Dragon Tiger Gate (2006)

Dragon Tiger Gate (2006)
Chinese Title: 龍虎門
Translation: Dragon Tiger Gate

 

Starring: Nicholas Tse Ting-Fung, Donnie Yen, Shawn Yue Man-Lok, Dong Jie, Chen Kuan-Tai, Yu Kang, Li Xiaoran, Yuen Wah, Tony Wong Yuk-Long, Vincent Sze
Director: Wilson Yip Wai-Shen
Action Director: Donnie Yen

 

Following the success of Sha Po Lang/SPL/Killzone, most martial arts fans and Hong Kong cinephiles were waiting with baited breath for Donnie Yen’s next project. It turned out to be an adaptation of Tony Wong’s long-running (since 1970) manhua “Oriental Heroes.” In other words, Donnie was going to do a kung fu comic adaptation that would give him ample room to explore new and creative ways to do action. I can still remember watching the original trailer/fight reel on this new thing called Youtube and watching it several times. This was going to be awesome.

Then the film came out to a lukewarm critical response, getting attacked for everything from the drama to the overuse of CGI in the fight scenes. Even a lot of more casual fans were not impressed. I remember my colleague’s “Steamed Prawn Buns” blog referring to it as an “unfortunate red-headed stepchild of a film” couched between SPL and Ip Man.  I rented it here in Brazil around 2009 and it wasn’t that bad. I eventually bought it for myself because…it’s Donnie Yen, duh. And now, even as then, I think some of the criticisms are overstated.

The movie kicks off in a headquarters of Shibumi (Yu Kang, a member of Donnie Yen’s stunt team), a powerful crime lord and head of the much-feared Luoshan Gang. For the record, the visual tics of Shibumi are at odds with the rest of the film: The building he resides is beset with inclement weather and drenched in yellow/orange filters that makes the whole thing look like a post-Apocalyptic film. He also sits on a throne in a palace located several stories beneath his headquarters, which continues several stories lower into what appears to be the hellscape where Scorpion dwells in Mortal Kombat. There’s some interesting art direction there, but it is nonsensical in any real world sense.

Anyway, Shibumi has been impressed with the performance of Ma Kun (Chen Kuan-Tai, of Heroes Two and The Gallants), the head of one of the smaller gangs that acts as an extension of the Luoshan gang. He tells his right-hand woman, Rosa (Li Xiaoran, of Ghosts and The Game of Killing), to give Ma Kun a special plaque as a token of appreciation for services rendered. This upsets the rival White Lions gang, who tries to pick a fight with Ma Kun’s gang while they are celebrating at a restaurant. While all this is going on, Tiger Wong (Nicholas Tse, of Gen-X Cops and Raging Fire) and his friends from the “Dragon Tiger Gate” kung fu school are having dinner at the same place. When they see some of Ma Kun’s goons harassing a family over a loan, Tiger literally kicks into action and starts beating up Ma Kun’s entire gang with only his feet. He is only stopped by the arrival of Dragon (Donnie Yen, of Tiger Cage II and Enter the Fat Dragon), Ma Kun’s bodyguard.

It turns out that during the ruckus, one of Tiger’s friends ended up with the plaque. A few days later, the boys are eating at a Japanese restaurant when they are confronted by Dragon, who takes back the plaque. Also in attendance is Scaly (Vincent Sze, of Dragon Squad and Firestorm), the little punk who acts as Ma Kun’s yes man. Scaly is jealous of Dragon, so he tries to steal the plaque back while sending an army of his own goons to beat everybody up. Another huge fight ensues which ends up involving a wandering martial artist by the name of Turbo Shek (Shawn Yue, of The Invisible Target and The Brink). Everybody is kung fu fighting until there are no more goons to beat up.

The next half hour of the film focuses on character building and exposition. At this point, Tiger realizes that Dragon is his long-lost half-brother. Dragon’s dad, one of the founders of the Dragon Tiger Gate, left his mom to be with the wife of the school’s co-founder, Wong Xianglong (Yuen Wah, of Supercop and Eastern Condors). From their illicit union was born Tiger. As a result, Dragon and his mother left the school and Dragon projected all of his hate onto the school itself, which is how he ended up in the world of organized crime. Dragon wants to come back to the school, but is too ashamed of his violent past to go at the moment. There is also a subplot involving Rosa, who has carried a torch for Dragon ever since childhood. Plus, a bit of puppy love between Tiger Wong and Xiaoling (Dong Jie, of Sky Lovers and 2046) and Turbo Shek wants to get into Dragon Tiger Gate to study.

