INTRODUCTION TO PROJECT A:

Jackie Chan is a genius, the historical importance of his legacy transcends his best known image as a comedian and daredevil acrobat: There's a talented Director and visionary, a man who changed the Action film industry in Honk Kong forever with his personal touch and style in the early 80's, by creating the perfect fusion of goofy physical comedy and incredible restless action with some of the most impressive and dangerous stunts ever displayed on film. This 1982 film was the consolidation of Chan as a star in Asia after his major breakthrough with Yuen Woo Ping's kung fu classic "Drunken Master", and a movie that started an influence to follow from there on.

A true Milestone and considered by critics not only as the first important Honk Kong action comedy , but one of the best productions of the genre next to Chan's second best directed film, the timeless classic "Police Story". Besides being one of his most entertaining and funny movies, the film contains some of Jackie's best stunts ever. We've all seen the reckless and almost imprudent Asian stuntmen falling on their heads and backs from the roof to the solid floor in many occasions in 80's HK action movies, but no one can get used to watch Jackie climbing handcuffed to a flag pole, jumping to the top of a clock tower, and then falling to the ground with no protection but a couple of cloth roof tops. And he did it at least three times, two of them registered in this film. Even the MTV idiots getting their nipples bitten by baby alligators, think that is totally insane. Outstanding comedy and action, great period scenarios, enjoyable classic soundtrack: This movie defines an era.

So Jackie became a huge international star and Americans embraced this delightful character and action hero that he is, and the came the re-release of his early and most important work to satisfy the needs of us fans. Among those DVD releases, unfortunately we can find editions like this one. Check this out:

THE PROBLEMS:

- Incomplete, cut version with English dubbing, and the worst of all, the original amusing and perfectly synchronized music score was replaced by a new, awful synthesized random score, killing the comedy and sucking the joy out of the movie by trying to turn it into the current action flick.

- The Classic Golden Harvest presentation and original opening sequence with credits, was replaced by a computer generated pirate flag : Jackie Chan's Project A, the new title, makes clear that this release is a mere vehicle to show Jackie to new audiences, with no respect for anything else.

- The bar fight sequence is incomplete: The whole "spaghetti" incident was excluded. Nice.

- The scene in the gambling house in which the Sammo Hung character is introduced to the movie, was completely excluded. Now, he just happens to know everyone. Awesome.

- From the Police training sequence, the "shower" scene is missing.

- The intro of Sammo, Jackie and Yuen Biao in the arrest sequence at the club house is missing. The fight sequences are chopped off too.

- The intro of the rifle robbery on a boat at night perpetrated by Sammo and Jackie, conceived as a Peking Opera satire, is chopped off and ruined by the lack of score, wasting the rhymes and the joke intended.

- The pirate assault to the English ship sequence, chopped off.

- From then, everything is in place, till the new ending credits. By this time, only sadness for the lost original music score and impotence for the wasted money remains.

Honestly, the picture and sound are decent. But that's it. The intention of this DVD edition is to introduce new audiences to Jackie's glorious past, and in that part only, it delivers. But this is not the final choice for any collector or faithful fan, not for a moment.

THE SOLUTION:

A couple years ago, FORTUNE STAR released a flawless remastered ALL-REGION DVD Edition, including the complete version in Cantonese DTS, 5.1, and original 2.0 mono soundtrack (Hurrah!) with original character voices and music score, all the deleted scenes and outtakes, original HK trailer, and photo galleries. More than any fan could ask for, I tell you.

I will sadly admit that the first half-hour of this film is pretty dull and unexciting. Normally, I would take off some points for that, but trust me, the rest of the flick more than makes up for it!!! After enduring some painful scenes of "coast guard" life, Jackie soon reverts to butt-kicking form. Jackie is certainly the star of this film. Sammo has less screen time, and Yuen seems to be in an extened cameo. Which is too bad, as the combination of all 3 is one of the highlights of Cinema.

Anyway, the things that stand out in this film are the bicycle chase, the legendary clock tower scene, and the dozens of fights that break out during this film.

