[Released] Jackie Chan's "Who Am I?" (我是誰), Film Whisperer HD restored version

[The Film Whisperer]

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Okay folks. I've been hesitant to release this one, but I think right now, in its current state, it's the best that it's going to be.

The movie

It's totally not like Jason Bourne! It's a movie where Jackie Chan plays a CIA agent who lost his memory after an accident in a mission gone wrong. People are after him, and he has no idea why. And he has no idea who he can trust.

See? Not like Jason Bourne at all! 

Who butchered it for "international audiences"?!

Columbia Tri-Star got the international distribution rights to this film. You can read about their changes here from Movie-Censorship. It's about 12 minutes of cuts. Their biggest cuts and changes worth mentioning are...

1. Taking away the "mystery" behind the story. In the original Hong Kong version of the film, the audience does not know exactly what happened to Jackie and his CIA colleagues until the mid-way point in the film, when Jackie's memory comes back. However, in the US version of the film, the audience is shown right way what happened to Jackie, then the audience is just waiting for Jackie to figure it out.
   
2. Jackie's time with the African Tribe is heavily cut. Although the movie still works without these scenes, these scenes are nice to have, and one scene in particular is quite funny!
   

(On the flip side, the US version has the original audio of Jackie's voice. During the entirety of his time with the tribe, Jackie Chan is actually speaking English [and then eventually their native language]. But in the Hong Kong version, Jackie dubs his English lines into Cantonese.

Has the uncut version ever been officially released?

Physical media
I know the old R0 (Hong Kong) non-anamorphic DVD from Universe Laser and the R2 (Japan) anamorphic DVD from Warner Bros had the movie uncut. Universe Laser had a 5.1 Dolby Digital track for both the "sync-sound" track and Mandarin dub. The Japanese DVD from Warner Bros had a 5.1 DTS and Dolby Digital for the "sync-sound" track, plus a 5.1 Dolby Digital track for the Japanese dub.

I assume the Japanese laserdisc was also uncut. Interestingly, it also has a mono track. I'm curious to know how that sounds!

I'm interesting in hearing what the laserdisc tracks sound like, including the one from the Universe Laser laserdisc (probably not much better than their DVD).

Only on the crappy Australian blu-ray has it ever been released in "HD". It's only the international version. Bad transfer too from what I heard.

I'm curious to know if any audio source exists for the uncut version without any of Jackie's English lines being dubbed into Cantonese (while he stays with the African tribe).

VOD
I do know that South Korea and Japan have had the uncut version of the movie in its OAR via VOD. And THAT is what I used to make this restoration!

What else did I do?

Fixing a continuity error
You'll see in this "screenshots" subfolder that there is a major continuity error at the beginning of the South African raid sequence. It opens up with an overlay saying "28/11/1996, Thanksgiving, 18:00, Augrabies, South Africa".

But then, later on, during the raid, another overlay appears, which says "30 March 06:00, Kakamas, South Africa".

So...what's going on? Were they all just sitting in that South African forrest for months waiting for the scientists to appear?! If the operation was going to take months, why the hurry in setting up everything?!

So which date is it? Well, during the scene where Jackie is being interrogated by the South African secret police, it is confirmed that the scientists were kidnapped on March 30th!

So, I took the overlay which said "30 March 06:00, Kakamas, South Africa" later during in the raid, and decided to have it appear at the BEGINING of the raid. I used the US version footage from the Japanese DVD (which lacks the appearance of any on-screen text) to cover up the incorrect overlay text. I have the red English text appear as if it were being typed on screen.

And I replicated the Chinese-language part of the overlay, which is in white and on the bottom of the screen.

I also replicated the bi-lingual overlay which lets the audience know when Jackie is in the Netherlands (Rotterdam).

You can see comparisons of screenshots from the Japanese DVD (which has the original bi-lingual overlays) and my reconstruction.

SPECS

File type: MKV
Size: 22.32 GB

Audio

• 5.1 DTS, "sync-sound", Film Whisperer "Optimized" version
  

My primary source for this track is the Japanese DVD from Warner Bros. This track is custom made by me. It has two special features

1. I included as much of Jackie Chan's **original** ENGLISH dialog for the duration of his time with the African tribe (using audio from the US version), instead of his Cantonese dub. Although his Cantonese dub will be present for SOME of it (because the US version cut those parts out).
   
2. It features the ACTUAL "Who Am I?" theme song sung by Jackie Chan during the end credits, instead of the NG (no good) version which features both Jackie Chan and Emil Chau trying to sing the song but they keep making mistakes. My wife, who is Chinese and speaks Mandarin, helped me to translate the Cantonese theme song using the written Chinese lyrics. But she warned me that the translation might not be so reliable, given that Cantonese and Mandarin really are two different spoken languages, and that difference is amplified with song lyrics.
   

• 5.1 DTS, "sync-sound", Original
  

This track features Jackie Chan dubbed into Cantonese during his time with the African tribe, and it features the NG version of the "Who Am I?" theme song playing during the end.

(BTW, I put "sync-sound" in quotation marks because the truth is many actors' lines [including from Jackie himself] had to be ADR'd, and ADR'd badly  )

Subtitles

(note: SDH and FPO [foreign parts only] options are available)

• English for "optimized" track
  
• English for "original" track
  

Folder will also include

1. The synced Japanese dub in 5.1 Dolby Digital (AC-3), SOURCE: R2 Japanese Warner DVD
   
2. The synced Mandarin dub in 5.1 Dolby Digital (AC-3), SOURCE: R0 Universe Laser DVD
   
3. The subtitles in their ".ASS" (haha, "dot ASS"  ) format, in case anyone wants to make any corrections or additions to any translation.
   

I didn't include the other audio tracks within the MKV itself because I don't have any proper subtitles for those dubbed scripts.

If anyone can help

During the scene where Jackie is driving Yuki's car in the African desert, some alternate version of the "Who Am I?" theme song is playing, sung by Emil Chau. I'm certain it's Cantonese, but it sounds different than what Jackie sings in the actual theme song. Perhaps it's from the "NG version"?

Can anyone translate it?

Also, would anyone like to translate the Mandarin version of the theme song (which I think is sung by Emil Chau)? And would anyone like to make a translation for the Mandarin script?

My Favorite part of the movie

(right the end)
Jackie: "[My father] also told me, respect nature"
**throws non biodegradable disc into a river, which contains information about how to obtain an ungodly amount of electricity from a fragment of a meteorite**