Super Snooper (1980) April 26, 2010
Posted by Cal in : Blogroll, Comedy, Action, 1980s films, Non-Asian , add a commentDirector: Sergio Corbucci Starring: Terence Hill; Ernest Borgnine; Marc Lawrence Territory: Italy; USA; Spain
Conscientious cop Dave Speed (Terence Hill) accidentally gets irradiated with Red Plutonium in a government experiment while serving a routine traffic violation ticket. The accident bestows super powers on him, much to the exasperation of his long-suffering partner Sergeant Dunlop (Ernest Borgnine). The only problem is, Speed’s powers abruptly disappear whenever he sees the colour red…
This is one of those films that seriously wowed me as a kid. So much so, in fact, that out of, say Jaws, Star Wars and Super Snooper, I would have had a tough time choosing my favourite. I think the fact that the movie was not readily available on home video added to the mystique a lot.
Seeing it as an adult is a different experience altogether, and of course time has a harsh way of treating comedy sometimes. Directed by Sergio Corbucci of Django and The Great Silence fame (two films I really must get around to re-watching and writing about at some point), there is a feeling that this movie was banged out quickly. Certainly it had no budget to speak of. But cheap quickies are often what this blog’s about, and Super Snooper remains a fun film if you have low expectations and don’t examine the cracks too carefully.
Yes, there are some pretty glaring anomalies. It strikes me as really odd, for instance, that after Speed’s accident, Dunlop is busted down to traffic cop and out directing cars immediately following his friend’s apparent death. But I’ve come to accept such oddities as being in line with European sensibilities and just kind of go with the flow these days.
There are a few nods to Hill’s westerns with Speed’s love of cowboy hats and beans, and the knockabout humour is all present and accounted for. The tale of Speed’s downfall is told in flashback (a device I have a particular weakness for, as regular readers will attest to) and you can’t help rooting for the guy. As a side note, I happen to think this film had quite an influence on my views on the death penalty – how can such a nice guy as Dave Speed be on Death Row? So file Super Snooper alongside The Green Mile in your video collection!
Super Snooper is only sporadically funny these days, but there’s still at least one belly-laugh in there and the hokey effects just add to the charm. To say nothing of the catchy and damn impossible to forget disco theme tune. Nostalia is what it used to be. Almost.
My Name is Nobody (1973) April 21, 2010
Posted by Cal in : Blogroll, Comedy, Action, 1970s films, Non-Asian , 3 commentsDirector: Tonino Valerii; Sergio Leone (uncreditted) Starring: Terence Hill; Henry Fonda Territory: Italy; France; Germany
“Sometimes you run smack into your destiny on the very road you take to get away from it.” So says young gun Nobody (Terence Hill) to aging gunfighter Jack Beauregard (Henry Fonda) in the Leone produced My Name Is Nobody. Leone also had a hand in directing this film about saying farewell to the old West, and his stamp is to be seen all over the movie.
This was the last western that Fonda appeared in, and was shot at the tail end of the Italian Western craze. It’s therefore ironic (or incredibly prescient) that the film is about bowing out and riding off into the sunset in style. When Beauregard first meets Nobody, he thinks he’s another young hotshot come to take him down, when in fact he is a besotted fan. Nobody tries to persuade the gunslinger to go out with a bang by taking down the Wild Bunch (no, not that Wild Bunch), a group of a hundred-and-fifty bloodthirsty cutthroats who use the local goldmine to smelt their stolen gold. Nobody doesn’t take no for an answer despite Beauregard’s disdain and apathy for his plan, and takes to dogging him with a mix of praise and provocation.
