Yet more Jackie Chan films from the archives, but do we really need them in ‘Ultra-bit’ quality?…

You’d be forgiven for thinking that UK distribution label Hong Kong Legends has created their new ‘Ultrabit’ collection for the sole reason of releasing the entire Jackie Chan back catalogue. True, these films have never looked this good before. In many cases they have hardly been available in widescreen, let alone in their original language.

However, there’s a reason why no one showed that much interest in these films before. They simply aren’t of the standard of his classic 80s run of the Project A and Police Story movies. And with Chan’s popularity ever waning thanks to his poor Hollywood output, you can’t help but wonder if this is just several years too late?

No matter, first up is Magnificent Bodyguards. (Where HKL deliberately trying to create a theme here? Bodyguard? Protector?) Jackie Chan stars as Ting Chung, employed by the mysterious Lady Lam Nan to accompany her and her sick brother, in a covered sedan chair, through the ‘Shadowy Mountains’ and protect them from the bandits that have made the area their home.

Chung quickly enlists Tsang (played by Lo Wei regular James Tien, Fist Of Fury, Fearless Hyena) as a mercenary who skins his foes, and the deaf but deadly kicking Chang (Leung Siu-Lung, Hapkido, Tragic Hero) to help him on his quest. But why is Lam being so secretive about who, or what, is inside that sedan?

This would be the last film Chan made with Lo Wei before, in utter desperation, Wei lent him out to Ng Yuen and Seasonal Films to make Drunken Monkey and Snake In The Eagle’s Shadow. Well, We all know how that went, but here, still unable to find an onscreen persona for Chan that audiences would warm to, Wei’s desperation shows. In fact, Wei didn’t count on Chan filling the Box Office at all, instead dropping the biggest gimmick of all – shooting the whole thing in 3D!

Like the rest of the films Chan made under Lo Wei’s production, Magnificent Bodyguards gets slated by everyone, even Chan and Wei themselves (though for very different reasons). Actually, truth is it’s not that bad.

Sure, in comparison with the films Lo Wei directed for Bruce Lee, The Big Boss and Fist Of Fury, the film seems much more dated – despite being filmed six years later! Perhaps it’s taking the English title too literally, but it seems that Wei himself intended to hark back to the glory days of Zhang Che films like Magnificent Trio.

Silly as it is, it’s all rather fun – reflecting the increasingly outrageous and unbelievable plotlines that filmmakers applied to wuxia and martial arts movies in the 70s to attempt to pull in the crowds. Take Master Of The Flying Guillotine, Buddha’s Palm or Killer Clans, for instance. And like many of those films adds a twist ending, though in this case that dénouement is somewhat convoluted and unintentionally funny. And Wei even steals several music cues from Star Wars! (to accompany the fantastically prescriptive and long-winded theme tune to the Shadowy Mountians themselves!)

The 3D gimmick is explored to the full, with no end of sharp, pointy things and even punches flying straight out at you. This technique, however, actually works in the films favour. The cinematography is kept close to the action, unusually for this period, and brings more invention to the composition.

The fights themselves, directed by Chan himself and Luk Chuen, are well extremely orchestrated, seemingly chaotic but extremely well choreographed amongst the combatants. Considering that Chan also had to be careful of actually punching the camera itself, this might be some of his best stunt work until the 80s.

Honestly, if you don’t take this at all seriously it’s actually quite enjoyable…

In stark contrast comes The Protector, like Battle Creak Brawl and Cannonball Run some five years earlier, another abortive effort to break Chan in the US. It didn’t work, as you’ll have noticed. Perhaps the unique idea of pairing Chan with James Glickenhaus, the director of the notorious ‘video nasty’ The Exterminator, may go some way to explaining why this film failed to work.

Chan stars as New York cop Billy Wong, who along with partner Danny Garoni (Danny Aiello, Do The Right Thing, Leon and that Madonna video for Papa Don’t Preach track down the kidnapping of a wealth business man’s daughter, Laura Shapiro, to Hong Kong.

They suspect her father may well be involved with the local Triad kingpin Mr Ko (Roy Chaio, Heart Of Dragon, Righting Wrongs, Tower Of Death). But finding her is not going to be easy, and is bound involve a lot of explosions…

Writer/director Glickenhaus film is full of irrelevant tangents: from the first scene where we see a motley crew rob a truck in New York that could easily have been extras in Blade Runner, who are never referenced again; to the nude girls who process Ko’s drugs – ahem, why? Other than for titillation?

Perhaps what is more surprising is some of the strengths we find. Wong is no rookie cop to the New York streets; in fact he’s been around for 10 years. (A plot rather let down by Jackie Chan’s thick accent!) And Danny is not green to Hong Kong either, having passed through there during Vietnam. That’s fairly sophisticated compared with more recent storylines for crossover efforts like Rush Hour and Shanghai Noon. Also, despite Wong’s buddy being shot down in the first few minutes, the rest of the film is not about him getting his revenge. (Or perhaps that’s just sloppy writing?)

Ultimately, it’s just a run-of-the mill action film, with Chan rarely getting a chance to show his talents. Unsurprisingly Chan and Glickenhaus didn’t get on, with swearing and gratuitous nudity never having a place in Chan films. It was perhaps the most incongruous pairing for Chan until he worked with Wong Jing on City Hunter.

Famously, once The Protector had been completed Chan re-edited and filmed brand new sequences for the Hong Kong version. Dubbed into Cantonese, this cut the nudity, lengthened the showdown between Chan and Shapiro’s henchman Benny Garucci (Bill ‘Superfoot’ Wallace), and added a subplot with Sally Yeh. Even then in his own autobiography I Am Jackie Chan he still considered the best thing to come out of this was the inspiration for Police Story.

Here HKL have really slipped up on what they have presented us with. Had they packaged the Hong Kong version alongside the American – even if it wasn’t of the same quality – they could have had the DEFINITIVE DVD release of the film. Instead they seem to have gotten too hung up on the quality, but ignored the actual history of the film itself.

It’s not the worst 80s action film by any means, but that’s hardly a recommendation. This release will only appeal to true Jackie Chan fans, but given the choice they’d probably prefer the Hong Kong version, as it has more of what they’d expect from their hero.

DVD details

Distributor: Hong Kong Legends (UK)

Magnificent Warriors:
Good restoration, but film still suffers from a grainy and overly dark print, probably because the original process used in creating the 3D effect.

The audio commentary by newcomer Andrew Staton is little more than a geeky recitation of facts about the stars and films, often not even fully researched. (Sorry Andrew!)

It's a shame that HKL didn't include an example on here of how it would have looked in 3D, or perhaps presented the whole film in 3D with a pair of specs - it would have been a hoot!

The Protector:
Extremely glossy, good looking print of the film. However, the only extra is a commentary by Andrew Staton, and this is the US version - surely HKL have really missed out this time by not featuring both versions of the film, or even just the now hard-to-get-hold-of Hong Kong version instead?

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This entry was published by Andy H on Thursday, March 15th, 2007 at 11:02 am and is filed under Action / Thrillers, Films, Hong Kong, Martial arts, Reviews, USA, Wuxia / Swordplay. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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