uzumaki
Joined: 15 May 2006
Posts: 170
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 Posted: Sat Sep 30, 2006 11:14 pm Post subject: Dragon Tiger Gate |
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The combination of Donnie Yen and Wilson Yip intially proved to be a major part of the revitalization of Hong Kong cinema. The hard-hitting, dark and gritty SPL, while not as good as perhaps it was hyped up to be, was a throwback to the HK films of the past. I was excited to hear about their next project, Dragon Tiger Gate (oddly retitled Kill Zone in the US - I guess there was no way to fit "legend" in there), but then I saw it....
While there is indeed some impressive choreography, much of the style and drama found in SPL is replaced here with overt silliness, mounds of bad wigs, and Donnie Yen's ego. Separated during childhood, Dragon (Donnie Yen) and Tiger (Nic Tse) find themselves on opposite sides of a brewing war between The Gate (led by gongfu veteran Yuen Wah) and rival gangs, one of which is led by a Power Rangers-esque baddie. The story is really unimportant as the emotions are really forced and characters are pretty shallow. And as with Tom Yum Goong/The Protector, action scenes alone cannot save this film from sheer ridiculousness. Donnie Yen needs to be taken down a notch before he floats off into the stratosphere on his ego. Oh yeah, and somewhere in there is Shawn Yue (Infernal Affairs 1 and 2, Initial D) as Turbo Shek, wielder of nunchaku and wearer of the worst wig of the film.
This film is another example of what's wrong with Chinese cinema as a whole. This over-emphasis on style has all but ruined the action genre and wuxia pian genre, all for the sake of international sales and, more importantly, exhibition in the US. Because we LOVE that stuff, right? It's really raking in the dough. This is why I love Tsui Hark's Seven Swords. He went back to the basics and delivered an entertaining film. Oh well, at least some of these action/wuxia pian films don't have Zhang Ziyi looking constipated/angry for 2 hours.
Bah. |
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