|
'Dragon Squad' offers brilliant action sequences
2005-11-11
Hong Kong movie "Dragon Squad" poster: Vanness Wu (C), Li Bingbing (L1), Shawn Yu (R1) and Xia Yu (R2) |
|
HONG KONG - In the Steven Seagal-produced ``Dragon Squad,'' director Daniel Lee puts together impressive action sequences, but the action overwhelms the story, with the movie degenerating into a series of video-game like showdowns between the characters.The plot is simple enough, perhaps too simplistic. A team of rookie Interpol officers suffer an embarrassing setback when a criminal is kidnapped by mercenaries from right under their noses in Hong Kong. They are subsequently barred from law enforcement work in Hong Kong, but decide to take matters into their own hands. A jaded local police officer, Kong Lung, (Sammo Hung) helps point them in the right direction. But Lee doesn't fully develop Kong's mentoring of the officers, nor his past. Kong is haunted by a brash move during a faceoff with gangsters that led to police casualties. Kong initially refuses to help the officers, but later comes around and fights alongside them. The officers are also too young to be credible. Vanness Wu, who had long hair long back when he made his name with the popular Taiwanese boy band F4, looks feminine with short hair. Chinese actor Xia Yu, best actor winner at the 1994 Venice Film Festival, also looks too innocent to be a crime-fighting cop. The only exception is Hong Kong's Shawn Yue, who shows an evil streak when unloading his gun. The villains have more character. Maggie Q, who is due to appear in the upcoming ``Mission: Impossible 3,'' is a cold, mean sniper. Heo Jun-ho from ``Silmido'' displays a killer quality. Michael Biehn of ``The Terminator'' fame is both a killing machine and a sensitive lover who appears to genuinely care about a gang leader's girlfriend (Li Bingbing) who he's trying to exploit. Adding a Chinese twist, the villains wear what appear to be Peking Opera masks. The weak storyline aside, Lee sets up slick fighting scenes. He has a keen sense of film aesthetic, using as a major backdrop a gritty industrial area that lends to the ruggedness of battle. The director also likes the image of flying paper shreds, a confetti effect created by rapid gunfire. The best fighting scenes take place against this urban backdrop. Amid a chaotic battle, snipers Lu Shaojun (Xia) and Yuet Yi (Q) try to pick one another off from different rooftops in a showdown that has the solitary quality of a knight's duel. In another faceoff, Yuet glides down from a tree on a rope, yanks the other end of the rope tied to a fence, which flies back into Shaojun who is chasing her. ``Dragon Squad'' is also notable for its international dimension. Director Lee said the cast, which draws from America, South Korea, mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, was designed to appeal to various markets. The movie, which cost more than 40 million Hong Kong dollars (US$5.2 million; euro4.4 million) excluding the actors' fees, was financed by investors from Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and the U.S. Seagal, known for ``Under Siege,'' was supposed to appear in the movie but had a scheduling conflict, according to Lee. Instead, he helped secure distribution deals in Europe and the U.S., as well as offering advice on the proportion of action to drama and how to best tap the potential of the cast. ``He told us how foreigners - Europeans or Americans - would look at a Hong Kong action film,'' Lee said. On the Net: http://www.dragonsquad.hk
Pellicano blasts federal wiretapping case (2006-06-11)Celebrity sleuth Pellicano re-arrested in Calif (2006-02-03)'Dragon Squad' offers brilliant action sequences (2005-11-11)'Nighthawks' Director Malmuth Dies at 71 (2005-07-02)Hollywood sleuth charged with threatening reporter (2005-06-19)
| 
