The Protector (1985)

The Protector is a 1985 Hong Kong-American action film directed by James Glickenhaus and starring Jackie Chan, Danny Aiello and Roy Chiao. It was Chan’s second attempt at breaking into the American film market, after 1980 film The Big Brawl, which had moderate box office success but was considered a disappointment. Conflicts between Glickenhaus and Chan during production led to two official versions of the film: Glickenhaus’ original version for American audiences and a Hong Kong version re-edited by Jackie Chan. The original Glickenhaus version was a box office failure in North America, while Chan’s edited version was a moderate success in Asia; the film was also moderately successful in Europe. Chan later directed Police Story (1985) as a response to this film.

Plot.

After a patrol in New York City, New York police officers Billy Wong (Jackie Chan) and his partner Michael (Patrick James Clarke) have a drink at a bar. Machine-gun wielding crooks come in to rob the bar and its customers. Michael kills one of the crooks but is fatally gunned down. Wong shoots the rest but is forced to chase the last remaining crook into the New York harbor, resulting in a boat chase in which he kills the gangster by causing an explosion. Wong is demoted to crowd control for the ruckus. Later, he goes to a fashion show party undercover, hosted by a Laura Shapiro (Saun Ellis), the daughter of a locally known gangster Martin Shapiro.

At the party, he meets his new partner, Danny Garoni (Danny Aiello), who has also been demoted due to claims of police brutality. In the middle of the fashion show, masked gangsters armed with machine guns storm in and kidnap Laura Shapiro, and nobody knows why. They later learn that crime boss Harold Ko (Roy Chiao) and Martin Shapiro are suspected of smuggling drugs from Hong Kong to New York, and that Ko may have kidnapped Laura and taken her to Hong Kong for ransom. The men get a lead – Shapiro’s bodyguard Benny Garrucci (Bill “Superfoot” Wallace) recently made several calls to a Hong Kong massage parlor.

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Wong and Garoni go to Hong Kong and investigate the massage parlor. While there, they get massages, but Billy notices that the masseuses are trying to kill them. Billy and Garoni fight off the parlor employees before they are cornered and held at gunpoint by the parlor manager (Shum Wai). The manager questions them, revealing that he knows they are cops, and then threatens to kill them. However, Garoni and Wong overpower him and his men, and leave the parlor. The next day, Wong and Garoni go to see Hing Lee (Peter Yang) on his boat, and they show him the coin of Tin Ho, an Chinatown informant of Wong’s and a friend of Lee’s.

Production, Version comparison.

According to his book I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action, Chan broke his hand while filming a stunt scene. The relationship between James Glickenhaus and Jackie Chan was, according to various sources, highly contentious for most of the production. Chan was appalled at the way Glickenhaus directed the fight scenes, feeling that his methods were sloppy and lacked attention to detail. At one point he offered to direct the fight scenes himself, but Glickenhaus refused. Things became so bad that Chan walked off the set, but was forced to return and finish the film by contractual obligation.

Deleted/Extended Scenes.

Almost all of the Japanese version is edited to match the Hong Kong version, but it contains some scenes that were cut out of the Hong Kong version. Some scenes were given a different Cantonese dub to keep the original context of these scenes intact, as they were in the Glickenhaus version. These scenes are: Garoni & Wong’s first visit with Superintendent Whitehead & the latter conversation with the inspector. The latter conversation was kept in the Japanese version, requiring a new Cantonese dub. Garoni & Wong talking about their plans outside the police station after their second visit with Whitehead (deleted from the Hong Kong version)

Reception.

The movie had a mixed to negative reception when it was released in the United States in 1985. In an interview with James Glickenhaus by Hong Kong film expert Bey Logan held before Chan achieved mainstream success with American audiences, Logan mentioned that many of his fans were disappointed with the movie. An unfazed Glickenhaus responded, “Well, you know that’s still the most successful Jackie Chan movie internationally and always will be because the American audience, the mainstream audience will never sit still for Jackie’s style of action”.

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Box office.

In North America, The Protector was a box office disaster, making only US$981,817 (equivalent to $2,606,126 adjusted for inflation in 2021). Chan’s re-edited version grossed HK$13,917,612 (US$1,786,428) in Hong Kong, a respectable sum, but significantly less than any of Chan’s domestic films at the time. In Japan, it grossed ¥1.19 billion (US$4.99 million) at the 1985 box office. In South Korea, it sold 181,236 tickets at the 1985 box office in Seoul City, equivalent to an estimated ₩634,326,000 (US$729,094). This adds up to an estimated total of approximately US$11,339,003 (equivalent to $29,000,000 in 2021) grossed worldwide.

Home media.

Warner Bros. released the U.S Version on DVD, VHS and Laserdisc. The 2002 DVD version was the first time the US version was released with extra footage from the bar gunfight. The DVD itself is labeled with R rating. However, it is unknown if Warner Bros. actually obtained permission for the R rating by the MPAA with this new footage. In Hong Kong, a DVD from Universe Laser was released featuring Jackie Chan’s personal edit (the Hong Kong version), featuring a Cantonese and Mandarin dub, along with 9 different subtitles, including English. It was non-anamorphic. This DVD is now out of print. Like many DVDs from Universe Laser, the tracks were released in Dolby 5.1 and featured a remixed soundtrack with slightly altered sound effects.

In 2011, a blu-ray release from Paramount in Japan features the US cut in high definition, the Hong Kong cut in anamorphic standard definition, and a “Japanese Extended Edition”. This is not the original Japanese extended edition, as the scenes from the Hong Kong edit are visibly inferior to the scenes from the US version. The extended cut is presented in anamorphic standard definition, and combines scenes from the US cut and the Hong Kong cut. The Glickenhaus scenes contain the original English dialog and the Hong Kong version scenes contain the Cantonese dub.

In 2015, a German blu-ray released by Splendid was released, containing the Glickenhaus version in high definition with the original unaltered stereo track in 2.0 DTS-HD MA, along with Fortune Star’s slightly altered audio track. It also features an HD-upscaled version of the Hong Kong edit with a DTS-HD MA encoded audio, and a non-upscaled anamorphic version with a 2.0 Dolby track. In 2019, 88 Films released a region-B blu-ray in the UK. The blu-ray features the Glickenhaus version in high definition, and it is the first time that it has been given a true high-definition remaster.

Cast

Jackie Chan as Billy Wong
Danny Aiello as Danny Garoni
Moon Lee as Soo Ling
Roy Chiao as Harold Ko
Peter Yang as Lee Hing
Sandy Alexander as Gang Leader
Jesse Cameron- as Jesse Alexander
Becky Ann Baker as Samantha Alexander
Kim Bass as Stan Jones
Sally Yeh as May Fung Ho