Leone’s involvement is evident right from the start of the film - a tense, long scene is drawn out involving little dialogue and lots of close ups of craggy-faced outlaws before a brief (blink and you miss it – I did) and brutal gunfight. It’s hard to see at this point how the film ended up as a comedy, and that is perhaps the biggest criticism you can make of the film – the tone is quite inconsistent. Obviously, Hill’s now established brand of physical humour and geniality was a box-office draw, but he sometimes feels out of place in the film, particularly as he is the titular character. While inconsistency of tone is a mild complaint, the one thing I really objected to was the inclusion of a “slap fight” virtually identical to the one in Trinity Is Still My Name. It smacks of laziness and unoriginality to lift a scene almost directly from a previous film, especially one that was such a hit.
Nevertheless, there is a lot to enjoy in My Name Is Nobody, especially if you like Italian Westerns. Ennio Morricone, a man synonymous with Leone and the Italian Western, provides the score, and of course provides a fantastically memorable set of compositions. The theme to the Wild Bunch (no, still not that Wild Bunch) is a little goofy, and includes a synthesized snippet of Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries. It suffers the distinction of being catchy, memorable and annoying all at the same time, and was stolen wholesale for this Hong Kong film (mystery solved, if you skip to the last paragraph of that review). Nobody’s theme, though, is simply brilliant.
My Name is Nobody seems to have been crafted with genuine love, and from the first few frames feels like a last hurrah for the genre. While some might have preferred a less comic send off, the film has a valid message to deliver. And humour has a way of tempering such devices as sentimentality, and I’ve seldom seen an action comedy film that handles emotion as well as this.
They Call Me Trinity (1970) April 6, 2010
Posted by Cal in : Blogroll, Comedy, Action, 1970s films, Non-Asian , 2 commentsDirector: Enzo Barboni (as EB Clucher) Starring: Terence Hill; Bud Spencer; Farley Granger Territory: Italy
When I first saw the movies of Jackie Chan, which introduced me to Hong Kong cinema, I was struck by an unshakeable sense of familiarity about them. It took me a while for the penny to drop, but eventually I realised that they bore more than a casual resemblance to the films of Terence Hill.
Terence Hill was pretty darn massive in my little 10-year-old world, and watching him on the big screen was a joy that was seldom bettered. Seeing as how our family didn’t go to the cinema very often, I’m surprised how many I’d seen before the home video systems became popular. Ironically, one film I don’t believe I ever saw was They Call Me Trinity, perhaps his most popular and enduring film.
Telling the tale of a horse thief and his brother (Spencer and Hill, respectively) posing as lawmen in a small frontier town, the duo abandon their dishonest intentions and intervene against an unscrupulous landowner intent in driving away a settlement of peaceful Mormons. The heroes, despite being ne’er-do-wells, are just and moral, the victims are humble and noble, and the villains are very bad indeed. Throw in some slapstick from Hill and some grumpy brute-force shenanigans from Spencer, and you have a template that if Jackie Chan had done a scene-for-scene remake in the early eighties with himself in the title role and Sammo Hung in the role of Bambino, no one would have batted an eyelid.
I never could understand as a ten-year-old why people’s lips didn’t match up to the dialogue in Terence Hill movies – the concept of foreign language movies was completely alien to me then (and besides, Terence Hill is American, right? Right??), but most of the dialogue in They Call Me Trinity seems to have been spoken in English, and where it wasn’t, there was one hell of a good dub job done.
It’s all good fun, and bears repeated viewing surprisingly well. Some of the humour hasn’t aged too well (another thing Hill’s films have in common with Chan’s) but there’s still enough to raise a smile at the very least. And if you’re in the right frame of mind, there will be a few chuckles to be had as well. But, again like the films of Jackie Chan, the fun comes from the good-natured struggle of good versus evil (with a lower case “e”) and the physical humour on display. Stuff like this will always be worth watching.
