Director: Peter Chan
Writers: Joyce Chan, Oi Wah Lam
Starring: Donnie Yen, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Wei Tang
There are two things I love in this world: Martial arts
films and Sherlock Holmes (or crime thrillers in general but Holmes is
consistently excellent). Wouldn’t you know it, someone decided to mash the two
violently together into a cinematic pulp. Unfortunately, the result of this
merging process caused the product, the film ‘Dragon’, to be quite messy. If
nothing else, the idea to mix the two genres was an excellent one and whoever
thought that up should be commended. So whoever you are, I commend you.
Crazy hands man, Donnie Yen, plays Liu Jinxi, a simple
papermaker who, when trying to fight a duo of robbers, he accidentally kills
one of the most wanted men in China. However, not all is quite what it seems
when hat-wearing detective, Xu Bai-jiu (Takeshi Kaneshiro), becomes suspicious
of Jinxi’s outward innocence. Perhaps, Bai-Jiu was right to be suspicious.
Undoubtedly, the best part of this film is the first act. As
the film establishes Bai-Jiu, some really incredible visuals are utilised,
reminiscent of Sherlock (both the BBC version and Guy Ritchie’s films). A part
of the character that makes him so interesting is his motivation. Having been
taken advantage of in the past, Bai-Jiu now uses needles to chemically inhibit
his empathy; he sees empathy as something that only gets in the way of the
course of justice. The scenes that show
his deduction process are by far the best in the film as he uses his seemingly
endless knowledge of both history and biology.
In terms of the action scenes, this film is par for the
course. There are some crazy moments but the fighting itself is nothing that
isn’t expected. Considering this film is a relatively unknown one in the
martial arts film scene (you would have to go a long way to find someone who
knows about this film).
Mediocre action is somewhat forgivable in this film because,
in this film, the fighting serves as context for the sleuthing adventure rather
than being the focal point of the film, which is the norm for martial arts
films. This is mainly just to say that if you are looking at this film
expecting a conga line of spectacular fight scenes like in Ip Man or Crouching
Tiger Hidden Dragon; that is certainly not what you are going to get.
The main issue that I have with this film is pretty much the
only thing that stops it from being a hugely fun martial arts film. That issue
is that the second and third acts of the film squander all the originality
built up in the first. It’s not that the rest of the film is particularly awful
but in comparison to the beginning, it felt massively generic. Something about
a gang and we need to kill this guy. That is a comprehensive synopsis of the
last two thirds of this film. The worst part of all: I was waiting the whole
time for some cool detective skills from Bai-Jiu; they never came.
One more thing! Why the hell is it called ‘Dragon’? Whoa… I
got a bit angry there. Seriously though, there is not a single dragon in the
entire film. I personally think that it should have been called… ‘Crazy Cool
Kung-Fu Sherlock Adventure’. You can have that one for free Peter Chan.
But on the whole, worth watching.
Dragon receives a: 6/10
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