the nudity on
this edit just to save us all some trouble

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00:14:14,460 --> 00:14:15,620
when this disc gets released.

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00:14:17,190 --> 00:14:19,560
And you're going to see some
more reshot footage just in a moment.

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00:14:19,561 --> 00:14:20,720
Essentially the same stuff.

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00:14:20,721 --> 00:14:22,800
They've taken out the
scenes with the naked women

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00:14:22,801 --> 00:14:25,180
preparing the drugs and
replaced it with this stuff.

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00:14:25,630 --> 00:14:28,080
People in lab coats doing
kind of the same work.

295
00:14:28,081 --> 00:14:29,460
And again, I think it's a good thing

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00:14:29,461 --> 00:14:31,461
and I think it's perfectly
reasonable, this stuff.

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00:14:31,560 --> 00:14:33,440
It's not quite as stylishly shot

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00:14:34,390 --> 00:14:36,100
as the original footage.

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But in my view, it blends in pretty well.

300
00:14:39,321 --> 00:14:40,920
And again, if you were watching this

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in the Chinese version,

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00:14:42,870 --> 00:14:45,980
you wouldn't particularly notice that this
stuff had been reshot and stuck in there.

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00:14:45,981 --> 00:14:47,301
I think it looks absolutely fine.

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00:14:48,410 --> 00:14:50,200
Although the lighting's not quite as good.

305
00:14:54,000 --> 00:14:56,124
Okay, I call this wigs and
optical zooming because here's

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00:14:56,125 --> 00:14:58,520
where we are getting into some
more interesting techniques.

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00:14:59,660 --> 00:15:03,640
I'm going to see if I can commentate
on this live as it goes along.

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00:15:03,641 --> 00:15:06,661
There's lots of quick little reshot
bits that have been stuck in here

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00:15:07,220 --> 00:15:07,920
to hide the nudity.

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00:15:07,921 --> 00:15:08,600
It's very clever.

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00:15:08,601 --> 00:15:10,260
So this is original footage.

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00:15:10,261 --> 00:15:11,261
This is new footage.

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00:15:11,510 --> 00:15:12,280
Beats these guys up.

314
00:15:12,281 --> 00:15:12,700
New footage.

315
00:15:12,701 --> 00:15:14,400
That's not Danny Aiello there.

316
00:15:14,401 --> 00:15:15,780
That's a Chinese stuntman in a wig.

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00:15:15,781 --> 00:15:16,760
That's why I freeze-framed that.

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00:15:16,761 --> 00:15:17,580
This is new footage.

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00:15:17,581 --> 00:15:18,340
Original footage.

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00:15:18,341 --> 00:15:21,380
And I freeze-framed this to show
you this has been optically zoomed.

321
00:15:21,381 --> 00:15:22,621
That's why it looks a bit fuzzy

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00:15:23,060 --> 00:15:26,440
to crop off the nudity
at the left of the picture.

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00:15:26,990 --> 00:15:28,680
I guess they had no choice but to use this.

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00:15:28,681 --> 00:15:29,320
This is new.

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00:15:29,321 --> 00:15:31,200
New footage there to hide the joint.

326
00:15:31,201 --> 00:15:32,760
And now this is original footage again

327
00:15:33,410 --> 00:15:34,460
that's not been cropped.

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00:15:34,461 --> 00:15:39,080
So just in that little sequence
there, a really interesting little mixture

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of new footage and zooming and original
footage to kind of hide all the nudity.

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00:15:44,670 --> 00:15:47,560
And then the rest of the scene
plays out essentially with, again,

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00:15:47,561 --> 00:15:51,741
just the nude shots removed but most of
it's just kind of the same as it was before.

332
00:15:51,900 --> 00:15:53,160
And it plays pretty well.

333
00:15:53,161 --> 00:15:54,620
The editing looks fine to me

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00:15:54,820 --> 00:15:57,760
and the rest of the scene
all plays out fairly well.