Yes, Madam! (1985) January 19, 2010
Posted by Cal in : Comedy, Action, 1980s films , 2 commentsDirector: Corey Yuen Kwai Main cast: Michelle Yeoh; Cynthia Rothrock; John Shum; Mang Hoi; Tsui Hark Territory: Hong Kong
An incriminating piece of gang-related evidence has been inadvertently stolen by a pair of bumbling crooks (John Shum and Mang Hoi), who take great pains to save their skin while on the run from the police and the Triads. Meanwhile, a special task force is drawn up to bring the crime syndicate down, and Inspector Ng (Yeoh) teams up with her foreign counterpart Morris (Rothrock). Together despite their open scepticism of each other, they take on the crime lord and his army, but may have met their match with the petty criminals in possession of the crucial evidence…
I’ve said it before, but there are certain things about Hong Kong action films from the 80s that instil a feeling of warm cosy familiarity that is hard to shake off even if the film itself doesn’t live up to expectations. Tacky synth soundtrack? Check. Silly hairstyles and clothes? Check. Dick Wei as the main evil henchman? Check. John Shum larking about? Check. James Tien as the smug, arrogant villain? Check, check check. Throw in a cameo by Richard Ng (and Sammo Hung, producer of the project) at no extra cost, and you have all the hallmarks of Hong Kong cinema from the period that arguably produced its most well loved genre films.
However, Yes, Madam! is strangely lacking focus. The two leads share relatively little of the screen time, while the comic team of John Shum and Mang Hoi take centre stage. While their overly “shouty” routines wear thin after a while (for me, about ten minutes into the film) there are a few touches of genuine humour in there, and the proceedings are livened up immensely by the addition of Tsui Hark as their forger friend. And the scene where the pair keep trying to get locked up to avoid the Triad gang only for the two police women to keep releasing them is pretty funny.
When the two female leads take the screen, there is a definite lack of chemistry between them. Although the film contrives to create a cop buddy movie atmosphere, there is very little character development. While most would argue that this is an action movie and therefore to hell with character development, I would still have liked a bit of flesh on the bones, so to speak.
Mind you, the action scenes are pretty damn good. But when you throw the likes of Michelle Yeoh, Dick Wei and Chung Faat into the mix, something pretty damn good should come out of it. Speaking of Chung Faat, his character is bloody hilarious, despite not delivering a single line of dialogue that I can recall. It’s impossible to think that someone looking the way he does could have stayed on the streets for so long without being identified as demonic. Put it this way, he doesn’t look human…
Some mention must be made to the film’s misogyny and dubious dialogue. Well, if you’re very sensitive, you will probably find Yes, Madam! pretty offensive. Personally, a lot of the insults are so outrageously over the top that I found most of it quite funny. My favourite line is delivered by Tien, who, when being tackled by Yeoh, admonishes her with: “if you want to show off, do it in the kitchen!”
Yes, Madam! is not a solid gold movie classic, with its reliance on comedy skits and with an unsatisfactory conclusion, but is one of the best films in Rothrock’s extremely variable filmography. And Michelle Yeoh fans should be pretty happy if they can live with the fact that her physical skills are used somewhat sparingly.
Exiled (2006) December 1, 2009
Posted by Cal in : Action, Drama, Thriller, 2000s films , 2 commentsDirector: Johnny To Main cast: Anthony Wong; Francis Ng; Roy Cheung; Lam Suet; Simon Yam Territory: Hong Kong
A group of Triad hitmen arrive at the home of Wo (Nick Cheung) in Macau, assigned to kill him. After a brief firefight, they sit down to talk things over. It transpires that Wo knows his would-be killers very well – he was part of their gang and grew up with them. Blaze (Anthony Wong), Cat (Roy Cheung), Fat (Lam Suet) and Tai (Francis Ng) eventually disregard their orders, much to the annoyance of Boss Fay (Simon Yam), who ordered the hit.
Exiled burst onto the screens in 2006, and was the perfect antidote to the growing trend of style-over-substance, CGI-heavy Hong Kong movies. What’s more, there are no giggling/pouting pretty boy/girl pop stars here. Instead, we have a wealth of acting talent headed by the wonderful Anthony Wong, who just seems to get more miserable-looking as he gets older – in this, you’d think the man had never smiled in his life!
