Hello everyone. I am "The Film Whisperer", author of known restoration projects such as

1. Cobra (1986), extended version
   
2. Rumble in the Bronx
   
3. Fist of Legend
   
4. Ong-Bak
   
5. Michael Jackson's Moonwalker
   
6. Jackie Chan's "Thunderbolt"
   

Why are there 3 different official versions of this film?

I'm certain that any fan of Jackie Chan knows the story behind the making of this film. But if you're not familiar, here's the briefest summary I can give you.

• "The Protector" was written and directed by James Glickenhaus, a man with a real "Grindhouse" style of directing. 
  
• This was Jackie Chan's 2nd American film, after "Battle Creek Brawl". The film was released in 1985.
  
• James Glickenhaus claims that Jackie Chan didn't really speak English at the time of making this film. (Personally, I call TOTAL B.S. on this claim).
  
• The movie was a flop in North America and worldwide
  
• Jackie Chan was so embarrassed by how the U.S. version turned out, that he decided to re-make the movie for the Asian market
  
• This movie inspired Jackie Chan to create "Police Story" in the same year. To this day, Police Story is still considered one of the greatest action movies in HK cinema and worldwide.
  
• And technically, there are about 5 different versions if you count the censored German version. And the original US rated-R version cut out footage from the bar gunfight. That footage was exclusive only to the HK and Japanese edits until the 2002 R1 DVD release from Warner Bros (and subsequent releases from Fortune Star). 
  

What did Jackie Chan do the film?

You can get an EXTREMELY detailed explanation from this Movie-Censorship article. Or you can read the Wikipedia article about it (much of which I also wrote, ). The MC article compares the original U.S. version to the Hong edit. But here's a brief summary

1. Jackie Chan dubbed the entire movie into Cantonese. In a few scenes, the dub totally changes context/dialog. Many people say Jackie did this because "he didn't like the cussing", but according to the subtitles provided by 88 Films' for the HK edit, that actually doesn't change much, haha. But I honestly think that Jackie didn't want he and Danny Aiello's characters not sound like they're freaking hoodlums! I don't know if a Mandarin dub was actually made at the time, but the old Universe Laser DVD has a 5.1 Dolby Mandarin dub, and it's the only source I know of where any Mandarin dub exists.
   
2. Editing and alternate takes: The original US version (the Glickenhaus version) of this film was horribly-paced, in my opinion. Too many shots linger on much longer than they should. It's clear that Glickenhaus didn't want any second of film to be left on the cutting-room floor, haha. It is well-known that Jackie didn't like Glickenhaus' directing style. Jackie preferred using multiple takes for certain sequences, rather than using longer single-takes. Here's a link showing screenshots from my restoration of where/how he used alternate takes, even in the sequences originally filmed by Glickenhaus.
   
3. Reshoots: Jackie did many reshoots for this film. I won't go into great detail, but for the Asian market, Jackie filmed an entire subplot to add some "depth" to the film's story (which admittedly is quite paper-thin in the U.S. version). I personally believe the plot reshoots were mainly about not having a freaking fortune teller to solve the good guys' problems.   Many of the reshoots involved a popular singer/actress: Sally Yeh, whose character was added to the film, and given a family connection to Shum Wai's character. Among other famous reshoots was the final fight between Jackie Chan and Bill "Superfoot" Wallace's character, which helped make the final sequence much more exciting and less predictable. The reshoots added a few extra action sequences to the film. And yet, in spite of adding a whole subplot and extra action sequences, Jackie's edit of "The Protector" still ended up being a few minutes shorter than the original U.S. cut!    This also means no nudity in the HK/JP edits! The massage parlor nudity was edited out beautifully, but Jackie did reshoots for the drug lab sequences, replacing the naked female drug workers with women (and men) dressed in lab coats.
   

So what is the "Japanese extended version"?

Again, Movie-Censorship has an article comparing the HK version to the Japanese version. The "Extended Japanese version" has these differences

1. The Japanese version is basically an extended cut of Jackie Chan's Hong Kong edit. Even without counting beginning/end credits, it is slightly longer than the U.S. cut, which is itself a few minutes longer than Jackie's HK edit. As you can see in Movie-Censorship's article, the HK version removed a few scenes that were included in the U.S. version. The Japanese version has these scenes with a Cantonese dub.
   
