MovieChat Forums > Lung siu yeh (1982) Discussion > Please, help me to make up my mind

Please, help me to make up my mind


Good Day, Everybody.

Haven't seen the movie yet but it is available here at the local stores on DVD with English soundtrack plus subtitles. It does not have the original Chinese soundtrack. The DVD costs about $15. The questions are:

1. On IMDb it is labelled Action/Drama - no "Comedy" tag. Is it correct? What dramatic elements are there in this movie? Is there any blood and gore? Are good guys/girls being killed? Is there too much pain for the heroes?
2. Is English soundtrack any good? Maybe, it destroys the movie completely - please let me know. And please write, how often and much the characters speak in the movie. Perhaps, everything is explained in some idiotic gestures and kicks like in Chaplin movies?
3. Is choreography impressive (not in the final scene,. about which I've read a lot already)?
4. Are there any cruel fights in the first half of the movie?
5. Would you pay $15 for this movie?
6. My favourite movie with Jackie is "Armour of God" (I mean the first movie with the "monastery" topic) so far. Unfortunately, I haven't laid my hands on "Police Story" and "Project A" - it's hard to get those, which I would certainly like to watch and re-watch. So, would you advise "Dragon Lord" to me?

Sorry, but I have to ask all this because the info on Internet and IMDb is too scanty.
What is more, please reply without delay, because I have to make up my mind within a week or so.

Thank you in advance for your help.
Regards from Russia
Andrei

reply

Can reply on my own as I've bought the DVD.

1. It is a marvellous comedy. Almost no gore but much pain and quite violent brawls.
2. The English soundtrack is all right.
3. Yes.
4. There are.
5. A damn good investment.
6. Sure ass!

Regards to myself
Andrei

reply

Hi, this is one of my favorite JC movies if only for the fight scene at the end. Good purchase Andrei, one of the better ones if your a fan of JC movies.

reply

Thanks for your reaction, Mr "manicmajor", even though I already had to reply myself to myself. Happy New Year to you, by the way! Our true holidays will begin on the 7th of January only.

I'm not a Jackie Chan fan and I do not like quite a number of his movies (including "Nice Guy", "Rush Hour 1/2/3", "Who Am I", "Battle-Creek Brawl", "Shanghai Noon 1/2", etc. – sorry if I write some titles incorrectly). But some movies make me rejoice. I cannot help mentioning that one of these days I purchased "Armour of God" DVD. Damn! I'd been looking for this movie so long. It's one of those movies, which I like immensely and can re-watch anytime (but I should admit that the ending is goofy over-the-top looking like a music video).

Regards from Russia
Andrei

reply

This is actually one of my favorite Chan movies, so I'd definitely recommend it! In fact, I have two versions. One is a chinese dvd that I got for 5 dollars in Chinatown new york, and the other is the US version that I got at Virgin Megastore for 15 dollars. Both are worth it. The picture quality is pretty good on both (although the print that they transferred from is pretty scratched up at times, I wonder if there's not a better print out there somewhere?). The movie as a whole is really great. Entertaining and funny with a cool little story about a young master in love. There's a lot of great visual humor and even some decent verbal humor. The sports competition scenes are amazing and the fights are very nice as well. I think that it's overall better in Mandarin or Cantonese, except that the picture quality of the US release is ever-so-slightly easier to look at (not really noticeable to most). Also, during the shuttlecock scene, I prefer the English dub because there's a lot of really great stuff going on in the scene it'd be a crime to avert your eyes to read the lightning fast commentator's subtitles. If you care to hear the commentary of what's going on in the game then listen to an English dub.

reply

In terms of recommendations:

1) It has a lot of slapstick comedy than your usual JC movie. It is put in action because JC but the has a lot of comedy in it.
2) I only have seen the English track. Considering nobody watches JC movies for the dialogue not having the original soundtrack is a problem but I still bought anyways.
3) For the fighting sequences the choreography is excellent and you do see an increase of using his stunt team as part of the action. Before Dragon Lord, his fight scenes were traditionaly more one on one and here the sport sequences I thought were quite good.
4) No unless you consider an endless throwing of food to harsh.
5) No, it is not worth $15. I bought for $4.50 and it was worth that because it is one of the few classic JC movies (1977 - 1990) I have not seen. So I paid an extra $1.50 to buy instead of renting.
6) Dragon Lord was made at time when JC was moving his filmmaking from martial arts with comedy to modern action. There is minimal fight sequences and the action scenes are good. He depends more upon his stunt team and the story does feel almost 20 century. (Instead of 19th century, of a student wadnering the hillsides looking for fights.) However, this movie was disappointing overall. Whereas prior films would better integrated the comedy/martial arts (Bruce Lee/Buster Keaton), Dragon Lord feels like a action movie in need of the Chapter Skip function because the slapstick is lame. (Also read his autobiography because he was dealing with his first American failure and other things at the time. He admitted that he was not satisfied with the results.) It is nice to own because it was a transition step to Project A where JC with excitement of working with his brothers, would completely integrate the comedy/martial arts into a masterpiece.

reply

The dubbing is awful. All the Jackie Chan movies that got American releases from Disney (their Dimension Films line) were badly dubbed without real subtitles and without including the original Chinese track. Most were badly cut, too.

Death to shakeycam directors!

reply