It throws the viewer in at the deep end right from the start. One minute Blaze and company are shooting at Wo and the next minute Wo’s cooking them all a meal - during which Blaze finds a stray bullet in his tea, leading to much laughter amongst the gang. But the film drips information on a regular basis and pretty soon you know what’s going on as long as you’re prepared to join the dots occasionally.
It quickly becomes apparent that Boss Fay (Simon Yam in his default mode) is the real villain of the piece, and the only character without any redeeming features. After a particularly exciting gunfight with Fay, Blaze’s life is saved by Wo, but the latter is injured and has to go to an “underground clinic” – a surgery run by a quack but the only place a Triad member can be treated without having to answer some serious questions. This leads to an unfortunate meeting that you should see coming but don’t, in a scene that starts off pretty humorously and ends in more gunplay and a shocking conclusion.
Johnny To nods to the spaghetti western at various times and there’s even a scene that’s reminiscent of Leone’s For a Few Dollars More, but it’s film noir that he seems to be mainly aiming for. Later in the film we have some outdoor scenes filmed in a very unusual, almost surreal, way. It’s here that we encounter Chan (Richie Ren), the sharpshooting cop guarding a cache of gold, and the film works itself up to the finale.
The whole package is wonderful – the story, the characters, the action, everything. It also has a great soundtrack that matches the tone of the film perfectly. The only fly in the ointment is some horribly invasive product placement and a pretty pointless appearance by ineffective cop Shan (Hui Siu-Hung) who is literally counting the hours until his retirement. But these are small criticisms compared to the engrossing and uplifting experience of watching a film that bucks the trend of Hong Kong films and delivers something essential. It’s probably not a coincidence that the film is set in the 90s, and stylistically feels from that period. It does have a couple of CGI shots, but on the whole seems very organic and natural and very much like the way Hong Kong films used to be made before the digital age. The setting of the very European-looking Macau over Hong Kong is also a great choice, and some of the locations are brilliantly atmospheric.
Exiled is an essential viewing experience and a must-see for even the most casual fan of the genre.
Lam Suet-o-meter: Very high! In fact, one of the most prominent roles I’ve seen him in. Rejoice!
The Myth (2005) August 30, 2009
Posted by Cal in : Comedy, Action, 2000s films , 6 commentsDirector: Stanley Tong Main cast: Jackie Chan; Kim Hee-Sun; Tony Leung Ka-Fai; Mallika Sherawat Territory: Hong Kong
Jack (Jackie Chan) is an archaeologist plagued with recurring dreams of being a general in Qin dynasty China, escorting the Emperor’s new concubine Ok Soo (Kim Hee-Sun) through hostile territory. During his waking hours, Jack and his friend William (Tony Leung Ka-Fai) search an Indian tomb for a device that can counteract the laws of gravity. While there, Jack finds evidence that his dreams may in fact be his past life, and that the princess may have been real.
Much to my surprise, I’ve never done a review for this film before. I think it might have something to do with watching this over the festive period a few years ago and not really remembering much about it – probably as a result of drinking alcohol. In any case, the simple fact of the matter is that The Myth is a nice idea that is quite badly executed.
The film is split into two timelines – Qin dynasty China (where Chan is bizarrely dubbed for his Mandarin lines unless I’m very much mistaken) and present day Hong Kong. It soon becomes apparent that the period scenes just don’t work on any level and soon become increasingly irritating. When you think of Jackie Chan, you don’t immediately think of period epics, and this looks like someone thought it would be a good idea to jump on the House of Flying Daggers bandwagon.
On the other hand, the modern day thread is surprisingly entertaining. Tony Leung Ka-Fai plays a good stooge to Chan and their banter is favourably reminiscent of the Armour of God dynamic between Chan and Alan Tam. Furthermore, one of the more successful sequences of the film involves Mallika Sherawat and a glue factory. It’s a scene that is forced and contrived and has every sight gag clearly signposted, but is no less fun for it. In fact, it’s classic Chan from beginning to end.