2. Removing those scenes for the HK version required slightly different Cantonese dubs for the HK version in certain scenes. For example, in Jackie's HK version, the traitorous British police chief Whitehead (spoiler alert!   ) actually tells Jackie's & Danny Aiello's characters about the massage parlor, and it cuts out the very next scene from the US version where the chief's inspector is actually the one who tells them about the massage parlor. However, the Japanese version includes the latter scene, requiring a slightly different Cantonese dub where the chief simply lectures Jackie and Danny about following rules & regulations.
   
3. All scenes taking place in the U.S. use the original English track, while all scenes taking place in Hong Kong use the Cantonese dub. However, the audio from the U.S. scenes is in mono, and is much more "raw" than Glickenhaus' stereo track. And the score matches Jackie's original Hong Kong version. It is a completely different master!
   
4. An inclusion of an all-exclusive scene. It's just a short conversation between Bill Wallace's and David Ho's characters. Only in the Japanese edit can you find this scene.
   
5. The inclusion of the outtake credits. These credits are iconic in Jackie Chan's films, and I'm puzzled as to why he didn't include them in his HK edit!  Like the U.S. version, the song "One up for the good guys" by Chip Taylor plays during the end credits in the Japanese version.
   

What have I completed so far?

Sources I used

1. The 2014 Japanese blu-ray, for footage exclusive to the Japanese version of the film. Click here to see screenshots of it. It's the only version to have the exclusive HK/JP footage in genuine HD. It was scanned from an actual film print. However, it has one annoying aspect: the burnt-in Japanese subtitles! Well, since the "sub"-titles are on the side, you can call them "side-titles" 
   
2. UK blu-ray from 88 Films, for footage from the U.S. version. 88's blu-ray for the U.S. version is genuinely remastered. 88's HK version was upscaled from the French DVD, the only version I know of which was somewhat remastered and genuinely anamorphic. I used the upscaled HK version in a few places to cover up the Japanese side-titles. I also used the upscaled HK version for one shot, because I found it difficult to credibly cover up the Japanese "side-titles"
   
3. Japanese laserdisc. I used this to cover up the side-titles to the exclusive scene between Bill Wallace and David Ho.
   

So far, I've done most of the "big stuff". Here is what I did

1. I used the 2014 Japanese blu-ray as the basis for creating this newly restored version.
   
2. The frame rate is 24fps, NOT the HD frame rate of 23.976 FPS. And yes, it is also at true 24fps speed. Don't worry, I know what I'm doing
   
3. I used the U.S. version's footage wherever I could, and used the Japanese blu-ray's footage for all other shots where it was necessary. My source for the U.S. version's footage is the blu-ray from 88 Films.
   
4. I did some major color-correction, not just on the Japanese blu-ray footage but also on the U.S. footage too! I have no idea what 88 Films was thinking but they made that footage far too blue and dark in many places. I often don't like tootin' my own horn, but I think I did a great job. Here's a link showing my color-correction work.
   
5. I created 2 audio tracks: one that uses the Japanese version's English/cantonese mono track (with just a tiny amount of help from the U.S. version's stereo track), and another that is 100% Cantonese! The All-Cantonese track uses audio from 88 Films' upscaled HK edit for the scenes taking place in the US. Sound effects and dialog are well-synced in both tracks!
   
6. I created 3 sets of English subtitle tracks: "foreign parts only" and "all dialog/SDH" for the English/Cantonese track, and one for the "All Cantonese track". The subtitles for the Cantonese dialog are mainly based on the translation of the HK version's dialog from 88 Films, which used a native-Cantonese speaker. For the dialog within the Japanese-exclusive scene, I had to rely on a translation of the German subtitles from the German blu-ray release from Splendid (which had this scene as a "special feature"). For the slightly different dialog changes to the Japanese version, I relied on Australian friend who has learned Japanese and translated the subtitles for me. And I got some help from a phone translation app, which doesn't really catch audio from a computer very well   . But I figured the dialog was quite similar to the original U.S. version's.
   
7. I covered up the Japanese side-titles, but only in a few short places, which kinda brings me to my request...
   

What do I need help with?

