With the same creative talents behind this as
were behind Sha Po Lang (Wilson Yip directing and Donnie Yen doing almost
everything else) I was hoping that they would build on what I thought made
that such a terrific film – edge of your seat down home action choreography,
tense straight ahead narrative and characters that seemed real and that
you cared about. In particular the action received hosannas from many for
going back to the basics – real hitting, real martial artists and a general
lack of wire work and CGI. This film instead goes in the opposite direction
– a muddled plot, characters that have no depth and action that is a very
mixed bag. There are as I recall five action set pieces which alone should
have carried the film – but they don’t because when it isn’t in motion this
film dies in its tracks with some horrible maudlin drama and flashbacks to
childhood that should be burnt at the stake. The action is generally solid
but as the film progresses it goes from somewhat realistic and inventive
to a tedious reliance in the final two scenes on CGI and wire work that made
it feel like just another computer game brought to life.
The main problem here is sadly Donnie Yen. I know
he has been an opportune target to pick on for some, but I have never really
felt that way – I’ve never been a huge fan but at the same time I certainly
admire his martial arts skills and have appreciated some of his action choreography
– hell I have liked “Ballistic Kiss” which he directed and starred in. But
he has never really been able to break in as a leading man simply because
he has so little warmth and charisma and never seems particularly likable
on the screen. He always appears like the guy who would be standing by himself
at a party hoping someone would talk to him. All this is painfully evident
in “Dragon Tiger Gate” that at times seems to be a valentine to his ego as
he spends moment after moment posing for the camera as if he is in a shoot
for Maxim. He punches, he poses, he kicks, he poses, he sits on the ledges
of buildings and poses in profile – always of course with his hair hanging
dramatically over his eye. Why doesn't he just become a catwalk male model
and be done with it - it' s clearly his fantasy. It becomes more than a little
laughable after a while and one might guess that Wilson Yip is either in
love with Donnie or had no choice in the matter.
As to the plot of the film it really doesn’t matter because it made so little sense and had so little heart. Basically Donnie as Dragon Wong, Nicholas Tse as Tiger Wong and Shawn Yue as Turbo Shek all do some male bonding and kick some ass. There are a couple women thrown into the mix so as not to make it too totally male oriented, but they are strictly "flower vase" roles and add precious little to the proceedings. Yuen Wah also has a nice part and that is always welcome – and gets into the action as well. Not to dump water all over this film – I had just had higher expectations – it has excellent production values, good set design and some enjoyable action scenes that are well shot – in particular the first two in which Tse shows some surprisingly adept leg work and the one in which the camera takes a bird’s eye view in a tea shop as the action moves from room to room. The good news though is that the Weinsteins ended up with this disaster and they so deserve it and it should be collecting dust in a video store near you very soon.
My rating for this film: 4.0
