Chasing the Dragon

I am remembering the days when i was watching at least 7-8 films from hong kong cinema each year and one or even two movies from these would have make my back-hair lift of excitement and awesomeness. But since 2008 or 2009 forward, i must say, the chinese/hong kong movie industry has become something without head and tale. The screenplays are at the lowest level of intelligence, the editing of every film is downright baaaad, they are trying so hard to copy american movies, that it makes me almost wanting to give up watching any movie from HK or the main land. Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Donnie Yen... it's been a decade since any of them had made a good movie (the last big HK movie beeing IpMan - first part from 2008). I am only hoping that someone will appear, someone new (a director and writer), although is hard; i think the audience in china is very uneducated and they love films that are so easy to swallow, and they are many, there strenght is in their numbers. But who knows, maybe with not so many money, but with conviction, a young writer/director will get his chance, you never know. Greetings from Bucharest, Romania! :)

Right, well with two of the heavy weights of Hong Kong cinema coming together in this movie, then what could go wrong?

I had not actually heard about "Chasing the Dragon" (aka "Chui lung") prior to stumbling upon it by sheer luck. I didn't even had to read the synopsis for it; I saw that it was a Hong Kong movie and it had both Andy Lau and Donnie Yen on the cover. This was an instant pick-up.

The movie turned out to be quite entertaining, and it is one of the better orchestrated gangster movies that I have seen in quite some time.

The storyline was good, fast-paced and nicely written. And the fact that the characters were so well detailed and unique also helped to make the movie experience that much better. Of course, having an amazing cast to portray these characters just helped the movie along all the more.

Donnie Yen was good in the role as an immigrant turned criminal in order to make a living in Hong Kong, and Andy Lau is, as always, doing a great job in a police role. Needless to say that both their performances were phenomenal. But the movie also boasted other quite interesting supporting actors. If you are familiar with Hong Kong movies, then you will definitely see some familiar faces - some of them even in small roles that weren't that important to the movie.

"Chasing the Dragon" was nicely paced and it didn't really have a dull moment throughout the course of its story. That worked quite nicely in favor of the movie.

If you enjoy Asian cinema, or Hong Kong cinema in particular, then you should take the time to sit down and watch "Chasing the Dragon"...

6/10/18. It's a gangsta movie, Hong Kong style. Interesting backstory - not the type of story the current Chinese regime would allow, given the violence portrayed. However, because the time period when all this was going on was during the British colonial times, and then it was ok because such violence was inspired by colonialism. Whatever. Lots of shooting and violence of all kinds.

With a script this complex, spanning the rise and life of the main character from poor street fighter to druglord, it almost felt like they were going for a Scarface-level epic. but instead of developing realistic characters they used caricatures - the British villain felt particularly bogus - and unrealistic scenarios, such as large groups of people brawling in the streets with sticks and saucepans, who all happen to be amazing at martial arts. Perhaps having a main character who is too good at martial arts distracts from the biographical, historical tale. Tries to walk a balance between a heartfelt historical drama and an action movie. Didn't really work for me

Chasing the Dragon is a Chinese crime drama film directed by Wong Jing and stars Donnie Yen and Andy Lau. When I first heard about the movie in production last year, a biopic based off the true story of infamous crippled Hong Kong gangster Ng Sek Ho, I thought it was a strange choice to have a world-renowned action star like Donnie Yen play him. Not that he is a bad actor or anything, but Yen is more famous for his karate chops than his acting chops. So who in their right minds would cast him as a handicapped character, essentially immobilizing and disallowing him to what he does best? Equally peculiar of a choice is Wong Jing as the director of the film. I felt his slapstick humor and sloppy storytelling would conflict with the overall serious tone intended for the movie. Coming out of the theater, I felt Donnie Yen is once again the best thing about a movie featuring him, but unfortunately Wong Jing's amateurish direction ruins everything just about everything else.

Donnie Yen plays Ho, an illegal mainland Chinese immigrant in Hong Kong. His character is very sympathetic, as he is family man looking after his people, earning 10 Hong Kong dollars a night as a street fighter. Here he gives the best performance I have ever seen and I really enjoyed his character, I felt he was able to channel between different emotions and display empathy, sympathy, loyalty and relentlessness. While he is probably not going to win an Oscar in February, he did go above and beyond his usual spectrum. The Chaozhou accent and language he used was very good and along with the excellent costumes and set design of 1960's Hong Kong, giving the film an overall authentic feel.

Where Chasing the Dragon really failed however was the storytelling, particularly as it relates to the editing and pacing. The movie starts out very simple and easy to follow, but soon expands unnecessarily to convoluting proportions with subplots of different crime bosses and corrupt officials I did not really care about. One of the worst piece of editing I have ever seen was a tragic sequence that bookends the first act. The scene was supposed to make you feel emotional and wrecked, but it just made me roll my eyes the entire time. I felt really annoyed because story-wise, the tragedy made very little sense for us to feel sad since we do not even know who the character is, but the technical execution of the scene was even worse. The film then transitions months ahead into the story and at that point, it had no idea what it wanted to focus on. Was it his love for his brothers? His friendship with Andy Lau? His mourning of his family? His desire to rise to the top? No, the film touches upon everything only slightly, but never truly exploring any of it in great details. Any of important plot points were montaged through quickly, with the director expecting the audience to know the true backstory to fill in the gaps. Instead of seeing Ho earning his power, we just see things getting handed to him. What exactly has he done except being a good fighter and a loyal friend to deserve all the accolades? Another big issue I have is the final 20 minutes, which pertains a subplot that blows up and becomes the main plot and the whole movie then turns into a revenge fantasy for no reason at all, because the writers said so.

My initial trepidation of Donnie Yen playing a crippled character, hindering his ability to perform his trademark moves was right on point. Donnie's acting was good, but because for half the movie he can barely walk, he is utterly wasted nonetheless. Simply put Chasing the Dragon is not an action movie, so if you go in expecting Ip Man quality fight scenes, you will be sorely disappointed. There are few hand to hand action scenes in the first half, but even those were poorly done by Donnie Yen standards. They were short, shaky and lack the oomph of a satisfying fight scene.

Overall, I feel the movie failed to tell a compelling story with its cast and production value. Wong Jing was definitely a very poor choice of director, and it shows throughout. His style simply does not mesh well for the story content. Who is the movie made for? Action fans? The action is not very good. Crime drama fans? The drama is muddled with technical problems. While not a terrible movie, the only good reason to watch it is two words: Donnie Yen.