Matt Stevens

This is horrible. The extended Japanese cut of Jackie Chan's POLICE STORY has long been the Holy Grail for Jackie Chan fans. The ultra rare widescreen Japanese laserdisc is a major collector's item, as most have rotted away (mine hasn't, thank God). Sadly, the footage for the extended scenes has been destroyed.

This includes an entire opening credit sequence and comical birthday party surprise that explains the birthday cake stuff later in the film. There is also a meaningful epilogue outside the shopping mall, with the characters going their separate ways. No dialogue is exchanged and the scene is pushed forward simply by the actor's expressions. It's a great scene and a terrible loss.

The upcoming Region 2 Hong Kong Legends DVD will include the alternate (and superior) Japanese outtakes, which still exist, as an extra.

New Line Cinema owns the rights to the badly cut down, rescored and dubbed version, with Miramax/Disney owning the rights to the 96 minute Hong Kong version. They do NOT own the rights to the original soundtrack, so when it is released, it will be dubbed.

I have the HKL R2 edition on order from www.blackstar.co.uk This will be the Hong Kong version, running 96 minutes.

BULLETSnBABES broke the story: http://www.bulletsnbabesdvds.com/

codefree

Man that sucks. I've never even seen Police Story and have been anxiously awaiting the new HKL release. Well, I'm sure they'll do as good of a job as they can with what they have. Still I'll never know what I missed now.

Matt Stevens

Just remember that the HKL version will be LONGER than the version released in the United States in various dubbed forms. This will be the Hong Kong theatrical version, approved by Jackie Chan and the Japanese outtakes do exist and will be on the DVD as an extra.

The Japanese version was a special release created by Chan and Golden Harvest for the Japanese market.

Londo

Hey Matt... contact me by email
[awaiting further possible edit]

benedict

Although this is a nice friendly community and it is great to help friends out, this one seemed to have veered just a little over the line that tends to be drawn hereabouts concerning matters [ahem] "piratical".... [yes this is a word and I am using it lighheartedly because of the coy phraseology of certain recent posts].

Accordingly, I have removed the ambiguous posts so that there is no cause to speculate as to the precise nature of what was on offer. Like I've said, there is no objection to friends helping each other out but....

Anyhoo, if any of those involved wish to post a brief clarificatory note then there is no problem with that: as indicated, the difficulty was a result of the coy language being used and the inevitable start of the "me toos" which threatened to take the matter further off-topic and/or towards/over the line.

I have always left my email address public and am happy to hear from people who have comment that they wish to make off-board.



Benedict
Moderator, International DVD & Movie Forum

naughty jonny

There is piracy and there is piracy. While most is bad and morally wrong, some piracy is actually beneficial to society at large and PREVENTS things getting lost for future generations. Unfortunately, a lot of Hong Kong stuff isn't preserved in the Library of Congress and this may be the only way to save it.

The BBC, while not condoning piracy would be overjoyed with finding copied episodes of early Doctor Who episodes; similarly, I'm sure Goodies fans would like to know that some of the earlier episodes might be out there somewhere.

Because of lost or destroyed material we now no longer have full versions of Metropolis, Nosferatu, and any number of classic films - films that have now fallen into the public domain.

Note that I am not supporting or condoning piracy, just presenting an alternate viewpoint.