335
00:16:00,470 --> 00:16:03,200
Okay, so just briefly, look at the
Chinese version on the right of the screen.

336
00:16:03,201 --> 00:16:04,921
Look at the background behind Jackie there.

337
00:16:05,405 --> 00:16:06,405
And then wait for it.

338
00:16:08,960 --> 00:16:10,600
Now look at the background behind Jackie.

339
00:16:10,720 --> 00:16:12,240
She's in a completely different place.

340
00:16:12,805 --> 00:16:16,500
But having said that, this end fight,
they've done a really good job here.

341
00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:20,160
Apart from the slight differences
in some of the backdrops

342
00:16:20,161 --> 00:16:22,621
and Jackie's hair slightly
changing from shot to shot,

343
00:16:22,885 --> 00:16:27,440
what they've done is taken the original
end fight as shot by James Flickenhaus

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00:16:27,441 --> 00:16:31,460
and they've just added lots of
extra inserts here and there mixed in.

345
00:16:31,810 --> 00:16:32,840
And I think they've done a great job.

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00:16:32,841 --> 00:16:36,618
It really blends in well and it
just elevates what was originally

347
00:16:36,619 --> 00:16:40,420
a pretty good fight for a
mid-80s American directed film.

348
00:16:40,421 --> 00:16:42,220
This was already a
pretty decent fight scene

349
00:16:42,820 --> 00:16:44,900
but they've just added that extra speed

350
00:16:45,350 --> 00:16:47,840
and power with these inserted bits.

351
00:16:47,841 --> 00:16:49,420
And I think what also
helps is the sound effects.

352
00:16:49,421 --> 00:16:51,801
When it's overdubbed with the
Hong Kong style sound effects,

353
00:16:52,200 --> 00:16:54,781
even the original American
footage like this bit we're seeing here

354
00:16:55,300 --> 00:16:58,760
actually feels pretty authentically
like a Jackie Chan fight scene.

355
00:16:59,040 --> 00:17:00,760
So all in all, this is
a great fight scene.

356
00:17:00,761 --> 00:17:04,562
It may not be quite up there
with the very, very best of

357
00:17:04,563 --> 00:17:07,220
Jackie Chan fights but I
think it's very, very acceptable.

358
00:17:07,970 --> 00:17:11,040
I really enjoyed this fight
scene in the Chinese version.

359
00:17:11,041 --> 00:17:12,041
I think it's great.

360
00:17:19,230 --> 00:17:23,060
And lastly, the final
sort of noticeable thing

361
00:17:23,061 --> 00:17:27,320
is that the American version of this
movie ends with a somewhat somber

362
00:17:27,670 --> 00:17:33,660
country and western song which I think
is a habit of director James Lickenhouse.

363
00:17:33,661 --> 00:17:37,680
I've seen, I think it was The Exterminator,
one of his other films and that also had

364
00:17:37,681 --> 00:17:40,840
a sort of somber country
and western song at the end.

365
00:17:40,841 --> 00:17:43,441
So I think maybe that's just his style
or maybe he likes that kind of music.

366
00:17:43,465 --> 00:17:47,079
But obviously the Chinese
version gives us the action theme

367
00:17:47,080 --> 00:17:50,040
again which does, again, it
gives you a different feeling.

368
00:17:50,041 --> 00:17:52,840
You feel like you've just
watched an exciting action film

369
00:17:53,015 --> 00:17:56,320
whereas just generally the pace
and the tone of the American version,

370
00:17:56,321 --> 00:17:59,540
that song kind of fits more
that slightly slower paced film,

371
00:17:59,541 --> 00:18:03,341
that slightly more serious
tone that that version had.

372
00:18:03,370 --> 00:18:04,400
And there you go.

373
00:18:04,401 --> 00:18:05,840
That's The Protector,

374
00:18:06,190 --> 00:18:08,060
a tale of two movies.