Dragons Forever – Directed by Sammo Hung

Featuring: Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, Yuen Wah, Benny “The Jet” Urquidez, Billy Chow, Dick Wei.

Dragons Forever HK Region 0 DVD

If the Three Stooges knew Chinese martial arts and acrobatics then it’d pretty much look like this movie. For those who don’t know, Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao all went to the Peking Opera School where they learned singing, martial arts and acrobatics. If you read Jackie Chan’s autobiography I Am Jackie Chan you get a good idea of how unthinkably rigorous and strict their master was. Sammo Hung is like the big brother, Jackie Chan the middle and Yuen Biao the little brother.

Yuen Biao, Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung

Each has their own unique way of fighting. Sammo is so fat most can’t believe how fast he is, but all that heft gives him power too. Jackie has a mix of acrobatics, power and speed. Yuen Biao is the smallest, but is usually doing the most flipping and jumping acrobatics. Pit them against each other and it’s comic gold. Their fight scenes together are awesome and hilarious to watch, the timing and their physical chemistry is something I wish could be seen in more films.

Story – A woman named Miss Yip (played by Deannie Yip, how original) is suing the evil businessman (played by Yuen Wah often recognized as “that skinny businessman with slick hair smoking a cigar”) for dumping waste into her fish farm.

That skinny businessman with slicked hair and a cigar

Later turns out his factory is refining narcotics there. Jackie Chan is Yuen Wah’s lawyer and in this film is depicted as something of a ladykiller, oh and his character’s name is Jackie of course. Yip’s cousin Nancy Lee (played by Pauline Yeung) is an expert witness in the trial. Jackie gets Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung to help spy on Miss Yip for the trial. The mentally disturbed Yuen Biao is sent to place an impossibly large bugging device in her apartment. Sammo moves in next door to her for additional surveillance, but in the process falls in love with her.

Covert surveillance

That’s all you really need to know. Of course the story is just a framework for a lot of fighting, and some of the best action scenes in kung fu cinema. 

Action – I could watch the fight scenes in this movie over and over and over again, oh wait, I already have. The movie starts off very early with Jackie taking care of a few guys attacking a client of his. Sammo gets one of my favorite character intros selling fake guns to some “revolutionary warriors.” But really you’re watching this movie for when the three are either fighting each other or together fighting every other bad guy in the movie. Highlights are the three of them fighting each other while Jackie is on a date trying to conceal the fact his friends are in his bedroom beating the crap out of each other. There’s a plotwise completely unmotivated fight scene in a bar where Yuen Wah is attacked (did Miss Yip send them??) and a nice fight scene of Jackie against several henchmen on a small cruise ship. The capper is the final factory fight scene.

I will kick you so hard the guys holding you down will be knocked back too

Ending has enough action for probably one movie in itself, but it’s all in just one scene. Things like this you’ll probably never see again because back in the day Hong Kong fight scenes were shot over several months, and also the movies were shot without sound which means you can shoot a loooooooot faster when you don’t have to worry about a boom mike dipping into the frame or an elevator messing up the sound. At this point in the story Sammo is taken out of commission as seen in the above photo, but Yuen Biao and Jackie do their best to fight off all the henchmen.

Left is Billy Chow, real life kung fu champion. Also played the villain in Jet Li's "Fist of Legend," but more commonly he's something like random thug #3

That’s going to mean a lot of glass broken, backflips over people, skillfully flipping on and off elevated catwalks and a lot of painful looking falls. It’s difficult to describe because it simply needs to be seen, but sufficient to say that there are numerous “OH SNAP!! DID HE JUST…?” moments. You’ll see them start doing a stunt and when it’s done you’ll have to remind yourself to take a breath. It’s all very well shot one shot flowing seamlessly to the next. 

I'm going to beat you this time I swear!

The highlight of the highlight scene is Jackie’s sequel fight with Benny “The Jet” Urquidez (that guy John Cusack kills with a pen in Grosse Point Blank). Their first fight was in the film “Wheels on Meals” which also featured all three of the main stars (I’ve seen that film numerous times as well, but I want to rewatch it before reviewing it). This is the “sequel” fight between Jackie and Benny Urquidez because the first fight scene is also one of the most famous in Jackie Chan’s repertoire. It’s fast, intense, at times comedic and awe inspiring to watch these two go hand to hand. This is one of those scenes you’ll watch over and over again.

Outtakes - This is one of the very few Jackie Chan films with no outtakes on the DVD. I don’t remember if there were any when I saw it in the theater. It seems the UK version has a badly edited outtake reel (far too long)

DVD – I own the HK Region 0 DVD of this film which is non-anamorphic 4X3 letterboxed. The picture quality is fine, but clearly could be better. The subtitles can be Engrishy but it’s watchable (e.g. “My hand hurts!” “I stomp on it so that it will hurt!”). I first saw this at the Brattle Theatre in Boston with my mom when they were having Jackie Chan double features every week, and remember one scene that is in the extras section of this DVD. In the movie Yuen Biao has this tiny bicycle that he can fold up and carry over his shoulder. Not sure why it’s not in the feature of the DVD, because there’s also some story bit in there that explains why he’s trying to kill Nancy in one scene.

On Amazon they have the newer Region 2 edition from the UK which I haven’t seen yet, but has a lot of extras and commentary by Bey Logan who does all the commentaries for the Dragon Dynasty DVDs. Hopefully either I’ll get that one or a remastered edition will be released in Hong Kong. Lately they’ve been putting out remastered editions that are anamorphic with better picture quality.

HK DVDs can be ordered from Yesasia.com. Early 2009 I found out that my favorite DVD stores in Chinatown have closed so I’m currently on the search for a new DVD store.

Favorite Moment – “What’re you doing sneaking in my apartment in the dark?” “I was looking for your light switch!”

Final Thoughts – For Jackie Chan and kung fu movie fans this is REQUIRED VIEWING. Actually I’m going to be saying that about most of the Jackie Chan movies I review. The story isn’t terrible, and some of the comedic/romantic bits are more cute than funny but it’s tolerable enough for the sheer volume of action in this movie. Even so the movie isn’t that long and the fights are spaced well. Will definitely be worth your while.