I watched the new Dragon Dynasty DVD of SHANGHAI EXPRESS, better known as MILLIONAIRES’ EXPRESS (1986), an all-star action comedy directed by and starring Sammo Hung. I’ve seen this before in an English-dubbed VHS tape (Lord-knows-where-I-got-it) and in a theatrical screening at a Chinatown theater some years ago. I also have an old Universe DVD of it, one of the first DVDs I bought.

This new disc looks great and has some nice extras, including new interviews with Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao and Cynthia Rothrock. Bey Logan provides a commentary track.

One of the extras is a series of four “Deleted Scenes.” The first and longest of the four is a five-minute scene near the beginning of the film where Sammo rescues five prostitutes from a big-city brothel by giving a speech to the women protesters who’ve come to close down the brothel and he winds up taking the prostitutes (who include Rosamund Kwan and Cherie Chung) out with him, past the protestors. The other three deleted scenes are short action gags during the final battle royal in the town (they add up to 1 minute and 37 seconds total).

I remember seeing the big scene with the prostitutes in one of my earlier screenings, probably on the big screen. I just checked the old Universe DVD and ALL of the deleted scenes are in that cut. Total running time of the Universe DVD: 96 min. Total running time of Dragon Dynasty cut: 102 min.

So there are obviously scenes (12 min. worth) in the new disc that aren’t in the old one. I remember when I saw it in a theater ten or so years ago and I went home and checked my VHS tape (this was pre-DVD) and noticed that both cuts had scenes that weren’t in the other version. I don’t remember if I took notes on them or not.

In his interview, Sammo Hung talks about all the scenes he shot with major Hong Kong stars, mostly comic bits, that he eventually took out of the film because it made it too long.

Now, my only complaint about the film is that it’s too short and certainly could have used far more action at the end (the big fight finale is only about 15 minutes or less), as well as more comic bits during the long buildup. I could have stood for a two-hour or two-and-a-half-hour version of this. I like epic comedies. IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD (1963) was almost three hours long and it’s one of my favorite movies. I like THE BLUES BROTHERS (1980) a lot, which is 136 minutes, and wish that it were longer, as its director had intended.

Now I doubt that any of the footage Sammo didn’t use still exists anywhere, but if it did, that would have made an even greater extra. If only just to see how these stars were used.

But, my big question is…why are the deleted scenes in an earlier (shorter) release, but not in this one?

Just curious.

The Collectors Edition DVD of THE BLUES BROTHERS runs 148 minutes, not as long as John Landis had intended but still longer.

Thanks for the heads-up, Bob, I'm gonna look for that.

Getting back to SHANGHAI EXPRESS, I've always wondered why Jackie Chan wasn't involved and which part he would have played if he had been. This is not alluded to in the interviews at all, although Bey Logan makes a brief reference to it in the commentary when he wonders if the Kenny Bee part of the government agent was intended for Jackie, although Bey says he'd asked Sammo about that and Sammo had denied it.


Also, one of the great thrills of watching this film again after so many years is that I can now pick out so many of the kung fu greats in the cast without looking at a cast list (if I can even find a complete one), whereas I wasn't that familiar with many of them the last time I saw the film, e.g. Wang Lung Wei, Phillip Ko, Lau Kar Wing, Hwang Jang Li, Hsiao Hou, Chin Kar Lok, etc.