Member KenHashibe Posted August 6, 2014 Member Share Posted August 6, 2014 Plot: Ray Lui plays a HK cop who goes to New York to meet up with his family. He returns to his wife who is not so happy that he hasn’t kept in touch for so long, but while there, he accidentally (coincidentally?) runs into an old rival of his who plans on getting revenge by hunting down his family. Ray is able to fight back in an over-the-top yet puzzlingly boring climax. Review: While this movie isn’t terrible, it’s a big waste of time. The acting is cringe-worthy and the the abundance of stereotypes is painful. According to this movie, White people are arrogant jerks who eat hamburgers and swear like sailors, while the Chinese are righteous and loyal. The action includes some cool car stunts, but everything else is quite unrealistic and poor. The ending is so completely overblown and ridiculous that it may count as unintentional comic relief. This movie really has nothing spectacular in it, so don’t expect much. Conclusion: If you’re looking for a cool action movie with a good story and likeable characters with logical development, then don’t watch this movie. If you’re looking for an awkward action movie that makes you feel uncomfortable watching it, then look no further! 2 out of 5 Notes: For those who have seen this movie and Hard Boiled (which was released a year prior), you should be able to see a few similarities including a shootout in a hospital and a gift from a friend being a lighter. Did you enjoy the review? Have you seen this movie? What are your thoughts on it? Please leave your responses below. You can read my kung fu movie reviews at ShaolinChmaber36.com. Thank you for reading! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Sheng Posted August 25, 2014 Member Share Posted August 25, 2014 Saw this last year after snatching up the old Widesight DVD in a Second Hand store in Causeway Bay. GUNS OF DRAGON was certainly Leung Siu-Hung's worst-ever film. What I remember most was that it started fairly decently, the whole HK cop in the US set-up wasn’t bad at all, (Ray) Lui Leung-Wai wasn’t exactly miscast either, the man always had some presence as an actor, but a screen-fighter he certainly ain’t! The longer the film lasted though the more it went downhill. The final, Puerto Rico-shot scenes can only be described as cringe-worthy in every aspect, with the fake explosion of the water-plane qualifying as one of the worst FX shots ever used in a HK film! You can really tell that they must have run completely out of funds and were desperate to wrap up at this point. What kind of a flawed production this project must have been you can tell by the following statements Leung Siu-Lung made in an interview published in the HKIFF publication “A Tribute To Action Choreographers”: “... The hardship I endured filming GUNS OF DRAGON (93) caused a critical change in me. With one third of the film shot on location in the US we experienced bad luck right from the start. We had problems with the weather, finances, personnel, the location, etc. After shooting for two days, we had to shoot a particularly challenging scene. Back at the hotel I would wonder how Tsui Hark or Sammo Hung would handle it, and what the worst-case scenario would be. Then, I thought that if they would chose someone less capable to do it, I would then be blamed for the poor quality. If it turned out well, people would say that I, Tony Leung Siu-Hung was not up to the task and that I should have been replaced. So I concluded that I had to struggle with it no matter what. After that, one crisis arose after another. On the last day, it rained. On the previous day, a car we had used in the scene was stolen. Then, we recovered the car and the rain stopped. Thereupon we scrambled to finish the sequence. The experience taught me not to panic under no circumstances, and that anxiety and overacting can lead to irrational behaviour...” 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member KenHashibe Posted August 25, 2014 Author Member Share Posted August 25, 2014 Saw this last year after snatching up the old Widesight DVD in a Second Hand store in Causeway Bay. GUNS OF DRAGON was certainly Leung Siu-Lung's worst-ever film. What I remember most was that it started fairly decently, the whole HK cop in the US set-up wasn’t bad at all, (Ray) Lui Leung-Wai wasn’t exactly miscast either, the man always had some presence as an actor, but a screen-fighter he certainly ain’t! The longer the film lasted though the more it went downhill. The final, Puerto Rico-shot scenes can only be described as cringe-worthy in every aspect, with the fake explosion of the water-plane qualifying as one of the worst FX shots ever used in a HK film! You can really tell that they must have run completely out of funds and were desperate to wrap up at this point. After I had posted this review, I realized that it's pretty short. I feel like my elaboration wasn't long enough. I actually found the DVD at the library. I didn't know anything about the movie, but I was on a spontaneous HK movie-watching spree so I picked it up. Man, can you say low-production values. I would imagine that this movie had a big budget, but they spent it all on locations and cars to flip over. I repeat, the action is very slow and unrealistic. Just about as unrealistic as the character development. I partly blame the writer, James Yuen, but he wrote Curry and Pepper, which I liked. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member the moose Posted August 25, 2014 Member Share Posted August 25, 2014 I had this on VHS years ago. I more or less agree with your review having just scanned it. I seem to remember it also had John Sham and that guy out of Goodfella's who gets bottled by Joe Pesci in the bar. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted January 31, 2022 Moderator Share Posted January 31, 2022 I recently got through checking this one out and enjoyed it considerably more than @KenHashibe and @Sheng. It's not perfect, but for an early 90's HK action movie shot on location in New York, there's considerable fun to be had! Plus, Yvonne Yung. I gave it the full review treatment over at COF - https://cityonfire.com/guns-of-dragon-1993-review/ 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DrNgor Posted January 31, 2022 Member Share Posted January 31, 2022 Great review! The IMDB reviews were also pretty positive and I have this on my list of films to acquire on DVD at some point. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member TibetanWhiteCrane Posted January 31, 2022 Member Share Posted January 31, 2022 (edited) German DVD is the only way to go.... looks great, original mono audio with Eng subs. Edited January 31, 2022 by TibetanWhiteCrane 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DrNgor Posted January 31, 2022 Member Share Posted January 31, 2022 Brazilian VHS cover. Notice how they got the English title wrong: "Gun of Fragon." 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted January 31, 2022 Moderator Share Posted January 31, 2022 10 hours ago, TibetanWhiteCrane said: German DVD is the only way to go.... looks great, original mono audio with Eng subs. Indeed, this was another of what could practically be it's own sub-section in my collection called the "TWC Inspired Purchases" pile. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member ShaOW!linDude Posted February 1, 2022 Member Share Posted February 1, 2022 Kind of want to see that now. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member KenHashibe Posted February 2, 2022 Author Member Share Posted February 2, 2022 On 1/30/2022 at 10:03 PM, One Armed Boxer said: I recently got through checking this one out and enjoyed it considerably more than @KenHashibe and @Sheng. It's not perfect, but for an early 90's HK action movie shot on location in New York, there's considerable fun to be had! Plus, Yvonne Yung. I gave it the full review treatment over at COF - https://cityonfire.com/guns-of-dragon-1993-review/ Oh boy, I always wince seeing my old reviews. My opinion and writing capabilities have changed so much. Very entertaining and thorough review @One Armed Boxer! I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thinking about this movie again, many of the things that I thought were annoying might be funny to me now. I saw this when I was first getting into Hong Kong movies, and I had seen many of the classics. So going from Police Story and Hard Boiled to Guns of Dragon, I was underwhelmed to say the least. Not high on my list of movies to rewatch, but I might have to give this movie a second chance some day. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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