1. Covering up the Japanese side-titles. As I mentioned before, I covered up the "side-titles" but only in a few places. I'll be honest: my patience in doing this task has run out  . I believe that in many cases, the best method to cover up the side-titles is to rotoscope parts from the Japanese blu-ray where there are no side-titles to cover them up when they appear. However, this process is very tedious and would often require frame-by-frame rotoscoping. Unless...there's some other strategy? I am aware that I could use the upscaled HK version to cover them up, but that's also quite difficult, and it might not turn out so well. The upscaled HK version is a bit more "zoomed in" than the JP blu-ray, so some "scaling" is necessary. Also, one must do a good job in color-matching and blending. Keep in mind that the Japanese version is in genuine HD, while the upscaled HD version was, well...upscaled from a PAL DVD!
   
2. Cleaning up dirt/specs. The Japanese version was scanned from a film print. So it's got a lot of dirt and specs and stuff.
   
3. Flicker removal: Any ideas on how to remove the flicker from certain sequences in the Japanese version? If so, that'd be great!
   
4. Other improvements as needed, if you think you can do better. Did I not cover up the side-titles well-enough in the places where I did so? Do you think you can do a better job at color-correcting? If so, do it!
   

If any of you are interested in helping me with these tasks, please PM me. And I hope you're willing to share your most direct e-mail address. If you're not comfortable sharing your actual e-mail, that's fine. But please note that I'm not as fast as responding to my messages on this site as I am from my own e-mail.

I will give you a link to everything. I have lossless M2TS files of my sources and a lossless MKV & M2TS of my own restoration, and I will even upload my Adobe Premiere Pro project file. I will even give you my "rough draft" MKV so you can have an idea of what the completed project will look like (before you work your magic). You can let me know what else you'll need to help me complete the project.

From Portugal a fan of Art that only a community can provide.

Thank you for existing.

Good evening everyone, I'm Daniel.
A sound enthusiast with a knack for movies, I'm here to contribute with projects and learn more about preservation.
Thank you all for having me.

• Uses the blu-ray the whole time, except for that censored part, which uses the R2 DVD to fill that part in.
  
• File format: MKV: 17.22 GB
  
• 24 frames per second, and yes, that's genuine 24fps, NOT the typical HD frame rate of 23.976 fps. And don't worry, I remembered to adjust it properly for speed (I know what I'm doing  )
  
• Audio format: 5.1-channel Dolby True HD
  

• This is the R2 PAL DVD from the UK. I left it in the original PAL resolution
  
• File Format: MKV: 5GB
  
• 24 Frames per second (true film frame rate and speed)
  
• Audio format: 5.1-channel Dolby True HD (exact same audio as my HD version)
  

Proof of Life has not been released on Blu Ray. There are a few digital HD options, a couple of WebDL’s which are open matte and a HDTV recording which is in the original 2:35:1. The base of my project is the HDTV recording. I did look at overlaying the open matte onto the HDTV and cropping to 2:35:1 but it didn’t make a massive difference to my eyes and the open matte has burned in subtitles during non English dialogue which look out of place in a 2:35:1 frame as they are too far down the picture.

The HDTV was cropped, upscaled slightly, de-haloed and cleaned in Avisynth. That was then taken into Topaz for some further cleaning/deblocking. Then it was dust cleaned on an automatic pass as the print suffers with quite a few white specks. It was then adjusted slightly so it matched the DVD frame count and finally the red levels were toned down in Premiere using a CRT LUT.

There was an instance of pixelization/video breakup at one point on the HDTV recording. I tried AutoOverlay, overlaying the open matte onto the HDTV and then overlaying the open matte onto the DVD but neither got ideal results. In the end I upscaled the shot from the DVD, cleaned it a little and color corrected it.

The next problem was the lack of burned in subtitles on the HDTV recording, as all the subtitles I could find online did not contains these. In the end they were transcribed line at a time. Just a note for anyone ripping this to mkv, you must include the first English subtitle track if you want to see the non English dialogue translation.

