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Director : Jackie Chan
Producer : Raymond Chow
Cinematographer : Chen Ching Chu
Screenplay : Jackie Chan, Barry Wong, Tang King Sang
Editor : Chang Yao CHung
Music : Frankie Chan
Cast : Jackie Chan, Mars, Tai Bo
Synopsis :
After winning the annual ‘Tower of Death’ game, Dragon (Jackie Chan)
and Cowboy (Mars) both become interested in a young girl they see by
the river. During different attempts to woo her (and trying to stop
each other from being successful) the two friends stumble across an
angry looking gang. Unknown to them the gang are planning to smuggle
Chinese artefacts out of the country. It’s not long before the two
friends are faced with the leader of the gang, and he isn’t too
pretty,,,, |
Review
by Martin Cleary
Dragon Lord is a fairly old Jackie Chan film, made in the early
eighties on Jackie’s return to Hong Kong after his failed attempt to
break into the American market with The Big Brawl. It’s is not the
greatest Jackie film ever – the plot is as thin as it is messy and
there’s little character
development - but Dragon Lord is often treated quite fondly by many
of Jackie’s fans.
And it’s easy to see why.
The first two-thirds of the film plays like a series of short
sketches with very little happening plot-wise, interspersed with two
classic sports scenes. The first of these ‘sports’ is a strange
event where four teams battle to the top of a tower to claim a
golden football / rugby ball. If you’ve seen Ong Bak then you’ll see
where the opening ‘tree-climbing’
competition was ‘borrowed’ from. The action here is exciting and
painful to watch, and – yep - it’s good fun.The second of the
‘sports’ scenes comes about halfway through the film. This
is the soccer match played using a shuttlecock. Or at least that’s
what it looks like – it’s not any game I’ve ever seen anywhere else!
This shuttlecock-soccer game is pretty breathtaking as Jackie
performs moves that would put David Beckham to shame – it’s a purely
inspired cinematic-sports match that could have only come out of
Hong Kong during the eighties.
Between these two sports scenes are the comedy ‘sketches’ I
mentioned earlier. These loosely tell the story of the two friends
Dragon and Cowboy and their attempts to charm a young lady who has
caught their eye. The films original title was to be ‘Young Master
In Love’ which would explain the attempted ‘romance’ plot, but
really the first half of the film is a comedy showing our two
hapless heroes getting into trouble and double-crossing each other.
After the half-way point shuttlecock-soccer match, the film finally
makes a late-effort attempt at providing a plot involving a dodgy
gang (smuggling Chinese artefacts out of the country) led by the
creepy Wong In-Sik. The plot only really seems to actually arrive in
order to provide two things: firstly an excellent scene in which
Dragon is trying to creep across the gangs’ rooftop without making a
sound – wherever a noise is made gets poked at with spears - and
secondly to provide a reason for Jackie to fight Wong In-Sik. This
final fight is truly massive, lasting about twenty minutes!
Although Dragon Lord should not really be classed as a classic
Jackie Chan film, it has so many memorable moments that it very
nearly is. It’s a shame the plot wasn’t fleshed out earlier, but
then the first half is very very funny and the final fight kicks
arse.
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Overall :
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| Notable Scenes: |
- The opening ‘Tower of Death’ game
- Dragon and Cowboy learn how to load a gun
- The shuttlecock game
- The 20-minute Jackie vs. Wong In-sik showdown |
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DVD Review : Dragon Lord (Universe Laser & Co)
by Gary Cheah
Cover/Packaging : (5/10)
Contents :
One DVD5 (single layer) disc.
DVD Info/Specs :
Disc : DVD5 single layer, NTSC
Video : Letterbox, 97mins, English, Traditional/Simplified,
Japanese, Malay, Indonesia, Thai, Korean, Vietnamese Close
Caption/Subtitles
Audio : Cantonese or Mandarin, Dolby Digital 2.0/5.1
DVD Menu (7/10)
I guess all older Universe's DVD titles menu are the same
design. Anyway, its simple and nice. No complains.
Special Features (3/10)
Nothing much to shout out. It's just come with 3 trailers, there
are Dragon Lord, The Protector, and Twin Dragon.
Video/Audio Quality (6/10)
Video :
Not the best transfer for a DVD, but its still acceptable for a
old 80's film. Colors and brightness are acceptable but not sharp
and clean enough.
Subtitles : Nice looking font.
Audio : Audio wise, you have a Dolby 2.0 or the 5.1. Overall,
surround has shaped up for the 5.1.
Conclusion (7/10)
Yes, one of the best Jackie Chan's movies! Nevertheless, a
reasonable DVD.
DVD Review : Dragon Lord (Hong Kong Legend)
by Martin Cleary
 This
dvd release from Hong Kong Legends provides a good enough transfer
of the film - although it’s far from perfect. The picture itself
isn’t as crisp as we’ve come to expect from HKL and the original
soundtrack sounds very flat, but this maybe due to it’s age
(twenty-four years!) The soundtrack for the English dub sounds a
little clearer which is strange – but this track may not be as old.
The subtitles are good (although more difficult to read than ever
while
watching the shuttlecock-soccer match!) although a few times they
seem to be a slightly dodgy translation – ‘golden goal’? Really?
Also, the write-up on the back of the dvd case is laughable:
‘combining dynamic sports action and bone-crunching martial arts, a
formula later championed in the Stephen Chow smash-hit ‘Shaolin
soccer’’. Yeah right… talk about a desperate link!
The extras are very good, if not numerous, with the highlight being
the commentary from Bey Logan. I’m almost getting bored of saying
it, but Bey Logan’s commentaries are always worth a listen.
The other extras consist of:
Trailer Gallery:
-UK Promotional Trailer (1.34m) This tries to sell the film as a
serious martial arts / sports
movie which is pretty misleading!
-Original Theatrical Trailer (4m) A better trailer highlighting some
of the daft comedy of the film.
Of course, the action is the selling point.
Interview Gallery:
-‘The Fall Guy: An Interview with leading co-star Mars’ (29.47m) In
this decent length interview
Mars talks about his whole career including why he chose his stage name,
life as a HK
stuntman and working on the films with Jackie Chan. This is very good. In
Cantonese with
English subtitles.
-‘The Insider: An Interview with Production Manager Louis Sit’
(9.41m) This short interview (it’s
intercut with film clips so it’s really only about five minutes) is still
interesting as Louis talks
of his involvement on Dragon Lord and Jackie’s early career at Golden
Harvest. In English.
-‘The Master Returns: An Interview with Villianous Co-star Wong In-sik’
(11.55m) Intercut with
some examples of training his current students (looks painful!) In-sik
talks generally about the
HK film industry. In-sik’s English is quite broken and therefore difficult
to follow, which is a
shame.
-HKL Trailer Archive: UK Promotional Trailers for The Young
Master, Project A, Twinkle Twinkle
Lucky Stars, Swordsman, Flaming Brothers and First Option.
DVD Info :
Hong Kong Legends Release
Content : One disc
Format: Widescreen
Languages: Cantonese, English
Audio: Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English, Dutch
Region: 2 (PAL)
Presentation (Cover / Menus): 7/10
Picture: 7/10
Subtitles: 7/10
Special Features: 7/10
Disc Overall: 7/10
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