Police Story

Police Story (警察故事 Ging chaat goo si) is a 1985 Hong Kong action-comedy film written and directed by Jackie Chan, who also played the lead role.

It is the first of the Police Story series featuring Chan as a Hong Kong police detective named "Kevin" Chan Ka-Kui.

Dubbing History[]

The theatrical cut of Police Story was originally dubbed in Hong Kong, written by Barry Haigh. Compared to the other versions, this dub is the most faithful to the original Cantonese dialogue. For many years, this dub was only officially released on a Dutch VHS by the distributor Bestsellers;^[1] it was first made widely available as an "alternative" audio option for Eureka Entertainment's 2018 Blu-ray release for the UK market,^[2] and was later included on Criterion's 2019 American Blu-ray.^[3]

Utilizing the same dub, the film was later cut from 99 minutes to 87 minutes for export. It was first shown in the English-speaking world on September 26, 1987 at the New York Film Festival.^[4] The export version was released on VHS in the U.S. by Cinema Group under the title Jackie Chan's Police Force. In addition to shortening the film, the original music score by Michael Lai was replaced by a score composed by Kevin Bassinson. This version was most recently released on Eureka Entertainment's Blu-ray as a bonus feature.

A re-dubbed version of the export cut was produced in 1998 by New Line Cinema for home video release and TV broadcasts. New Line's dub sticks very close to the original dubbing script. Kevin Bassinson's score was replaced with a new score by J. Peter Robinson, mostly consisting of recycled cues from the composer's scores for Rumble in the Bronx, Police Story 4: First Strike, and Mr. Nice Guy, as well as a remixed sound design. New Line's version was released on VHS and LaserDisc ^[5] in Summer, 1998. New Line also licensed this version for broadcast on the television network UPN. This dub has since disappeared from circulation after the Hong Kong cut became the default version distributed internationally.

A new English dub of the 99 minute Hong Kong theatrical version was produced in or before 2000 for use on home video releases and as the basis for new dubs. Likely dubbed by Omni Productions, the dub is somewhat looser with the dub dialogue than the previous dubs. This dub first appeared on the 2001 Hong Kong Legends UK DVD release.^[6]

A fourth English dub was dubbed around 2004, seemingly also done by Omni Productions. Much of the cast from the previous dub is present in this dub, but in different roles. The dub utilizes much of the same script as the previous, but with some of the peculiarities in the previous script corrected, and also features a remixed 5.1 surround soundtrack. It was originally released on DVD in the United States by Fortune Star in 2006.^[6] Most official dubbed presentations of the film since (aside from the aforementioned Criterion Blu-ray) have used this version, the most recent being Eureka Entertainment's Blu-ray.

Cast[]

Character	Original Actor	Cantonese Voice Actor	Original/Export Dub (1985)	New Line Dub (1998)	Media Asia Dub (2000)	Fortune Star Dub (2004)
Chan Ka Kui	Jackie Chan	Charles Tang Wing-Hung	John Culkin	Ping Wu	Jack Murphy	Darren Pleavin
Salina Fong	Brigitte Lin	Doris Lo	Carolyn Levine	Bridget Hoffman	Andrea Kwan
May	Maggie Cheung	Linna Sim Siu Lan	Elizabeth Oram			Andrea Kwan
Chu Tao	Chor Yuen	Yeung Zit Hong	Tony Moore		Craig Allen	Rik Thomas
John Ko	Charlie Cho	Paul Lo	Warwick Evans
Superintendent Li	Lam Kwok-Hung	Lam Pou Chuen	Warwick Evans		Darren Pleavin	Jack Murphy
Danny Chu Ko	Fung Hak-on	Ku Fung-Ng
Inspector Bill Chou	Bill Tung	Bill Tung	Matthew Oram	Burton Sharp	Rik Thomas
Inspector Man	Kam Hing Yin	Gui Chin	Barry Haigh
Kim	Mars	Chan Wing Shun
Counsellor Cheung	Lau Chi-wing	Lau Chi-wing	Simon Broad
Lee	Tai Po	Chan Wing Shun	Simon Broad
Tak	Kent Tong	Fung Wing Wo
Mad Wing	Wan Fat

Additional Voices[]

Original Dub

Warwick Evans
Elizabeth Oram

New Line Dub

Jessica Gee
Jean Gilpin
Tom Lent
Dina Morrone
Michael Zurich

Notes[]

Character names are given different localization's between the dubs.
- Chan Ka Kui is renamed 'Kevin Chan' in the original dub, and simply as 'Jackie Chan' in the second, third and fourth dubs.
- Salina Fong is renamed 'Selina Fong' in all dubs.
- Chu Tao is renamed 'Tom Koo' in the original and second dubs, and 'Joe Chu' in the third and fourth dubs.
- John Ko is renamed 'John Chow' in the second dub.
- Inspector Bill Chou is renamed 'Inspector Wong' in the original and second dubs, and 'Inspector George' in the third and fourth dubs.
- Inspector Man is renamed 'Sergeant Mao' in the original dub and second dubs and 'Sergeant Ming' in the Omni dubs.
- Mad Wing is renamed 'Jacknife' in the original and second dubs, Crazy Wing in the third dub and Psycho Wing in the fourth dub.
Some interjections and walla were reused from the original dub in the second dub.

Transmission[]

Date(s)	Channel	Country
1998	UPN	United States

Video Releases[]

Distributor	Year	Dub	Region	Country
Palace Video	1987	Export	PAL	United Kingdom
Cinema Group Home Video	1988	Export	NTSC	United States
Bestsellers	1993	Original	PAL	Netherlands
4Front Video	1994	Export	PAL	United Kingdom
New Line Home Video	1998	New Line	NTSC	United States
New Line Home Video	1998	New Line	NTSC	United States
Made in Hong Kong	2000	Export	PAL	United Kingdom
Hong Kong Legends	2001	Media Asia	2 PAL	United Kingdom
Dragon Dynasty	2006	Fortune Star	1 NTSC	United States
Shout! Factory	2013		1 NTSC
Shout! Factory	2013		A ATSC
Eureka Entertainment	2018	Original / Export / Fortune Star	B DVB-T	United Kingdom
The Criterion Collection	2019	Original	A ATSC	United States
Eureka Entertainment	2022	Original / Export / Fortune Star	B DVB-T	United Kingdom