Jiu long bu bai

I hadn't heard about this movie from writer and director Fruit Chan prior to getting to sit down and watch it. And it being a Hong Kong action movie was essentially all that was needed to catch my interesting.

It would be an overstatement to say that "The Invincible Dragon" (aka "Jiu long bu bai") is an outstanding moment in Hong Kong cinema. This movie was a massive swing and a miss.

For me it was the storyline that was the source of where it all went wrong, because there was no red line throughout the course of the movie. It all just felt random and like something director Fruit Chan made up as they went along, without taking into consideration what happened just 15 minutes ago. The movie was a befuddled mess of chaotic confusion and very little sense permeated the movie.

And it didn't help much that the character gallery in the movie was about as interesting as wet cardboard. So it was an uphill battle that the actors and actresses were fighting, and they weren't doing much to win the battle.

I managed to endure the movie to the end, but believe you me that this was a prolonged experience, and the movie felt to be dragging on forever and ever. As the movie hit 55 minutes, I was good and ready to call it quits, because the movie just trotted on in a stupor. But I endured, and I hung in there to the very end.

However, I can honestly say that this movie is not one that I will be sitting down to watch again. My rating of "The Invincible Dragon" is a mere three out of ten stars.

I was expecting as good from Max Zhang. Action scenes from the actor of Master Z was not bad. But then, the real story of what the director is bringing to the fans is totally out of the line. I would not understand what they are trying to mean by showing the 9 headed dragon and also tattoos display. Anyway, I would opt out of any films by this director already.

In short: Not recommended, not a good production overall. One of those three stars is for the budget which partially seems to have been there, one is for costume/backdrop and stagework, i would detract 1 for both martial arts choreography (overly complicated spinkicks and pushkicks that would never work or be used) put on that horrible effects and u got a really bad movie. This can barely be compared to the old 70's and 80'skung fu movies. This is bad, the only saving grace is the plotline which first denotes the dragon as metaphorical and keeps the interest not fully dead.

I was able to catch Invincible Dragon on my flight to Hong Kong recently and well - let's just say on my DVD shopping spree in Kowloon, I hadn't the slightest urge to buy this one for my collection!

That collection by the way, which is a strong 4,000 movies consisting mainly of HK cinema, which probably contains nothing (if very few) like what I witnessed when watching this film...

I can't even say, if this was made in the 80s it would work - it's not even just the insanity of the story that makes this a WTF movie - it's the script, the acting, the dodgy CG, and using Silva as a bad guy, and well, I guess the direction too!

Celebrated director Fruit Chan's first foray into action cinema is quite simply not a great one. It's not even a good one! I does have the odd entertaining moment or three, but that's far from enough to make up for the mess woven throughout it.

It's quite unfortunate really.

I was really hoping this would be a real return to what's been missing from HK cinema the last 20 years... but no.

Give it a go. You may find it entertaining, or like myself, you may just be left asking yourself 'what the actual did I just watch?'

This movie is a Hong Kong production and the DVD comes with a Cantonese version. All the main characters of this movie are from all over the world but not Hong Kong. Anderson Silva is Brazilian American. Kevin Cheng and Juju Chan are Chinese American from San Francisco and New York. Annie Liu is from Taiwan and Jin Zhang is from China. None of them are native Cantonese speakers. Their dialogues in Cantonese are so funny and not one person can speak fluent Cantonese. Skip the Cantonese version.