The problem is that these flashes of entertainment never last long enough. Both the Tony Leung character and Sherawat’s character are dispensed with just when you’re getting into the fun and you’re thrown back into the story, which is frankly not that interesting. As with a lot of Jackie Chan films made from the 90s onwards, the story has great ambition but ends up being messy and confused. A villain is introduced later in the film and I’m still a little hazy as to what he’s doing there.
It’s not just the garbled plotting that causes problems. There is some truly awful CGI work in this film, particularly when it comes to shots of horses fighting each other. Whoever thought that these shots could work needs to be kicked out of the business right now – it sounds like the bright idea of a sugared-up eight-year-old kid. There are also problems in the script department, and the age-old problem of a Chinese (and Indian) cast speaking English crops up yet again, with portions of dialogue being quite hard to understand. There’s also a speech given by Tony Leung that just makes me cringe. He’s talking about myths, and says that a hundred years ago, landing on the moon was just a myth. Erm, no. Landing on the moon was a dream, an aspiration, but not a myth because nobody had done it yet. I’m prepared to concede that this is a translation problem and just one of those language quirks that are hard to get around, but it still sounds totally boneheaded.
To sum up, The Myth is not terribly great - and at just over two hours in length, it’s also noticeably bloated. Which is a terrible shame as it has some really fun elements and a couple of great scenes. I’ve always said that Jackie Chan films work best on a smaller scale, and this is a classic example of what happens when you try to add too many ingredients to the pot. And it’s getting quite funny when characters refer to Mr Chan as “young man” without a trace of irony. And is it just me, or does Tony Leung Ka-Fai look confusingly similar to Ken Lo? And does the book at the end really have “The Mnth” written on the cover?
Flash Point (2007) August 23, 2009
Posted by Cal in : Action, Thriller, 2000s films , 4 commentsDirector: Wilson Yip Wai-Shun Main cast: Donnie Yen; Louis Koo; Fan Bing-Bing; Ray Liu Territory: Hong Kong
Hong Kong cop Ma (Donnie Yen) tries to take down a ruthless Triad gang led by three Vietnamese immigrants. Helping him is his partner Wilson (Louis Koo), who is working undercover in the gang. When one of the leaders gets arrested, the others start wiping out suspects one by one until only Wilson remains. When the Triad bosses discover Wilson’s true identity, Ma is forced to wage war against the gang to save his friend.
Again, I’m probably the last person claiming to be a Hong Kong film fan to actually see this film. I don’t know why, but I’ve always put it off. Well, I’ve got a good idea it’s the title. Flash Point is one of the best examples of the brainless two-word action film titling I can think of. It means nothing, is instantly forgettable and was probably decided by rolling a pair of dice and consulting a list of “tough words”. Moreover, the film’s plot reeks of generic unoriginality, and Donnie Yen has always been a bit patchy for my liking.
Well, the good news (and you probably all know this already) is Flash Point is actually really good. Yes, the story is unoriginal and by-the-numbers, but the mix of Triad drama and high action works better than you’d think.
Originally conceived as a prequel to the hugely successful SPL (and with both director Wilson Yip and star Donnie Yen on board), the film is set in 1997 Hong Kong, just before the takeover. The first half runs like a straight Triad thriller (albeit slightly confusing until you get a grip on the story) with almost no action at all, while the second half is almost all action. While this could have killed the film stone dead, the characters get room to breath and the viewer gets the chance to bond or despise them as appropriate.
The supporting cast are workmanlike and there isn’t really a memorable character amongst them, apart from Louis Koo’s mole in the underground gang. Elsewhere Fan Bing-Bing pops up to play a totally undemanding damsel in distress girlfriend role, and Kent Cheng demonstrates just why you should never put aluminium foil in a microwave. It’s a good job then that Donnie Yen and his choreography saves the day – despite him not actually grabbing much screen time early on in proceedings.
