2024-01-09, 03:40 AM
(This post was last modified: 2024-04-16, 11:32 PM by The Film Whisperer.)
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The Protector, Japanese version, Film Whisperer restoration
Happy New Year, my friends! And here's another project from yours truly!
Alrighty. First of all, if you're a Jackie Chan fan, you'll know about the history of this film, and the lengths that Jackie Chan went through to make this film "watchable" for his Asian audience. Go ahead and really about it on Wikipedia. (BTW I certainly wrote a lot of the Wikipedia article)
I'm not gonna waste time on this post explaining everything about every little difference between the various versions of this film. Chances are if you're here, you know already. But feel free to talk about it with each other on this thread!
There are 3 main "official" versions of the film
- The US/international version, running at 95 minutes and 22 seconds at the HD frame rate (on the 88 Films blu-ray, this includes all intros plus opening and closing credits, including from Fortune Star)
- The HK version (Jackie Chan's personal edit), running at 92 minutes and 7 seconds at the HD frame rate (on the 88 Films blu-ray, this includes all intros plus opening and closing credits, including from Fortune Star)
- The Japanese version, running at 96 minutes and 55 seconds at the HD frame rate (from the 2014 Japanese blu-ray, including all intros and opening/closing credits).
It's #3 that I restored in (almost) perfect glory.
The Japanese version has a few scenes from the US version that were cut out the Hong Kong edit, and one exclusive scene. All of those scenes are dubbed into Cantonese. You can read all about it here from Movie-Censorship.
My color-correction
Some of you might know that 88 Films did a horrible job with their color-correction of the US version. They loved making every dark and blue, and they loved that "day for night" filter!
I fixed all of that, for many scenes. Take a look here. (I honestly have no idea how to post actual photos on these threads).
I fixed all of that, for many scenes. Take a look here. (I honestly have no idea how to post actual photos on these threads).
Let's get right into talking about the specs
SPECS
File specs- MKV, 17.8 GB, broken up into smaller ZIP files
- 24fps, yes TRUE cinematic 24fps, that's frame rate AND speed! Turn your TV's "motion smoothing" function off when you watch this!
Audio
- 2.0 LPCM mono, Cantonese/English. English is used during all scenes taking place in New York, then it switches to Cantonese for all scenes in Hong Kong. The score is arranged exactly like it is in the HK version even during the NY scenes!
- 2.0 LPCM mono, all Cantonese. I used the audio from the upscaled HK version from 88 Films to fill in for the NY scenes. The dialog, while kinda similar, is also a little different in how characters express things, which kinda makes for a whole new dynamic between some of the characters!
I painstakingly synced these audio tracks so that not only did sound effects align, but also dialog! And yes, that includes the Cantonese-dubbed scenes!
Why didn't I try to sync the original Glickenhaus audio?
- Honestly, I probably could have made the original audio from the Glickenhaus version work in some scenes, but it would certainly have not blended well in others (especially when the action sequences are edited to match Jackie Chan's version). It would just sound too choppy. Seriously, listen to the 3rd audio track on the HK version from the recent Shout Factory blu-ray (where they try to use the Glickenhaus track wherever possible)!
- Also, the original Glickenhaus track is a lot more clean and "light", and less "raw" than the audio from the Japanese and HK versions. It just wouldn't blend well.
- And lastly, the biggest reason I can't use the Glickenhaus audio is because of one single line of dialog: When Moon Lee mentions "The Fortune Teller" during the scene where all the good guys sit on a boat and talk about their plan to take down Harold Ko. Jackie Chan eliminated the whole "Fortune Teller" scene and replaced it with part of a subplot featuring Sally Yeh. But without scene, when Moon Lee mentions "the Fortune Teller" audiences will be like "What, what fortune teller? Did I miss something?!"
Subtitles
- FPO (foreign parts only), for the Cantonese/English track
- All dialog SDH, for the Cantonese/English track
- All dialog, for the "all Cantonese" track.
The subtitles are based heavily on 88 Films' translation for the Hong Kong edit. However, I worked with a native Cantonese-speaker who actually does translations for many of these companies to translate the Japanese-extended scenes!
Special Thanks!
A special thanks to the man who cleaned up the Japanese blu-ray footage and covered up those Japanese "side-titles" for the new Shout Factory blu-ray! You allowed me to restore this version of "The Protector" to a near-perfect version!
