I am not exactly sure what I was expecting
this film to be - some sort of low budget action film - but it wasn't this.
This is a wonderfully warmhearted ode to the righteous principles of gung
fu and to friendships made and lost and made again. To life flying by and
not going where you expected it to but having the opportunity of redemption.
It is a sweet family film really with some hard hits and good humor. Very
funny at times. It was the directorial debut of Quoc Bao Tran with a cast
of unknowns who all get to shine here. I have no idea what their martial
arts training is, not much I guess, but they look fine here. The magic of
editing. The director had taken the film to a studio but they wanted a white
star as the main character, suggesting Bruce Willis or Nicholas Cage. The
director declined. He wanted his Tigers to reflect his background growing
up in Seattle - so the actors are black (Mykel Shannon Jenkins), Chinese-American
(Ron Yuan) and Filipino-American (Alain Uy). So he raised the funds needed
and made the film he wanted to.
All three of these characters were martial
art prodigies when they grew up under the guidance of Sifu Cheung (Roger
Yuan). He taught them the arts but also the principles - take care of the
weak, honor is paramount. They were his only disciples and became known as
The Three Tigers. This is all shown during the opening credits and then we
are in the present. Years later. Time grinds us all down. Middle-age is a
sad place for an ex-martial artist to be. Alain is an insurance salesman
with a nagging ex-wife and a young boy, Roger lives on disability checks
for a bad knee and Mykel teaches Brazilian martial arts. They have lost touch
with each other, with their sifu and with their gung fu. Then they hear their
sifu has died, found in an alley and they decide to investigate his death.
And like every good kung fu film
get revenge. But revenge won't come easy. One can barely hobble, another
is slow and easily winded and the other has forgotten his gung fu. And they
are up against a triad assassin (Ken Quitugua). Lovely film that will sneak
into your happy zone. It also has Brian Le and his brother Andy as two of
the three kung fu punks.