Another problem, the burned in DVD subtitles also include the names of locations and at various points the number of days in captivity. Originally I included these in the subtitle files but the problem was that in several places normal dialogue was being spoken at the same time, which interfered with them. Therefore using Premiere I have burned in just the locations names and number of days, matching the font, color, size and shadow of the DVD. All non English dialogue is still via selectable subs. Not ideal but no choice really and on every version apart from the HDTV recording they are already burned in.

Then in terms of sound the Cinema DTS was synced. This was decoded in foobar2000. Speed change, surround/LFE changes (-3 on surround, +6 on the LFE) and dithering in Izotope using auto blanking. It was then encoded as a DTS-HD file with the -21ms offset baked in. That opening scene in Chechnya was loud!

Also included are the DVD English 5.1 track and the Audio Commentary. In terms of the extras everything is ported from the DVD, plus some interviews I found on YouTube and a 75 minute behind the scenes/location scouting segment!

• BD25 with a menu, background video, pop up menu and resume function
  
• 1080P taken from the HDTV with cleanup/color grading
  
• English 5.1 Cinema DTS
  
• English 5.1 AC3 and Audio Commentary taken from the DVD
  
• English Foreign Dialogue only, English SDH, French, German, Italian and Spanish subtitles
  
• Making Of
  
• Behind The Scenes
  
• Cast Interviews
  
• Ebert At The Movies (does suffer from baked in interlacing artifacts)
  
• Trailer
  

Hey, everyone. Long time lurker here. Hope to be fairly active going forward!

Here's an interesting thought...

The 1957 TV production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella was broadcast live and thought lost in time. They discovered a kinescope recording of the March 17, 1957 of the first dress rehearsal. It was published on DVD.

Watching clips of it today, I noticed a lot of dot crawl artifacts... which is awesome!! You see, kinescope recordings are film captures from TV monitors. Although black and white, it usually didn't have the chroma information filtered out. When it isn't, it showed up as dot crawl.

In 2018 the British came up with a digital recovery method that analyzed the dot crawl patterns in order to restore the original chroma data: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_recovery

So that means Cinderella could be restored to color, not just colorized.
I'm assuming this is beyond a home computing process, but I was wondering if anyone here knows the process and if it's fan restore-able.

Hi. My name is Jason and I have been enjoying fan edits for over 10 years now. I respect everybody's view and perspective. I am glad I have joined.

Leos Carax's unreleased masterwork "Pierre", the uncut version of his 1999 theatrical release "Pola X", has gone without any kind of release since its first airing on Arte in September 2001. Allegedly this is due to rights issues but that's just hearsay. A recording of a VHS archival copy finally leaked onto a Québécois forum last autumn, and with the help of a French speaker who wished to remain anonymous I have produced the first, as far as I know, English translation of the additional scenes & merged that with the official subtitles for "Pola X", which are probably not quite to the standard of precision I'd like from a translation for such a great filmmaker but I couldn't find anyone willing to transcribe the French of the whole film for me to produce a new translation from scratch, only the additional scenes (I can translate written French but I'm no good at spoken French, and none of Carax's films appear to have any French subtitles on their official domestic releases.). Don't know if it's perfect, the picture quality certainly isn't, but it's a damn sight better than not being able to watch this great miniseries at all.

Hugely recommend for fans of Mauvais Sang and Les Amants Du Pont-Neuf, it's horrendous that this has gone without even a DVD release. Featuring both Guillaume Depardieu and Scott Walker at their most sublime. I don't know anything about private trackers and all that but the files are now up on Soulseek semi-permanently under my username. Looks like somebody's already reposted my version on YouTube, too. Enjoy!

I own the 70th Anniversary Emerald Edition Blu-ray+DVD combo pack of The Wizard of Oz (1939).

According to Blah-ray, the 1989 MGM/UA LaserDisc and the 1991 MGM/UA LaserDisc, both marked ML101656, share the same mono soundtrack, which is the blogger's favorite audio of the movie.

I was wondering if someone could rip the digital/analog left channel mono audio from the 1989 or 1991 LaserDisc of the movie and sync it to the Blu-ray and UHD. I would like to use the BD-synced audio to replace the Dolby Digital 1.0 mono track on my MKV file rip of the BD. I don't want the 1988 Criterion LD audio, because that has heavy noise reduction applied to it, according to Blah-ray.

Thanks.