One can only wonder why Yen hasn’t performed action choreography like this through his entire career, but the fights in Flash Point are simply breathtaking. Unlike the Yip/Yen collaboration it followed, Dragon Tiger Gate, the special effects do not get in the way of the enjoyment of the fights and while there simply had to be a bunch of CGI shots in there, most check out cerebrally. This film includes some of the most dangerous looking stunt and combat scenes I’ve seen from Hong Kong since the days of Jackie Chan’s 80s hey-day and I have to admit I loved every full-contact second of it.
When the dust settled and the ending credits rolled, I couldn’t help comparing this with SPL, and deciding that Flash Point wasn’t quite as satisfying as a film experience. Despite that, it is a hugely enjoyable film and the bone-breaking action scenes will keep me coming back for more.
Delinquent Girl Boss: Worthless to Confess (1971) July 11, 2009
Posted by Cal in : Action, 1970s films, Exploitation, Bad Films , 2 commentsDirector: Kazuhiko Yamaguchi Main cast: Reiko Oshida; Masumi Tachibana; Yukie Kagawa Territory: Japan
How can you pass up the opportunity to see a film called Delinquent Girl Boss: Worthless to Confess? Apparently the fourth instalment in a series of quickly made Pinky Violence films, this one doesn’t have much “pink”, but has a fair bit of violence…
It also has a barely-there plot about a wayward daughter and her estranged father paying off her debts. There’s a bit of a moral message in there too and a sizeable chunk of melodrama. But mostly it’s about a bad good girl (or good bad girl, depending on your point of view) Rika (Reiko Oshida) and her former jailhouse chums kicking the ass of a Yakuza mob.
Delinquent Girl Boss: Worthless to Confess is not a well made film. It screams cheap and quick, and even has one shot along a street where a passer-by stops and looks straight into the camera and watches intently as the shot progresses. But Reiko is cute with her long hair and short skirts, and is even better when she’s in mourning when she favours hot pants and knee boots. If you’ve been following these pages for any amount of time you’ll know I have a particular soft spot for the style and kitsch of this era, and I loved the night club scene where an entire rock band start mining along with a piano-and-vocal-only song.
As mentioned earlier, there isn’t a whole lot of nudity in the film, but there are a few laughably obvious scenes (a bath scene in a women’s prison springs to mind). There are also a few really strange touches, like when a minor “sister” character appears to playfully fondle Rika’s breasts for no reason and the inclusion of a few mild allusions to underwear fetishism. The standard revenge plot, when it kicks in, will not have anyone in suspense, but delivers a bucket or two of blood.
All in all, Delinquent Girl Boss: Worthless to Confess is enjoyable but light sexploitation/revenge flick fodder. Quite good for a Sunday afternoon, but unlikely to be in anyone’s ‘classic’ list.
The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008) July 7, 2009
Posted by Cal in : Comedy, Action, 2000s films , 2 commentsDirector: Kim Ji-woon Main cast: Song Kang-ho; Lee Byung-hun; Jung Woo-sung Territory: South Korea
Not so much a remake (or parody) of Sergio Leone’s classic western adventure, The Good, the Bad, the Weird is more of a variation on a theme. We have our three central characters more or less corresponding to the template set down in Leone’s film, but the focus is firmly on Yoon Tae-goo (Song Kang-ho), or the ‘Weird’.
All three are chasing an unspecified and vague treasure buried in the Manchurian desert in the 1930s. However, to get the treasure they need the treasure map, which is usually (but not always) held by Tae-goo. On his tail are the ‘Good’ – bounty hunter Park Do-wan (Jung Woo-sung), and the ‘Bad’ – psychotic gang boss Park Chang-yi (Lee Byung-hun).
The film moves at a breakneck speed and contains enough dry humour that a smile is never far away. Although not excessively violent (the odd finger-chopping moment notwithstanding), the gunplay is surprisingly hard-hitting and brutal. And when the ruling Japanese army want a slice of the treasure, things get even more explosive – literally. With so many bangs, laughs and chases, it’s hard not to have a good time, and fans of a good MacGuffin will love the treasure map and its travels throughout the film. The action scenes in The Good, the Bad, the Weird are surprisingly free of CGI (or so it appears), which is heartening and some of the stunts look refreshingly ‘real’.
