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| November 2007 | SITE MAP SEARCH |
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Dragon Tiger Gate cast: Donnie Yen, Nicholas Tse, Shawn Yue, Chen Kuan-tai, and Wah Yuen director: Yip Wai-shun 91 minutes (15) 2006 widescreen ratio 2.35:1 Showbox Cine-Asia DVD Region 2 retail RATING: 5/10 reviewed by Trudi Topham |
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Let's look at Dragon Tiger Gate (aka: Lung fu moon). It's based on a comic, so naturally has set
pieces from the comic, referencing it visually at several points. It's got some good acting from the main cast.
It has some good fight scenes early on. Oh, and it has the single worst fight scene ever committed to celluloid.
No, really. It starts off okay. The backstory is that of a dojo, the titular Dragon Tiger Gate, formed to help people defend themselves against the triads. One of the founders spawns children, and embarrassingly calls them Little Dragon and Little Tiger. Years (and some deaths) later, Dragon (Donnie Yen) is all grown up and working for the triads, and Tiger (Nicholas Tse) is being a good boy over at the dojo. Through coincidence they meet again, realise they are brothers, and go on a long, waffling, and downright dull journey before reaching the aforementioned really bad fight scene that essentially craps on the still-living body of what might have otherwise turned out an okay film. The saving grace of the two-disc ultimate edition is the disc load of extras. If you're a Hong Kong movies enthusiast it's well worth getting for all the interviews bundled on disc two - interviews with Yen, Tse, Shawn Yue, and director 'Wilson' Yip Wai-sun are all worth watching, and for the filmmaking buffs out there it has some rather spiffy shooting diaries, and some understandably deleted scenes. Well worth picking up if you can get it on the cheap. You might like Dragon Tiger Gate if you liked House Of Flying Daggers and Seven Swords, but if your tastes lie more with films like Police Story, Hero, or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, then move along. There's nothing to see here.
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