Woah, wher'd THAT come from?!!? EEEEEEWWWWWW! I gotta take a shower now.

Despite the homoerotic undertones (real or imagined), this is the kinda Jackie Chan movie that you'd sell a vital internal organ to see in it's original theatrical form (I'll sell one of my livers. I can get by with one). This is also the kind of Jackie Chan movie that makes me proud to be alive in a day and age when we humans, as a species, can appreciate such a fine quality film as this. First Strike, although fun in spots, is now to me nothing more than dried fecal matter between the toes of this movie. Jackie was obviously in TOP form for this picture, as were the other 2 "Little Fortunes". That head pirate is one wild lookin' freak, but how would YOU know, unless you saw the film, in which case you shouldn't even NEED to be reading this, so what the hell are you doing here anyway, huh, you lookieloo; you rubbernecking bastard, you're holding up net traffic somewhere, and you couldn't care less, could you, you cretin! GO BACK TO OREGON!

Lesson to be learned in this Mutha of all Sailor Movies: Just because they wear those uniforms doesn't mean they're gay; then again...... (Hey you! Please don't send me death threats. I'm only kidding. Lemme see a smile. Thaaaats better.)

I think Sammo could of done more fight scenes. He was envolved with alot of fight scenes but had little time to do what he gots. Anyways, the fights were much more realistic and funny. The movie was scattered with fight scenes every where so that you wouldn't feel bored any second of the movie. My favorite fight scene in the movie is when Jackie and Yuen is fighting at this fat guy's hideout place. Don't it just look painful when jackie threw that iron statue of at the fat guy's cheast? In his new movie ''Jackie Chan: My Story'' there was a part where he said it took him 7 days for him to complete the clock fall scene. In the interview he said that he was scared so he had to hang on the clock until he was tired enough to let go and fall. My question is, if he was scared, why the hell did he did it 3 times!?

Well, this film is fun to watch. By the way I notice Mars did his own stunts too. Wonder what happend to Mars?

While Jackie is undoubtedly the star, Samo Hung and Yuen Biao get plenty of opportunity to display their considerable talents. This movie has a barroom fight that will ruin you for Westerns forever! I was especially interested in the now-famous clock tower scene since I saw Jackie explain how he shot it in Jackie Chan, My Story. Apparently, he decided to have the stunt team let him hang there until he actually couldn't hold on anymore! Who know Jackie used The Method??? My God! Did he actually fall on his head?!? Twice!?!

Just one word about the tape I bought from Advantage Video. It's a 'Venom Video', dubbed in English (with German subtitles - go figure!). The picture quality is first rate and most of the dubbing is very good, but they decided to use Chinese voices for some of the characters, notably Samo Hung, and they were extremely hard to understand. Boy, did I wish I knew German! I have no problem with Samo on Martial Law, but it took a couple tries to understand everything his 'stunt-dubber' was saying. I'd suggest you'd be better off with subtitles, but I'm currently in the middle of trying to work my way thru Project A II, also by Advantage and the subtitles are HORRENDOUS!! (Apparently Americans are part psychic and can read tiny white letters on a white background, while those poor, non-psychic Germans need large letters edged in black so they're visible on any background!) Whatever you decide, you MUST buy, rent or borrow this movie. You're not a Jackie Chan fan without seeing it!

I agree with Tom's review. This DVD version is but a pale shadow of the original HK movie. The original soundtrack, which actually played a very large part in the comic timing of the movie, has been completely jettisoned for badly-composed generic string strains. The dialogue has been completely retranslated so that entire scenes no longer convey their original meaning. Those scenes that are still present, that is, for many scenes have been cut entirely as well. Perhaps most offensive of all, the voice acting is all done by non-Asian actors pretending to have bad Asian accents.

I give this version of the movie half a star [out of 5] because Jackie Chan's physical comedy still exists, albeit in butchered form. Import this, get it off eBay, but please, please, please do not buy this version of Project A.