The Protector (1985 film)

The Protector
Hong Kong film poster
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese威龍猛探
Simplified Chinese威龙猛探
Literal meaningDragon Detective
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinWēi lóng měng tàn
Yue: Cantonese
JyutpingWai1 lung4 maang5 taam3
Directed byJames Glickenhaus
Written byJames Glickenhaus
HK version:
Edward Tang King-sang
Produced byDavid Chan
StarringJackie Chan
Danny Aiello
Roy Chiao
Moon Lee
Peter Yang
Bill Wallace
CinematographyMark Irwin
HK version:
Chang Yiu-tsou
Edited byEvan A. Lottman
HK version:
Peter Cheung
Music byKen Thorne
Production
company
Distributed byGolden Harvest (HK)
Warner Bros. Pictures (US)
Release dates
  • July 11, 1985 (1985-07-11) (HK)
  • August 23, 1985 (1985-08-23) (US)
Running time
95 minutes (US)
92 minutes (HK)
CountriesUnited States
Hong Kong
LanguagesEnglish
Cantonese
Box officeUS$11 million (est.)

The Protector (Chinese: 威龍猛探; lit. 'Dragon Detective') is a 1985 American-Hong Kong buddy cop action film written and directed by James Glickenhaus. It stars Jackie Chan and Danny Aiello, along with Roy Chiao, Peter Yang, Moon Lee, and Bill Wallace. An international co-production between the United States and Hong Kong, this was Chan's second attempt at breaking into the American film market, after 1980’s The Big Brawl, which had moderate box office success but was considered a disappointment. The film also featured Jackie Chan in his third Hollywood role.

Conflicts between Glickenhaus and Chan during production led to two official versions of the film: Glickenhaus' original version for American audiences and a Hong Kong version re-shot and re-edited by Jackie Chan. The original Glickenhaus version was a box office failure in North America, while Chan's edited version was a moderate success in Asia; the film was also moderately successful in Europe.