The Protector
CAST

Jackie Chan
Danny Aiello
Roy Chiao
Bill Wallace
Moon Lee
Sally Yeh
Peter Yang Kwan
Shum Wai
Lee Hoi San

ACTION
Jackie Chan (HK)
James Glickenhaus (US)
WRITER

Edward Tang
James Glickenhaus

PRODUCER
Leonard K.C. Ho
DIRECTOR

James Glickenhaus

RATING
   The Protector
The Protector
AKA : N/A
Year : 1985     Reviewer : Andrew Saroch

Jackie Chan plays a Chinese-American cop who, alongside his grizzled partner (Aiello), is sent to Hong Kong to find the kidnapped daughter of an influential businessman. While in Hong Kong, the pair are immediately greeted with hostility and soon find that a local kingpin (Chiao) is behind all of it. After angering him by not taking a generous bribe, the two detectives realise that they cannot rely on the local law enforcers and must therefore solve the case themselves.

 

 

What a missed opportunity this was! With a fairly big budget to play with and Jackie Chan on-board, there is no doubt that expectations were high. However, Glickenhaus clashed with Chan over the film and therefore chose to do everything himself including the choreography; big mistake. The audience is left with a film that could have starred any B-movie action star and completely fails to utilise Chan's abilities, making this just another formulaic cop film. The Hong Kong version features watchable new action that is worth tracking down for Chan purists, but as a whole, the film remains on Chan's 'avoid list'. As a sign of what this could have looked like, watch the masterful 'Police Story' instead.

Distributor : Universe
Region : 0 (NTSC)
Running Time : 91 mins
Video :
Letterboxed at 1.85:1. A worn print which contains scratches and white flecks throughout. There will no doubt be an American re-release but this print is worth keeping as it contains the Hong Kong version of the film with additional scenes.
Audio :
DD 5.1 Cantonese or Mandarin soundtracks with removable Chinese (traditional and simplified), English, Japanese, Korean, Bahasa (Indonesia and Malaysia), Thai and Vietnamese subtitles.
Extras :
- Star files for Jackie Chan and Moon Lee
- The trailer for this film as well as one for 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Lucky Stars'
Notes :
As mentioned above, there are two versions of this film available. When Jackie saw the finished American release he decided to "beef" it up a little for his audience in Hong Kong. He subsequently re-vamped several of the fight sequences and added additional material to show a marked improvement over it's American counterpart. However, if you would like the original language version (which has Jackie swearing every sentence) and the slower fight sequences, you can always invest in the American DVD.
The Protector
The Protector
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