The star of the show though is undoubtedly Song Kang-ho, who seems to have appeared in about half of the Korean films I’ve seen so far. His character appears a close relative of the devious Tuco of Leone’s film, and both of the other main characters drop into the shadows quite often. If there can be a criticism of The Good, the Bad, the Weird, it is the fact that these other two are nowhere near as well drawn as Tae-goo. In fact, while ‘the Bad’ has an ultra-hip style and a neat way of killing a centipede (and also a sliver of intrigue with a rumour of a rivalry between him and Tae-goo), ‘the Good’ is out-and-out boring. In a film running just over two hours’ in length, you can forget his involvement in the plot for most of it.
But character development is not the main point of The Good, the Bad, the Weird. It is an action spectacle well on a par with anything Hollywood can produce (and a lot more fun than the latest blockbusters produced in the west) and is a definite must-see for action film fans, western fans and fans of anything a bit funny and quirky – and that should include all of my readership, frankly. It’s not as good as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, but then very little is. It is, however, easy to enjoy this film as well as the original, and no prior knowledge is needed to get the most out of it.
Dragon Tiger Gate (2006) June 29, 2009
Posted by Cal in : Action, 2000s films , 5 commentsDirector: Wilson Yip Main cast: Donnie Yen; Nicholas Tse; Shawn Yu Territory: Hong Kong
Childhood friends Dragon (Donnie Yen) and Tiger (Nicholas Tse) reunite as adults on different sides of the Dragon Tiger Gate, a place where youngsters are taught to become heroes. While Tiger has become an upstanding citizen, Dragon has become the top muscle for the criminal Lousha gang and its masked head, Shibumi. The two friends come together with the help of nunchaku-wielding friend Turbo (Shawn Yu) when the master of Dragon Tiger Gate (Yuen Wah) is killed by Shibumi.
I realise I’m incredibly late with this one. Generating massive buzz back in 2006, I’ve only just got around to seeing it. Reuniting director Yip and Donnie Yen from the previous year’s superior action film SPL, and chucking a sizable budget at the screen, the hopes were high for Dragon Tiger Gate.
Dragon Tiger Gate starts with a bang, and delivers high energy action from choreographer Yen – who incidentally seems to have found a time machine somewhere along his travels as he appears to be getting younger as the years go by. While the action is along the more fantastic wire-fu variety, it is delivered in an exciting way and almost never ceases to be enjoyable. The inclusion of Turbo and his ever-present nunchaku grounds the film in some kind of reality when he’s present (barring some special effects shots) and the mixture works well.
However, the narrative isn’t so good. I suspect a lot of this is down to being based on a comic strip – there are far too many characters and back-stories thrown in that it quickly becomes frustrating. I imagine fans of the comic strip will appreciate the detail and thoroughness of Dragon Tiger Gate’s weaving storylines, but personally I thought the film could have lost a few characters and not been any the worse for it. Again, this is probably obvious for fans of the source material, but I found the partly modern urban and partly dark fantasy settings a bit strange. It’s always going to be hard to fit a well-established literary serial into a 94-minute movie, but I just wished they’d have simplified it a bit for newbies.
It’s always nice to see Yuen Wah in an action role (albeit rather digitally enhanced) and he has a good, meaty role as Master Wong. Other than him and the leads, though, the rest is all pretty forgettable, except for a scene with a fully dressed Li Xiao-Ran taking a dip in a swimming pool. Even third lead Turbo is somewhat a mystery and even though I love nunchaku scenes I thought his character was surplus to requirements.
With so many people praising Hong Kong’s action sequences in an age where they are no longer as accomplished as they used to be and ignoring their much improved ability to tell a good story, it’s always a shocker to see something directly to the contrary. And that’s what Dragon Tiger Gate is for me – a lot of good action scenes with some less inspired dialogue and uninteresting characters in between.