I like Jackie Chan and think he got a raw deal in Hollywood. His work in the late 70s and on through the 80s are some of the best martial arts/action films to come out of Hong Kong. He exploded in the 90s and made the transition to Hollywood actor with the success of 1993’s Rumble In The Bronx. In 1980 he started making films for the Hollywood studios, but kept returning to Hong Kong to make the movies he is (rightly) famous for. 1985’s The Protector was supposed to be his first American produced action hit. It flopped. The director, James Glickenhaus, didn’t know how to handle Jackie Chan and wasted his talents. He wouldn’t return to Hollywood to make a film until 1998’s Rush Hour. While the 90’s may be Jackie Chan’s breakout decade, it was on the success of North American theatrical releases of his Hong Kong produced films.
Shout Factory has packaged The Protector and another, much better, film together on Blu-ray. Crime Story, from 1993 is another atypical Jackie Chan film in that it is primarily a drama with little comedy. Since there are relatively few Jackie Chan films on Blu-ray, this is a solid purchase for the hardcore fans, but the complete collector will notice some of the special features didn’t make the transfer. On my initial viewing, I noticed this version of Crime Story is the “restored” version – the film was initially trimmed for the North American release, then on home video most of those cuts were placed back in.
Crime Story has Jackie Chan portraying Inspector Chan (ha) of a special unit of the police department dealing with a few of his own issues. Crime doesn’t stop, however, and he is on the trail of a kidnapper that leads to Taiwan. While there are action sequences, most of it is with gunplay. Crime Story isn’t a John Woo stylized action film, but does provide a nice departure from the usual comedic hand to hand Jackie Chan employs in most of his films.
The Protector features Chan as a New York City police detective and his partner is killed in a robbery at the beginning of the film. Dealing with this and a new partner (played by Danny Aiello) we get another kidnapping plot, only this time they travel to Hong Kong. It’s a “rote” action film which is really more for the Jackie Chan fan than anything else. It is a decent attempt, but is so many ways the director James Glickenhaus and the studio just didn’t know how to use Jackie Chan effectively.
This leads us to one of the best bonus features I’ve seen in a while – we get both cuts of The Protector. Jackie Chan was so upset with the film he took over for the “international” release in Hong Kong. While the film is still a much lesser offering, it is a far sight better than what the studio put in front of audiences. Alright, so it’s in standard definition, but it’s here. Getting these Hong Kong cuts of Jackie Chan’s films is hard to come by. Just try to find an original cut of Rumble In The Bronx you can put in your regular player at home. Go ahead. I dare you. Kudos to Shout Factory for getting this together.
Other special features are decent, but aren’t all-inclusive. Not everything that was available on the DVD versions of both films has been carried over, so hardcore completionists are going to have an aneurism. As for me, I’ll junk the DVD copies and keep the Blu-ray.