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Deployment into the trees right after the Who Am I? Logo...the US version has stripped out about 30 seconds or more of the whole deployment. I'm not sure if this is because of the beauty of the original shots (in letterbox on the video disc) vs. the cropped version that aired or purely for time. Regardless, I resume synched up at the laptop screen at the end of the deployment. The rumble in the jungle is almost identical with just a few seconds dropped from the US version. The same is true about the arrival of the choppers and the equipment collection and loading. Only a few seconds have been stripped out of the US version. Now, the US version cuts directly to the elite troops in the chopper (dialogue - "So sorry I have to do this,") the original release takes us to a video screen of Jackie Chan's profile and a CIA meeting. After the CIA meeting we have the exchange with the senior military officers, the meeting where they decide to bring in outside help then it cuts to Jackie's naked back as he lies wounded. Now in the US release we go through the whole helicopter scene for the first time, having not even got there in the original version which has run longer so far.... So now that the US version has run the whole helicopter fight/struggle for the controls/Jackie dropping. Jackie finally hits the ground and boom now we are at the video screen at the CIA briefing. At this point I will let the US version catch up with the original version. The CIA briefing and military exchange run without noticeable editing in the US version and we cut to Jackie in the hut. The Original version uses about an extra 10-15 seconds tending to indicate Jackie being there for a few days, or at the very least going in and out of consciousness and noticing things in the room around him. Finally we are synched as we look out the door into the light. With the exception of a few extra seconds of the tribesman coming in the hut, the two versions are identical throughout the whole village scene....until with the shot of the tribesmen on the top of the painted red rock hill. The US version cuts to the shot of the Benz truck coming into the power plant with the scientists. The Original version continues to our Agent Morgan and his Asian CIA associate on the small jet. After the powerplant scene with the meteor fragments in the gooey liquid, the US version has the jet scene and then cuts directly to Whoami and the boy returning to the village. This would appear to be the first scene that didn't make it to the US version at all. In the Original version we have a great discussion between Jackie and the boy from the tribe. The dialogue isn't in English, but it seems to be a discussion about the passage of time and such things. Then Jackie finds the lion cubs and we have the cute scene where Jackie doesn't get it until he is chased by a lioness into a tree. Then we sync up to the US version. Now as we come up on the wreckage, the US version has a condensed flashback of just the helicopters and then cuts back to Whoami at the wreckage. The Original version has a flashback of the assault on the trucks in the jungle which runs directly into the helicopter flashback and ends back at the wreckage with Whoami. Everything synchs up until we cut back to the village. In the US version the scene starts out with Whoami already sitting down with the tribe. In the original, Jackie is sitting alone contemplatively in a hut and is coaxed out by a group of kids. We get a nice scene of the dancing and festivities and then we get to the scene of Whoami sitting down with the tribe and we are once again synched up. Everything is identical, Whoami get taken out to see the lights, we lose a second or two of him watching the jeeps through the binoculars in the US version and then the US version cuts directly to Jackie and his buddies from the tribe running along to the signature tune of the film. The original cuts back to the village for the second scene dropped from the US release. In this scene there is a bit of a ceremony at the village for Whoami. As near as I can figure he gets made an honorary tribe member, he thanks them and we rejoin the US version as the merry band of tribesman plus Whoami are strolling through the fields to the movies' signature tune. We are in sync once again until Jackie's departure from his friends. Here we find the third scene clipped from the US version. In the US release they say good-bye and Jackie runs off. In the original Jack starts to leave, stops, plants his spear in the ground and does the little tribal jig. His friends respond he picks up his spear and runs off. Everything stays synched until Whoami and Yuki set off in the 4x4. During the race, from start to finish, the US release cuts almost a minute of the race out of the original version. And we resume, synched at the finish line.
I appreciate Rush Hour for increasing Chan's exposure in the U.S., but Rush Hour comes across as almost flat after seeing Who Am I. If you purchase only one of Chan's recent movies, skip Rush Hour and buy Who Am I? or Supercop! More Chan excitement for your $$$!!
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This film contains a bit of everything in terms of what we Jackie Chan fans have come to expect from the world's greatest. I enjoyed every minute of it, from the opening parachute sequence to the spectacular fight scene on the roof of the office building at the end. Jackie's the one & only!!
In the opening (pre opening logo) scene where the mysterious rock is being transported through the rocky desert the US release has edited out about 5 seconds of the driving/bumping that goes on before the explosion of the vehicle.
