Dragones de papel

I bought this movie for $1.50 at a VHS blowout sale after seeing that Cynthia Rothrock, Richard Norton, Bill Wallace, and Hee Il Cho were among the cast. I figured it would be pretty cheap and dull with a few good moves by each of the three. Boy, was I wrong! Fortunately! I had never heard of the star George Chung before, but that guy has athleticism and charisma to spare! He's funny, sarcastic, and kicks like a whirlwind! Then there's Leo Fong (BLIND RAGE, BLOOD STREET). This guy's a true living legend of the martial arts, and deserves an honorary black belt in comedy as well! Chuck Jeffreys (BLOODMOON, SUPERFIGHTS) adds to the fun with Eddie Murphy type lip-offs and dynamic martial artistry. Even the supporting players get into the action with witty dialog, ("Man, this is bull$@#& that we gotta work every Sunday!) and goofy gun-toting action. Football great Ronnie Lott even stops by to make a gratuitous cameo on an ATV telling how he "got cut" from the team before he casually guns down a henchman. This movie is tongue-in-cheek all the way, and it's too bad that more American martial arts movies didn't go down this same road. FIGHT TO WIN can be summed up as: great martial artists having a good time while poking a little fun at the sometimes all too serious martial art/action film genre. HIGHLY recommended to those who like martial arts, and cheesy low budget 80s movies that entertain not because they are so bad, but because they are so good!

Everything works in this film! A great gathering of talent!

Although "Fight to Win" is armed with a cast that contains a likable George Chung, an always enjoyable as a villain Richard Norton, a sharp young Cynthia Rothrock, and Chuck Jeffreys (= Eddie Murphy + martial arts), there are much better martial arts films out there. The plot (pretty much a "Rocky III" ripoff) is VERY slight, even for just 77 minutes, the direction is mediocre, the sound mix is poor, and the fight scenes are average (for example, Norton and Rothrock's work is not even close to what they pulled off in a Hong Kong film they were both in the previous year, "Magic Crystal"). Chung's training scenes work better, and the film does inject a lot of humor into an often too-solemn genre, resulting in some amusing moments. But, as I said, you could do a lot better than this. (**)

I admit I was being sceptic about this movie, but since I only paid about $3.50 for the DVD I was all game. I didn't expect much - only good fight scenes ( I mean Cynthia Rothrock, her boyfriend (at that time) George Chung, Richard Norton, Bill "Superfoot" Wallace and Chuck JEffries)

But that movie is so much more! First of all - there IS a story, which might not be worth an Oscar, but considering it's a B-movie, it's actually good.

Nobody in the production claims to be an actor - but if you give the film a chance, wait until Rothrock enters the scene. From that moment on the movie gets better and better.

This movie never takes itself seriously. Especially the endfight is just so much fun. I think I never laughed so hard about an action B-movie! Soo great!

**Disclaimer: You should like action/martial-arts-B-movies. Although it's extremely funny, it's not a standard comedy and does not intend to be.

Esteemed martial artist and cherished actor that Cynthia Rothrock was in her prime, and in some measure continues to be, some of the films she's been involved with are plainly excellent. Some others, unfortunately, are plainly terrible. While the very 80s original music to greet us even over the opening credits is a blast (the last time the music will deserve praise), this particular movie absolutely does not make a good impression from the outset; the first couple minutes, a prologue, struggle with questionable delivery in its narration, curt and inelegant editing, and meager direction. Once the story picks up in earnest thereafter the same problems continue, and raise a deeply skeptical eyebrow, with James Belmessieri and George Chung's writing now joining Leo Fong's direction and the editing in that way. Throw in some major flavors of racism, sexism, homophobia, and chest-beating, toxic machismo for good measure. The dialogue is just awful, and the plot is perplexingly simple, unsophisticated, and light; the actors are forced into small, dubious corners by the writing and direction (alas, poor Richard Norton, and Chung, and Rothrock, and Hidy Ochiai, and Chuck Jeffreys, and - well, everyone). Oh, and while Rothrock is promoted as the chief star of 'Fight to win' (also known as 'Eyes of the dragon,' or 'Dangerous passages'), she actually has a mere supporting part: she doesn't show up until we're already thirty minutes in, and the role definitely isn't written well.

It's not that this flick is 100% rubbish, but unfortunately, it's no less than 75% rubbish. The best descriptor might be "astonishingly weak." The production values betray how very indie and low-budget this was, with no especial art direction or costume design to speak of; the filming locations, for example, seem to reflect places that Fong could secure on the cheap, or with the generosity of friends or acquaintances. For as rotten as the dialogue tends to be, the scene writing is weirdly halfhearted, giving us only the most basic idea of a given moment - which is kind of incredible, considering how mild and unbothered the narrative itself already is; if I say it feels like Chung and Belmessieri's screenplay was nothing more than a bare-bones outline, I'm being generous. The intended humor is achingly dull and childish, and like some of the fight scenes that flounder, and the bizarrely soft direction and acting, make the feature feel at many times like the sort of kitschy, kid-friendly presentation of martial arts training that we might see in an educational segment on 'Mr. Rogers' neighborhood.' The least that can be said is that Rothrock, specifically, gets a fair chance to demonstrate her martial arts skills here (and some others, to a lesser extent), but nothing else in these eighty minutes comes off well. 'Fight to win' is a fighting movie, after a sort, but it's an astoundingly flimsy, unconvincing, awkward representation of the genre.

Maybe a third alternative name should have been "Baby's first action picture." Hugely emphasizing just how quizzically meek the production was, just before the one-hour mark we get a scene where the boom mic is very prominent at the top of the frame (and not for the last time), and I couldn't stop myself from laughing hysterically. As we enter the third act ideas are introduced into the plot that all but come out of nowhere. There really are some facets of 'Fight to win' that come off well, but these can be attributed almost exclusively to Rothrock's skills in the fighting disciplines (and, again, to some lesser extent, those of others). I don't like to repeat myself, but in this case it feels very necessary, for I must reiterate that pretty much everything else is either just altogether bad, and/or painfully infirm and tacky: characters, dialogue, scenes, story, action, humor, acting, direction, music, filming locations, wardrobe, hair, makeup, editing, cinematography, and so on. There is value here, but it's vanishingly tiny, and we can get that same value elsewhere; one is surely best served by just watching something else to begin with. If you're a huge fan of someone involved then there might be a reason to sit for this, but otherwise it's a film that can safely be disregarded as the scarcely-known, flummoxing, feeble curiosity that it is. Even for as tiresome as 'Fight to win' is I guess I'm glad I watched it; the thing is, I'll also be glad to never watch it again.