Tiger Cage - La Rançon des traîtres

I happened to stumble upon the 1988 movie "Tiger Cage" (aka "Dak ging to lung") from director Woo-Ping Yuen in 2020. Needless to say that with my fascination of the Hong Kong cinema, of course I sat down to watch this movie.

Not only is it a Hong Kong movie, but it also has a pretty interesting cast ensemble, which includes the likes of Simon Yam, Donnie Yen and Jacky Cheung. So the movie does have a pretty good foundation of having strong performances and being interesting to watch.

Turned out that "Tiger Cage" was actually a rather enjoyable crime/action movie. Sure, it was generic, especially for the movies of the genre in late 1980s from Hong Kong cinema. But it proved to be an entertaining movie nonetheless. The storyline was well enough composed by writers Wing-Fai Wong and Kwong Kim Yip, although it was rather straight forward and somewhat generic actually.

There is a good mixture of drama and action in the storyline to actually keep the movie going at a good pace. And while there are no surprises along the way as the movie plays out, it doesn't make it a boring movie given the pacing and the storyline.

My rating of "Tiger Cage" is a six out of ten stars. If you enjoy the 'older' Hong Kong cinema, then "Tiger Cage" is definitely well worth watching.

You generally can't go wrong with action movies from Hong Kong, and it's also hard to go wrong with Yuen Woo-Ping. I feel as though I should eventually watch everything he ever directed or did the action choreography for, since the way he does that stuff is always so good. Words kind of fail to express what makes his take on action so good. All I know is that it's really good, and that's all that matters.

With Tiger Cage, it's him doing the kind of movie John Woo is best known for directing. Woo-Ping usually makes action movies with more hand-to-hand combat, but he can do shoot-em-ups, too. Similarly, Woo is best known for the heroic bloodshed films of his, but he also proved himself to be great at more traditional martial arts stuff with the eternally underrated Last Hurrah for Chivalry. John Woo is more well-known than Woo-Ping, and his highs are higher, but I think he's missed a little more often than Woo-Ping seems to have.

Also, to go back to Tiger Cage... well, what can be said? The non-action stuff is serviceable, and that's all it really needs to be. It's about a bunch of young cops taking on criminals and corruption, and it's all very heightened, bombastic, and bloody. The term "heroic bloodshed" is also interesting. These characters are physically impressive, but they do bleed, and sometimes die, more than American heroes from Action movies in that part of the world.

Anyway, Tiger Cage starts at a ridiculously impressive pace that it can't entirely maintain throughout, but the action was just about always very good, and I didn't mind the non-action parts all too much either. It made for a satisfying watch, and if you like Hong Kong action/crime films from around this era, it shouldn't be overlooked.

Fortunately we have an all-star cast of Hong Kong legends working their magic here, (Donnie Yen, Simon Yam, Jacky Cheung, Ka-Yan Leung) along with director Woo-ping Yuen helming this action extravaganza. The story is nothing special, straightforward with a few twists thrown in to keep the audience interested. Drug smuggling ring, betrayals, corrupt cops, and all the other usual elements of a late 80's HK crime flick. Dull in this regard however the movie wasn't intended to showcase script writing, rather we get some nice displays of martial arts fighting.

The fight choreography and shootouts are the highlights of the film, although the plot wedged in-between sequences feels painfully like filler to meet the minimum run time. In typical fashion bizarre Chinese humor is used as a device to provide character development, and as usual it feels misplaced in a serious crime movie such as this. Despite the small amount of character development it's sufficient to provoke a reaction when the protagonists end up in peril. Donnie Yen only is given a few minutes of screen time, but during his few minutes he really steals the show. The action is entertaining but not enough to deem a second watch. I would only recommend to those wanting to see Donnie Yen's early work. -6/10

Also no pun intended - also no Tiger come to think of it. This is the first movie in the Tiger Cage trilogy (which is the international title of course). Not even sure how "related" the movies are ... well actually they are not ... unless you count the title as a connection. But let's get back to the beginning! And a movie that has quite a few fine actors in it.

The movie starts off with an action scene, that could easily have been the climax/highlight of the movie. But it only is here to set the tone and "introduce" us to the characters. We will find out way more about them ... how they relate to each other, but also their morality.

Don't get it twisted though: this does not get too deep into the psyche. If someone is "evil" it is not that we will know their reasoning ... not for all of them that is. We get some explanation and there are some things that try to explain the logic of the character ... but that is not the main selling point here ... that is the action part(s) of it! If you dig that, you will have a grand ol time with this ... and the movie would deserve it too.

Tiger Cage is a change of pace for director Yuen Woo Ping . Being previously known for martial art comedy classics like Drunken Master, this is set in a contemporary setting and has little time for humor. Tiger Cage is gritty, dark and violent. This moves along nicely with fluid storytelling, memorable characters and good.acting. Jackie Chung gives a solid performance as male lead opposite actress Do Do Cheng. Ng Man Tat and Simon Yam were excellent as well and Donnie Yen does well in a early supporting role. This is a Yuen Woo Ping film so all of the fights and action are top tier. The action is as down and dirty as the subject matter of police corruption and betrayal. Tiger Cage as such is very bloody and very violent. However, this was a well made film and a good watch.