I wrote a very positive comment for this film a while back, and I stand by everything I said. But having just seen the newly-dubbed American version, I fear that people are going to get the wrong impression about Jackie Chan and about this film. The original version is amazing; the American version is terrible.
Let's begin with the dubbing. Some people apparently cannot deal with reading subtitles, but dubbing is infinitely worse. Many of the jokes fall flat when audibly translated into English. I can't understand Cantonese, but delivery and comic timing can succeed across language barriers. By re-translating much of the dialogue and getting some lame English-speaking voiceover actors (other than Jackie himself), the non-action scenes are unbearable. I was particularly disappointed with the voiceover for Anita Mui as the mother. She was much funnier in Chinese.
In addition, the score and all the sound effects have been redone, poorly. I can't understand why they would want to replace a good Chinese with a more generically Chinese, somewhat Americanized score. The change made me realize that the music is incredibly important in aiding the rhythm of the fight choreography. The new score fails to do that. And the new sound effects, while certainly less jarring to uninitiated viewers of chopsocky kung fu films, just fall flat. Sure, in the original some of the sound fx are entirely unrealistic, but that was part of the charm. It all fit together. But the new version stripped apart the ingredients and attempted to reformulate them in a manner more suitable for an American audience. In my opinion, something was definitely lost in the translation.
Let's begin with the dubbing. Some people apparently cannot deal with reading subtitles, but dubbing is infinitely worse. Many of the jokes fall flat when audibly translated into English. I can't understand Cantonese, but delivery and comic timing can succeed across language barriers. By re-translating much of the dialogue and getting some lame English-speaking voiceover actors (other than Jackie himself), the non-action scenes are unbearable. I was particularly disappointed with the voiceover for Anita Mui as the mother. She was much funnier in Chinese.
In addition, the score and all the sound effects have been redone, poorly. I can't understand why they would want to replace a good Chinese with a more generically Chinese, somewhat Americanized score. The change made me realize that the music is incredibly important in aiding the rhythm of the fight choreography. The new score fails to do that. And the new sound effects, while certainly less jarring to uninitiated viewers of chopsocky kung fu films, just fall flat. Sure, in the original some of the sound fx are entirely unrealistic, but that was part of the charm. It all fit together. But the new version stripped apart the ingredients and attempted to reformulate them in a manner more suitable for an American audience. In my opinion, something was definitely lost in the translation.