Things go sour when Ma Kun decides that he wants to retire and returns the plaque to Shibumi. Shibumi takes it as an insult and decrees the death of both Ma Kun and Dragon. Rosa is ordered to kill Dragon, but can’t bring herself to do it. Dragon kills the assassins sent to kill Ma Kun, but Rosa lies (to protect Dragon) and informs her boss that it was the Dragon Tiger Gate who defeated them. Shibumi decides to get up in on the action and challenges Wong Xianglong. Eventually, only Dragon, Tiger and Turbo Shek are left to face Shibumi, but their kung fu isn’t good enough…

The main flaw of Dragon Tiger Gate is that it never surpasses those first twenty minutes. Those first two melees are really well choreographed and promise a fight fest brimming with creative choreography and camerawork. Although it’s fine if a movie slows down after an explosive opening, you hope that it doesn’t slow to a crawl and that it fires on all cylinders once it’s time for things to get real. Although the later fights have their moments, I never felt they matched the energy of the earlier brawls.

The other flaw is that Shibumi (voiced by Louis Koo) is very much a one-dimensional villain. He’s evil, wears a mask and he likes to fight. Like Fatal Fury 2’s Wolfgang Krauser, he’s always looking for a worthy opponent. He fancies himself so good, in fact, that he doesn’t kill weak fighters for thinking they aren’t worthy to die under his hand. We don’t really know what his gang actually does. People just say that he’s an evil crime lord. Wilson Yip needed to give us more show and less tell in that regard. He just hangs out in the background until the second half, when his call to action is not liking that Ma Kun is going to retire.

Nicholas Tse steals the show early on with this wonderful footwork. I know some of it was assisted with wires, but the man still looks great. I find it heartwarming that Tse, who started the action genre with the inauspicious debut in Gen-X Cops is now, 25 years later, graduating the rank of fight choreographer/action director recently with Customs Frontline and the bigger-budgeted Raging Havoc. I know he trained diligently in wing chun during the 2000s, which he showcased on the TV series “Wing Chun” (natch), but apparently he has applied himself to other styles as well. I also think it telling that he was Donnie’s main opponent in Raging Fire, considering how much Donnie has dedicated himself to the fighting the best of the best in his movies ever since Sha Po Lang. But Tse shows that he had grown a lot as a screen fighter in this movie since his earlier days.

Donnie Yen is Donnie Yen. Dragon Tiger Gate is interesting in that it’s one of the first films to completely downplay his fancier aerial kicks in favor of complex handwork. In that sense, it’s sort of a transition to the wing chun-only stuff he’d do in the Ip Man movies. He does a lot of fancy hand “posturing” in this movie, something he would do in later films, even up to Enter the Fat Dragon. He briefly fights with a pole in one of his fights, something that the Dragon character in the manhua did. He also gets the better showcase of the three leads during the final fight against Shibumi, including a nice triple-knee smash. If you like watching Donnie fight, you should enjoy his work here.

Shawn Yue as Turbo Shek is interesting. The character was originally named Shek Hak Lung in the comic, which translate to “Dark Dragon.” English translations of the comic changed his name to “Gold Dragon” because of the character’s blonde hair. Shaw Yue does get to wear a silly wig—they all do—and wield a pair of nunchaku in his fights. Like his comic counterpart, Shek also knows judo, although that never gets explored in the movie and I wish that it had. I like his character—the one who presents himself as a badass, but whom the sifu at the school can see right through. It is only when he humbles himself that he is ready to start training.

There is enough good action on display to warrant a recommendation. Martial arts purists will complain about wire-work in the fighting, but given the film’s comic roots, I don’t mind that sort of exaggeration. There is also some CGI, especially in the end when the characters start performing their signature special moves with names like “Electric Dragon Drill” and “The Golden Mask.” I think criticisms about there being too much CGI in the action are overstated. Personally, I enjoy this more than The Storm Riders, another manhua adaptation. I wish this had gotten a sequel that could have built on Donnie’s creative choreography. Now that Donnie is 60, he could give the Dragon role to Nicholas Tse (now 44—Donnie was 42 when he made this) and find some newcomers to play Tiger and Shek. And considering that Donnie is currently making Flash Point 2, a sequel to this is a possibility.

This review is part of "Month of the Dragon"