Movielogr

Rating: 6.5 stars

Tags

new york city Hong Kong buddy cop Kung fu nudity drug smuggling drug lab kidnapping world trade center golden harvest 88 films

All movies seen on 06/01/2021

View on: IMDb | TMDb

The Protector (1985)

Directed by James Glickenhaus

Crime | Action

Most recently watched by sensoria

Overview

Billy Wong is a New York City cop whose partner is gunned down during a robbery. Billy and his new partner, Danny Garoni, are working security at a fashion show when a wealthy man’s daughter, Laura Shapiro, is kidnapped. The Federal authorities suspect that Laura’s father is involved with Mr. Ko, a Hong Kong drug kingpin, so the NYC police commissioner sends the two cops to Hong Kong to investigate.

Rated R | Length 94 minutes

Actors

Jackie Chan | Danny Aiello | Moon Lee | Roy Chiao | Peter Yang Kwan | Sally Yeh | Bill Wallace | Shum Wai | Lee Hoi-Sang | Sandy Alexander | Victor Arnold | Irene Britto | Jesse Cameron-Glickenhaus | Al Cerullo | Richard Clarke | Patrick James Clarke | Ron Dandrea | Valerie De Pena | Saun Ellis | Richard Epper | Becky Ann Baker | Alan Gibbs | Joe Maruzzo | Ronan O'Casey | John Spencer | Mike Starr | Trey Wilson | Big John Studd | Kim Bass | Robert Mak | Fung Hak-On | Po Tai | Yeung Ming | Paul L. Smith

Viewing History (seen 2 times)

Viewing Notes

This is a sleazy version of a Jackie Chan flick. Knowing Glickenhaus was the director it all made sense with the gratuitous violence and nudity. Danny Aiello is quite fun and seems to be enjoying the process whereas Jackie never really looks comfortable. Afterwards a read up a bit on this production and learned why; Jackie really didn’t like Glickenhaus and re-shot and re-cut the movie for its HK release. Now I need to watch the re-edit which is also on this release!

I can understand why Jackie would not approve of the US cut of the movie but it’s not terrible by any means. It’s just more exploitation than a typical buddy cop flick and enjoyable for that reason. Fascinating to me that Chan decidedly left Hollywood after his bad experience working with Robert Clouse on THE BIG BRAWL but was somehow convinced to return for a co-production w/Golden Harvest with the majority of the filming in HK. Yet was again soured on the experience which led to him making his own cop movie POLICE STORY. Amazing.

Neat seeing Moon Lee in this with a bigger role but she still doesn’t get much to do. Her dubbed voice is not good either. I like when we first see Bill Wallace we know there’s gonna be a throwdown eventually between him and Chan. Wallace has a significant part so I’m curious why his credit is near the bottom.

Also I love the on-location shooting around Hong Kong. Not sure how much is left of that Red Light District but it would be great to take a tour of all the locations (and many other films). However, I will not visit HK until the Jumbo Floating Restaurant is back in business (it closed during the pandemic in 2020 and hasn’t re-opened). That entire Jumbo Kingdom looks incredible.

Thankful that Ron got this one from 88 Films so I could watch it. I’d love to own this one too if they still have it in stock by the time I resume buying Blu-rays.

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