March 12, 2007
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It will beat you till you smile.Am I dreaming? Is this possible? Did someone slip some psychedelic drugs into my Fruit Loops this morning? I mean, am I really this lucky? After experiencing the oh-so wonderful Wilson Yip/Donnie Yen/Sammo Hung crime-fu masterpiece SPL (aka Killzone) just a few months ago, I never would have thought I'd get ANOTHER Yip/Yen collaboration in the same year. Ah, the joys of all-region ownership. Anyway, I was pretty psyched to find myself sitting down with Dragon Tiger Gate, which promised even more martial arts mayhem set within a slightly fantastic world in the not-so-distant future. Right on!
Err, wait a second. Wait just a bloody second, here. Why does 90% of the cast look as though they just stepped out of a J-pop video? Why does Donnie Yen look 20 years younger than he really is? And why did I find myself nodding off when I should've been bouncing off the walls with unadulterated excitement? In their haste to make a dramatic action picture with a heart, Yip and Yen forgot to put the snap in the kick, so to speak. Whoops. It looks and sounds decent, mind you, but there's just something missing, as if attempting to slip a little melodrama into the proceedings ultimately ruined what could have been a solid comic book adaptation. Gotta hate it when a weak story gets in the way of great action.
I know I hate it when that happens.
After saving a family from a group of sadistic debt collections, martial arts master Tiger Wong finds himself in the possession of a very important plaque, one that symbolizes the partnership between a vicious street gang and a creepy masked villain called Shibumi who, apparently, would like nothing more than to rule the world. Or something. Anyway, during this first-reel skirmish, Tiger finds himself facing the formidable Dragon Wong, who just so happens to be Tiger's older brother. Imagine that.
To make a long, drawn-out story short, Dragon retrieves the plaque for his boss Kwun, realizes he needs to return to Dragon Tiger Gate -- the karate school/orphanage/shelter where he spent some time as a child -- and convinces Kwun to retire early so he can do so. Deciding that his bodyguard might be onto something, that it may be time to leave this seedy world of crime behind, Kwun reluctantly returns the cherished plaque to the dreaded, ill-tempered Shibumi.
This, of course, irritates the masked crime lord immensely, causing him to send a gaggle of weirdo henchmen to end the old man's life. Armed to the teeth, they decend upon Kwun at his daughter's little league game, though Dragon manages to dispense a little damage of his own before all is said and done. Word soon gets back to Shibumi that a student of Dragon Tiger Gate prevented his henchmen from killing Kwun's daughter, forcing the evil mastermind to take revenge on the entire school/orphanage/shelter. Now, bound together by a tragic loss, Dragon, Tiger, and their buddy Turbo join forces to defeat the madman who destroyed their childhood memories.
Um, yeah.
Confused? Sorry about that. You see, despite a fairly simple premise, Dragon Tiger Gate's charm is essentially lost in the details. There are quite a few snore-inducing flashbacks featuring Dragon and Tiger as children, as well as a number of subplots involving their respective love interests AND the wet-behind-the-ears Turbo, who apparently wants nothing more in life than to master every functional form of kung fu. It all could have been very interesting -- it SHOULD have been very interesting -- but there's really not enough character development for you to really give a damn about anyone.
I mean, who cares about Dragon's hot-cold love affair with Shibumi's daughter if the filmmakers can't be bothered to flesh her out? Who cares about Tiger's budding relationship with Xiaoling if she's as thin as Nicole Richie after a four-week meth binge? Who cares about Turbo's limp kung fu if we know absolutely nothing about him? Though I rarely say this when it comes to goofy martial arts movies, I do believe Dragon Tiger Gate could have benefited from another fifteen minutes or so of good old-fashioned CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. I mean, if you really want us to care about your melodramatic booble-baggle, give us some characters we can relate to. Make them human. FLESH THEM OUT. Otherwise, you're just wasting our time. And yours. But mostly ours.
Silly scripts and forgettable characters aside, Dragon Tiger Gate does sport a number of breath-taking fight sequences, choreographed by none other than Mr. Donnie Yen himself, a man who will not hesitate to stick himself in the middle of a fray that requires him to pose, posture, and mug for the camera. Granted, Yen's a good-looking guy with skills to spare, but do we need a dozen or so shots of him in too-cool slow-motion stances after wiping the floor with four dozen non-descript bad guys? Not really.
However, seeing as how Yen's the man responsible for piecing together some truly amazing fights, I'll forgive him this trespass. ONCE. I mean, if I had the opportunity to look really hot while kicking some cinematic ass, I'd probably do so, too. How remarkably sad. Anyway, the action is truly the only reason you'll waste your time with this one. It's a good reason,of course, but you'll have to wade through some clunky acting and lots of unintentionally hilarious dialogue in the meantime. Thankfully, the movie is well-paced and relatively short, leaving little room for lag. A few yawns, maybe, but not a lot of lag.
I'm definitely not saying that Dragon Tiger Gate is a bad movie. What I am saying, however, is you could do a lot better than this if you're in the mood for some Yip/Yen madness. SPL was a gritty return to pure Hong Kong action, a film that took its time developing the individuals you were to care about. And by the time Yen and Hung lock horn in the final act, you felt that raw intensity in the pit of your stomach. Dragon Tiger Gate, meanwhile, is just another flashy martial arts picture stuffed with attractive guys and gals fighting for no good reason.
And sometimes, just sometimes, it's nice to have a good reason.
Posted by
The Film Fiend
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