Jet Li and Stephen Chow : this is a pairing that throughout the nineties, the noughties and up to this day would spell box-office gold. But in 1989 it was just a few years too early. Jet Li had not yet settled into superstardom with Once Upon A Time In China, and Stephen Chow had not yet established his insanely successful brand of comedy, and was actually still more of a dramatic supporting actor. Whatever the stage of their career they were in, they certainly deserved something better than Billy Tang’s Dragon Fight, a thoroughly mundane action film, in which Jet Li and Dick Wei are part of a Wushu troupe touring the United States, the former left stranded in San Francisco when he misses his flight home for trying to find the latter, who’s decided to stay in America and work his way up the local mafia. Stephen Chow comes in as a Chinese immigrant who helps Jet Li out, but gets himself into trouble with the very same mafia Dick Wei now works for. After a vaguely comedic, uninteresting first part, things get unexepectedly dark and action kicks in thanks to silly plot turns (one of those turns involves someone confusing washing powder and cocaine). Choreographed by Dick Wei himself, it’s fierce and enjoyably realistic, a style Jet Li would only scarcely revisit, though most of the time with scintillating results. Still, here it’s too little too late, and the film also suffers from some of the worst ‘gweilo’ acting (and dubbing) you’ll ever see. **
DRAGON FIGHT (1989) short review
Posted in Film Reviews
Tagged jet li, stephen chow
Posted by LP Hugo on December 5, 2013
https://asianfilmstrike.com/2013/12/05/dragon-fight-1989-short-review/
Previous Post
MY KINGDOM (2011) review
MY KINGDOM (2011) review
Next Post
FATAL CONTACT (2006) review
FATAL CONTACT (2006) review
Leave a comment
- Follow Asian Film Strike on WordPress.com
Asian Film Strike on Twitter
- Guan Hu's superb war epic THE EIGHT HUNDRED is now available to watch in the US: watch.the800movie.online/Amazon Here's my… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 3 days ago
- I review Vincent Zhao's directing debut COUNTERATTACK (2021): asianfilmstrike.com/2021/02/23/cou… https://t.co/Yx9XUEQMay 3 days ago
- Simon Yam, Maggie Siu, Lam Suet, Eddie Cheung, Dada Chan & Timmy Hung have started shooting Dennis Law's thriller A… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 3 days ago
- Teaser poster for Kam Ka Wai's thriller THE EOD SQUAD, starring Liu Ye, Yu Nan & Yu Rongguang, and with action by D… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 3 days ago
- I review Herman Yau's SHOCK WAVE 2 (2020): asianfilmstrike.com/2021/02/22/sho… Starring #AndyLau #LauChingWan & #NiNi https://t.co/nVzd50m17f 4 days ago
Top Posts Today
Asian Film Strike on Instagram
Tags
aaron kwok alex fong chung sun andy lau andy on cynthia khan donnie yen eddie peng eric tsang fan siu-wong fantasy francis ng girls with guns horror jackie chan kara hui lam ka tung lam suet louis koo martial arts moon lee remake sammo hung kam bo simon yam song jia tony leung ka-fai wong jing yuen biao yuen wah yukari oshima yu nanRequest a review