I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Rumble In The Bronx. This impasse extends, generally, to a lot of Asian crossover films of the eighties and nineties, when my biggest obsession was getting to see original versions of Jackie Chan and Jet Li films that were refurbished and marketed accordingly for the target audiences of labels like Dimension Home Video, Miramax, and especially, New Line Cinema.
It would only be years later that I would become a customer to DVD retail sites like HKFlix which largely specialized in imports with specific niches in mind. So, when I came to learn there were different prints of the 1995 film signaling Chan’s crossover 2.0 era, I was strongly curious. Of course, by then, these international titles with longer versions and different audio were either “Out Of Print,” or out of my reach if I were hard up for cash, so I went without.
Alas, it was only recently, and with the help of a friend, that I was able to check out an expansive, unlicensed treatment of the film: a compilation of different releases that honors varying aspects of the overseas release that isn’t in the U.S. version. Eureka’s Black Mask release offers multiple versions including a compilation version of its own, which makes this only the second time I’ve seen a similarly-edited version of a Hong Kong-produced film of this kind.
The release of Rumble In The Bronx from New Line in 1995 couldn’t have come at a better time either, with the studio already riding high off the Hong Kong aesthetics of action proffered in Paul Anderson’s Mortal Kombat. Even the trailer for Tong’s film banks off composer George S. Clinton’s score!
As for the movie, and after some serious deliberation, I’m still really unsure about which version truly is the best. The original, which comes complete with seventeen minutes that were taken out for the film’s U.S. release, conveys what bodes almost entirely as a different film in its own right. The actors are largely undubbed, which is especially rewarding if you just wanna hear the actors and not a just a cavalcade of voice overs that are overwrought to the point of caricature. Plus, the music is different, and select scenes are built on with more context and drama and action beats.
There are even minor snips of the film in between passing scenes and scene changes, which made me wonder what the purpose was for those cuts if only to just make the movie shorter; These cuts were applied with Chan’s involvement. That much I know, although I stop short of believeing that New Line’s release is the best possible version they could have offered to the West.
Really, what this film needs is a repackaged boutique release that gives Chan and Hong Kong cinema fans a storied look into what made this film a reality, and the role it played in Chan’s long journey to worldwide stardom. Indeed, the extended version of Rumble In The Bronx is far from great, but neither is New Line’s plentifully-reduced cut in 1995.
On the plus side, both versions have something special to take away from each of the experiences they offer. New Line’s release had me believing one day I’d be able to do all the cool shit Chan did in the trailer… well, except for face life-and-death jumping from a rooftop parking lot to the fire escape of another building or hang on for dear life aboard a hovercraft in the middle of traffic, or stare down an alley full of glass bottles hurled in my direction at full speed, et cetera…
You get the idea. Cue Chan’s end credits track of the Hong Kong release. No dig on Ash, but this one’s for the fans, especially yours truly.
Song title: “對得起自己” (or “Be Worthy Of Yourself”).
