Les Jeunes dragons

John Woo's feature Length debut was released by Golden Harvest after a severe editing job. A unique film due to the fact it was John Woo's cinematic debut as a director. After working under the great Chang Cheh, Woo takes his turn in the director's chair. Young Dragons is a very violent and gritty film about low life criminals and their sadistic counterparts. Hark Fung-On and Dorian Tam appear in this film and the two go at it like a couple of mad dogs.

Early fight choreography by future star Jackie Chan and several action set pieces make their debut in this film. John Woo likes to reuse old action set pieces (The fight in the Mansion and the duel on horseback, i.e. Motorcycles come to mind). Not a brilliant or a bad film, satisfactory action film. Entertaining at times, Young Dragons is an okay action film. But an essential for die hard John Woo fans.

Recommended for fans of this genre

B

Factoids: Future star Shing Fui-on makes a cameo apperence along with the director John Woo.

After recently viewing Ringo Lam's excellent directing debut Esprit D'amour (1983-also reviewed) I decided to search for fellow future Heroic Bloodshed auteur John Woo's debut. Finding that like Lam,John Woo started in a genre he is not known for,I got set to see the young dragons fly.

View on the film:

Transitioning to co-writing (with Kuang Ni) and directing after two short student films and working as an assistant director on Shaw Brothers projects,auteur John Woo stylishly draws out an outline of what was to come, via rapid-fire zoom-ins speeding on the frantic atmosphere which would grip his Heroic Bloodshed titles, and polished long shadows layered in dissolves giving the cast an elegant appearance. Whilst clearly excited about debuting and going against the grain a bit (with the film featuring a naked women) Woo does leave the flick with clumsy marks by mis-framing and cutting off the tops of peoples heads.

Teaming up with stunt coordinator Jackie Chan, the two styles that both would become known for wonderfully mesh together, via the action set-pieces making use of furniture around the fighters, with Woo zooming in as a baddie is slammed on a table, and going to slow-motion when the hero is beaten when falling down stairs. Collaborating with workhorse Kuang Ni,the screenplay does very well at emphasising motifs which would run across Woo's future credits, from the underworld dealing with guns (not used in the fights!) and a binding, traditional sense of loyalty held by the anti-hero, tied by a tragic melancholy ending, where the fire of the young dragons burns out.