Four Dragons (2008)

Four Dragons (2008)
Original Title: Kinta 1881
Translation: Kinta 1881 – Kinta referring to the valley where tin was discovered

 

Starring: Robin Ho, Kuan Jun-Fei, David Bao, Michael Chin, Albert Yuen, Patrick Teoh, Anita Kwan, Shawn Lee
Director: C.L. Hor
Action Director: Chin Kar-Lok

 

Starting in 2003, Southeast Asia joined the martial arts frenzy that was going worldwide (again) following the worldwide success of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and the coming of big-name Hong Kong stars like Jackie Chan and Jet Li to Hollywood. As we all know, the SE Asia martial arts “renaissance” began with Ong Bak and Tony Jaa, who led the charge for the first few years. He was eventually joined by Vietnam, represented by Johnny Tri Nguyen and Veronica Ngo, who made quality martial arts films like The Rebel and Clash. Quickly getting in on the action was Indonesia. Silat masters like Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian, under the careful eye of Welsh director Gareth Evans, set the action genre alight with Merantau and The Raid films.

However, lost in the shuffle of the torrent of quality action to come out of that region was Four Dragons, Malaysia’s first martial arts movie. Oh sure, there were Hong Kong movies filmed in Malaysia, like Supercop and Angel II. But this was the first one produced, written and directed by Malaysians, even though they brought in a Hongkie to do the action choreography. There is a good reason that this movie has a measly 3.5 rating at the IMDB while its contemporaries from Malaysia’s neighbors are revered to this day: this movie somehow manages to fail on every single level. It comes close to being the Birdemic of martial arts movies.

The movie is set in 1881, shortly after the discovery of tin in Malaysia. Much like the California Gold Rush, the promise of economic opportunity has attracted a lot of Chinese immigrants from Southern China—thus we get a movie in which most of the cast speaks Cantonese. Unfortunately, the tin mines are run with an iron fist under conditions that aren’t much better than slavery. The Chinese laborers are overseen and cared for by Tin Sok (Albert Yuen). “Uncle” Tin, for his part, answers to Master Hoong (Patrick Teoh, who was in the “Marco Polo” series for Netflix), who is part mining entrepreneur, part Triad.

Tin Sok has four “adopted” sons who not only assist him as a foreman, but were taught martial arts by him as well. The oldest is Dragon (Robin Ho, a four-time gold medalist in four different Wushu Championships), who is distinguished from his brothers by the fact he has mustache. Seriously, the only one of member of the titular “Four Dragons” who doesn’t get a backstory happens to be the guy named “Dragon.” Then there’s Ace (Kuan Jun-Fei, another wushu taolu champion), who is distinguished from his brothers by being the guy with short hair, no facial hair, and thin eyebrows. We learn that he has a gambling problem, although it’s something he does to help the daughter of some random murdered immigrant. He’s followed by Blaze (Chinese tai chi chuan practitioner David Bao), who sports one of those late 1990s manes a lá Ekin Cheng. Finally, there’s Tiger (Michael Chin, yet another wushu champion), who has short hair, no facial hair, and thick eyebrows. His deal is that he is secretly in love with Dan Dan (Anita Kwan, who reminds me of a young Karen Mok), Master Hoong’s daughter.

Well, one day Master Hoong has the Chinese laborers attacked and murdered at the behest of Master Sam (Tsai Lex), a wealthy opium dealer. We never quite find out why Master Sam decided that they all had to die. Nor do we ever learn what sort of business venture that an opium dealer and a tin baron would want to join forces for. People just have to die because…well, that’s what villains do! The four brothers barely escape the bloodbath with their lives and are found by a Malay village chief and nursed back to health. Tin Sok also survives, albeit barely, and is eventually carried back to the village to recover. Meanwhile, Master Sam knows something that the brothers don’t: Tin Sok was responsible for Blaze’s father’s death years and years ago when they and Master Hoong were humble miners. That’s enough to turn Blaze turncoat against his brothers.

The first reason that Four Dragon utterly fails is the story. What should be a simple revenge tale—the downtrodden immigrants rising up against their fellow Chinese oppressor (much like The Roaring Lion)—gets convoluted as flashback is piled upon flashback, subplot upon subplot, and yet nothing ever gets adequately explained. We never learn what happened between Tin Sok and Blaze’s dad; there’s a throwaway line to suggest that the guy was a bad apple. There’s a love triangle between Tiger, Dan Dan, and Forest, one of Master Hoong’s enforcers. That never gets mentioned after the scene that establishes it, though. It’s suggested that Forest would vent out his lust on Dan Dan’s British friend, Rose (Laura Jayne New), but once again, it’s forgotten as soon as it’s brought up. There’s also a bit about random Chinese immigrants being murdered and hung from bamboo stalks, but that’s never explored, either.

The structure of the film is also confusing. The entire second act is made up of numerous flashbacks, most of which serve to give us our heroes’ backstories. There are even some flashbacks within flashbacks, and some of the fights during the massacre of the Chinese miners are replayed verbatim. The problem is that the editing is terrible and less-attentive viewers will undoubtedly get lost, not being able to tell a flashback apart from a scene in the present. The editing also fails in setting up scenes, such that fights often start out of nowhere with no regard to space. Where are these people? Who are these people? Why are they suddenly fighting?

Chin Kar-Lok was hired to stage the fights and initially, I was glad to see him working on a traditional kung fu film. For the past 20 years, Chin Sifu has mainly worked in modern-day action films, setting up car chases, gun fights, explosions, and all the stuntwork that revolves around those sorts of set pieces. He has gotten LOTS of nominations for Best Action Choreography at the Hong Kong Film Award, but still hasn’t won one yet. After watching Four Dragons, Chin Sifu should really stick with modern action.

Chin Kar-Lok just doesn’t seem to have the talent for making Taolu (i.e. forms) champions look like seasoned fighters. I mean, Jet Li has always looked believable. Vincent Zhao Wen-Zhuo has always been credible. Wu Jing has been solid for most of his career. But these guys just look soft boned in their fights, like some of those old wushu movies that Mainland China made in the 1980s. You know they have martial experience, but you need a certain sort of talent to translate that to credible screen fighting. The Four Dragons don’t. They are frequently outshone by the villains. Shawn Lee, who plays Forest, was a wushu sparring champion, so in addition to being big and muscular, he actually knew how to fight. And it shows in his fight sequences. The same goes for Chu Cho-Kuen, who plays Hoong’s other enforcer, Sand. That guy kicks major ass and shames our heroes. Those two should’ve been the lead performers.

The story is muddled, the editing is incoherent and the action is disappointing. Sadly, the film’s woes don’t stop there. Most of the fights are punctuated by the worst CGI blood on record, which looks like an optical effect that you would’ve paid your local video editing service to do on your shot-on-video movie circa 1985. Seriously, the blood in Mortal Kombat for the Sega Genesis was more realistic. There are serious acting and directing flubs, like Shawn Lee standing in front of a burning building for about twenty seconds and screaming for no reason. And to make it worse, that scene is replayed in one of the film’s many flashbacks. The animated opening titles and behind-the-scenes footage that plays over the closing credits are interesting, but not enough to prevent Four Dragons from becoming Four Brookesia Chameleons.

 

This review is part of "Month of the Dragon"