Chui lung

Obviously, the movie "Chasing the Dragon" is not a remake of the 1991 movies "Lee Rock" and "To be Number One". Instead, it borrows their main protagonists and antagonists, and tells a completely different story. In some sense, "Chasing the Dragon" is a reboot of the gangster epics.

The production design, music score, action sequences and acting performances are most notably brilliant. The action sequences are unexpectedly brutal and bloody, and really stun me from time to time. Donnie Yen has long established himself as one of the best martial artists of all time, and here in "Chasing the Dragon" he gives an almost career-best emotional performance, even better than that in "Rogue One". The acting of Andy Lau, Kent Tong, Kent Cheng, and Ben Ng is fantastic as always.

On the other hand, the plot and the editing are not satisfying. Wong Jing is not a talented filmmaker. Some scenes simply lack consistency and credibility.

In a nutshell, the rating for this movie is 7/10.

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

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.

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.

Here's The Lowedown on "Chasing the Dragon" (NR - 2017 - China)...who says we can't win?

Genre: Action/Foreign My Score: 7.4

Cast=8 Acting=9 Plot=7 Ending=8 Story=5 Violent=9 Pace=4 F/X=7 Crime=8 Dubbed=9

An illegal immigrant from Mainland China sneaks into corrupt British-colonized Hong Kong in 1963, transforming himself into a ruthless and emerging drug lord.

"Life or Death...Poverty or Riches...it is all destined." When I saw this was Donnie Yen and Andy Lau...I jumped at the chance to buy this. It was a solid movie all around. The only issue I had was with the pace...it's 128 minutes and seemed like a lot longer. I guess in the 60's everyone was corrupt. This period piece is worth a look if you like foreign crime movies.