When
mild-mannered paper maker Liu Jinxi (Donnie Yen) intervenes during the robbery of the
village general store by two notorious bandits he arouses the suspicions of
inquisitive detective Xu (Takeshi Kaneshiro) who’s been sent to investigate the case
by the local magistrate.
Discovering
that one of the dead bandits is in fact one of the most dangerous, wanted men
in China, Xu realises that there is more to the shy Liu than meets the
eye. Deducing that his mastery of
martial arts marks him out as a member of the notorious criminal clan the 72
Demons, Xu begins to investigate Liu, intending to bring him to justice for a
brutal massacre committed years before.
But Xu’s snooping draws the attention of the 72 Demons who have their
own score to settle with Liu…
Blending
exhilarating martial arts mayhem and the detective story with a plot not
dissimilar to A History Of Violence, director Peter Chan’s Dragon, with its analytical
protagonist and his intuitive dissection of crime scenes, is closer to Guy
Ritchie’s
almost Steampunk take on Sherlock Holmes, Xu’s stylish mental recreations of the
film’s opening battle reminiscent of Robert Downey Jr.’s Holmes and his visualising of
events or Gil Grissom’s reconstructions on CSI.
More
mannered and philosophical than your average chop socky flick, Dragon is as
much a contemplation of identity, morality, redemption and the sins of the past
as it is blistering action film.
Liu’s former bad guy, sickened by the crimes he has committed, has
renounced violence and lives anonymously, trying to make amends for his past
deeds. But can he ever really
balance the karmic books? Does he
deserve the chance to? That’s the
question that obsesses detective Xu, a man determined to rigidly uphold the law
and dispense justice whatever the consequences, who has had to curb his natural
empathy after his compassion for a suspect led to tragedy. By the end of the film both men will
have to break their vows and compromise their personal morality to serve a
greater good.
An
accomplished martial artist, Donnie Yen’s never been the subtlest of actors but
here plays to his strengths acquitting himself well as both warrior and humble
everyman while Takeshi Kaneshiro’s Xu is a classically brooding detective hero
transplanted to rural China. A
major attraction for martial arts fanboys however is the casting of the
legendary Jimmy Wang Yu as Liu’s estranged father, the villainous Master of the 72
Demons, a despicably evil boo-hiss bad guy who provides a respectful nod to the
classic martial arts films of the Shaw brothers and Golden Harvest.
With
its bone-crunching fight scenes and moody rumination on the nature of morality
and redemption, Dragon is both a knowing and sincere celebration of the martial
arts genre.
David Watson
Directed by:
Written by:
Produced by:
Starring:
Genres:
Action, Drama
Language:
Mandarin
Runtime:
1 hour 38 minutes
Certificate:
15
Rating:
4/5
Originally published at http://www.filmjuice.com/dragon/
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