Message from mmoody

[Anonymous]

Film Review: Fist of the Red Dragon starring Donnie Yen
A film by Yuen Woo Ping and Chan Chin Chung
Golden Sun Film Co., LTD

From watching the theatrical trailer, one would expect Fist of the Red Dragon to be an exciting, action packed, yet dramatic tale of China’s battle with opium. The film, however, fails to fulfill that expectation.

Action packed, yes. Almost every other scene contains fighting. While the incorporation of fighting insures a lack of dialogue, which is most welcome considering the horrible nature of English dubbed films, after a while these smaller fight scenes begin to detract from the impressiveness of larger, more instrumental scenes.

Aside from its goal of bringing the viewer extensive kung fu footage, Fist of the Red Dragon promises a dramatic retelling of China’s struggle to stop the smuggling of opium that is destroying the country’s economy, let alone its people, and ridding China of its all too precious silver. While the film does incorporate a storyline that follows this premise, it fails to deliver an engaging depiction of the economic hardships brought on by this crisis. Instead, Fist of the Red Dragon attempts to lure viewers into its plot by weaving in a tale of a rich and foolish widower’s struggle to care for his kung fu star son as he battles his own overconfidence, the trickery of others, and an unfortunate addiction to opium.

Unlike other recent martial arts films that go to great lengths to demonstrate superior action, Fist of the Red Dragon lacks a compelling storyline to hold it all together. While it had great promise as a film, the presence of frivolous, and admittedly annoying acting, as is the case with the aunt, and a horrific dubbing of dialogue, ruins Fist of the Red Dragon’s chances of staying on my DVD shelf.