Fist of the Red Dragon (1993) is a movie I recently watched for the first time in a long time on Amazon Prime. The storyline follows a man whose mother died and was raised by his father and aunt. They do their best to keep him out of trouble but he's surrounded by gangs, opioid dealers and addicts. He does a great job with his good friend Wong Fei-Hung of staying out of those lifestyles. Unfortunately for him in his attempts to sell and market the cure for opioid addiction he gets addicted himself. His friends and family will do their best to get him back on the right track but the drug trade wont make it easy.
This movie is codirected by Chin-Chung Chan (directorial debut) and Woo-Ping Yuen (Drunken Master) and stars Donnie Yen (Iron Monkey), Dickson Ga-Sing Lee (Tiger Cage II), Fennie Yuen (Royal Tramp), Man-Tat Ng (Shaolin Soccer), Xin Xin Xiong (Black Mask) and Hoi-San Kwan (Hard Boiled).
This movie's storyline has a lot going on but is extremely entertaining to watch unfold. There's martial arts, comedy and a serious premise with drama all mixed together. I did like the father, aunt and son dynamic. The cast delivers solid performances around those characters and their feeling for each other. The action scenes by Yen are fun and entertaining and are a good mix of cable scenes and martial artistry. The Aunt's comedic scenes were funny and over the top. I will say Yen's addiction scenes didn't work for me and would be my only complaint about this picture.
Overall this is far from Yen's best movie but is still worth a viewing. I would score this a 6.5-7/10 and strongly recommend it to fans of the martial arts genre.
This movie is codirected by Chin-Chung Chan (directorial debut) and Woo-Ping Yuen (Drunken Master) and stars Donnie Yen (Iron Monkey), Dickson Ga-Sing Lee (Tiger Cage II), Fennie Yuen (Royal Tramp), Man-Tat Ng (Shaolin Soccer), Xin Xin Xiong (Black Mask) and Hoi-San Kwan (Hard Boiled).
This movie's storyline has a lot going on but is extremely entertaining to watch unfold. There's martial arts, comedy and a serious premise with drama all mixed together. I did like the father, aunt and son dynamic. The cast delivers solid performances around those characters and their feeling for each other. The action scenes by Yen are fun and entertaining and are a good mix of cable scenes and martial artistry. The Aunt's comedic scenes were funny and over the top. I will say Yen's addiction scenes didn't work for me and would be my only complaint about this picture.
Overall this is far from Yen's best movie but is still worth a viewing. I would score this a 6.5-7/10 and strongly recommend it to fans of the martial arts genre.