Dragon Lord

This film has to be viewed in the right frame of mind. First, the central father-son relationship makes it pretty clear that the film was intended as a prequel to his Wong Fei Hung film "Drunken Master" (ideas from this film recur in "Drunken Master II), and not "Young Master"; that Chan backed away from this plan and renamed the characters indicates that he himself was not convinced the material was coming together properly; and, indeed, the film conveys a sense of being incomplete; for instance, the romantic relationship around which half the plot turns is left utterly hanging at the end of the film. "Young Master", from the same period, also feels underdone, but at least all its central threads are tied together at the end. This film feels as though Chan wrestled with the plot and characters trying to find his central theme, only to abandon the effort, possibly due to time and budget.

Or perhaps the film is simply over-ambitious. This is an important turning point film in Chan's career, because he commits himself to development of the central character above all other concerns - which is why there's such a lack of kung fu throughout the film. Chan wants to make an historical romantic comedy that just happens to have kung fu in it. But both the historical element and the romantic element come across as little more than plot-twists.

That leaves us with the comedy. Since Chan's concern is character-development, the comedy is largely character driven - as in the conflict between Chan's character and his best friend, an argument over a girl. But there's plenty of slapstick as well. Frankly, I find the comedy amusing enough to forgive the incompleteness of the plot.

This film represents an effort on Chan's part to find a viable formula that he can use and develop over time. It doesn't quite work, and Chan would only find that formula after abandoning the historical elements of his earlier films, with the making of the contemporary action comedy "Police Story". But going back to view this film is still very informative as to how Chan worked his way through the historical genre, and perhaps why he abandoned it.

An old school kung ku comedy starring Jackie Chan. He's also the director of this movie.

This is bit like continuation of the Young Master. Jackie Chan reprises his role as the Dragon. The actor who portrayed the teacher in Young Master returns as Dragon's father. Although the production is more polished, the story isn't compelling as the Young Master. The format is old school kung fu movie where things happen in earlier days of China. Actions are also old school although there's more comedic elements in this movie than other kung fu movies.

Some clues to the future Jackie Chan movies are seen in this movie, such as using the 2nd floor balcony to stage a dramatic fight sequence.

This is the last old school kung fu movie Jackie Chan starred in. With the success of Project A, his movies starts to take different direction in the future.

One from early in his career the movie has everything that would make him a Kung Fu super star.

It's a great comedy about a spoiled rich brat trying to send a love note via a kite but ends up stumbling onto a plot to steal China's artifacts.

It's the type of friendly kung fu flick for all the ages that Jackie Chan would become known for. Thought the stunts are small compared to the extreme risk he would take in the future, it was still impressive to see Jackie do the physical stuff not just the kung fu but there were scenes of Jackie and his friends playing sports similar to football but more extreme.

Extremely entertaining!!!

`Dragon Lord' is more of a comedy than a martial arts movie. There are a few action sequences in the movie - a strange ball tournament at the beginning, a scuffle between Jackie and his friend over a girl, an interesting shuttlecock game in the middle of the movie - but there are really only two fight sequences in the movie, both near the end. Despite this, the movie's great. It's never dull. There are some funny moments, and the final fight scene between Jackie and the baddie is awesome. Definitely worth seeing over `Shanghai Noon' or `Rush Hour'.

For a Jackie Chan movie, then "Dragon Lord" was a fairly mediocre experience. There wasn't the usual Jackie Chan magic or personal touch to this movie. The movie tried too hard to mix comedy and serious action, and it just didn't go well together.

The movie was also weighed down by a storyline that was intended to be serious, but trying to incorporate slapstick comedy, and again it was to an extend where it just didn't fully work as intended. And it didn't help the movie one bit that it had a couple of scenes that were taking too long to execute. Especially the last fight scene, it was dragging on for a very long time, and it started to become stale and somewhat of a parody to watch.

So what worked in this movie? Well, the fighting and the action, of course. As to be expected, as this is a Jackie Chan movie after all. As with most of his other movies, the martial arts and action scenes were well executed and brought to the screen.

I am a big fan of Jackie Chan, and must admit that "Dragon Lord" is not amongst the best of his entire movie career. But bear in mind that this movie is from 1982. That being said, then it should be stated that it is not his worst movie either. But it is, of course, a movie that is well deserved a place in the DVD collection of any Jackie Chan fan. Just sad to say, that this isn't really the type of movie that you watch more than once.