Free Revenge Of The Green Dragons Review Movie Review Example

In 2006 Martin Scorsese released “The Departed”, the remake of Hong Kong criminal drama “Internal Affairs”, which has brought the director a long-awaited Oscar. Andrew Loo was a co-director of “Internal Affairs” and as a gratitude for the successful picture, Scorsese decided to produce Loo’s first English-speaking film with Chinese actors as starring cast (Loo made his debut in Hollywood with his thriller “The Flock”, 2007) – and the “Revenge of the Green Dragons” has come on the screens.
End of the 1980s. As children, sworn brothers Sonny (Justin Chon) and Steven (Kevin Wu) came from China to New York and got into the world, where their destinies are trifling and unimportant to everyone and no one cares about them. Soon the boys become members of a ruthless youth gang “Green Dragons” that is under the control of insidious and charismatic Paul Wong (Harry Shum Jr.); and his leadership makes the gang one of the leading groupings of Flushing - New York’s new Chinatown. Over the years, Sonny and Steven turn into the most reliable and surest members of the gang, but as soon as the circumstances are against them, it becomes obvious that Paul does not intend to reciprocate boys’ dedication.
Loo’s picture is racy, cruel and realistic and, in contrast to numerous Hollywood films where Chinese thugs presented as enigmatic philosophers and masters of incredible martial arts, “Revenge of the Green Dragons” shows real gangsters who kill people with a knife and bullets instead of using the secret painful holds. Due to the stage directing of Andrew Loo, viewers have an opportunity to immerse themselves in the Chinese culture from the inside.
However, as soon as the viewer starts to consider this movie not as an ethnographic sketch, but as a feature film, he will notice immediately that plot is full of clichés, though sometimes it can be enthralling; the romantic line is dull and boring (Sonny falls in love with the girl, who are under Paul’s protection since her brother saved Paul’s life); poor dialogues do not allow feeling the full drama; the abundance of slow shootings and insipid secondary characters do not allow perceiving the events with necessary intensity and pathetics. But the worst of all is spiritually weak and mostly passive main heroes.
Surely, when the viewer sees the boys, who are forced to become gangsters, though they do not want to do this, he feels an empathy and sympathy for them. However, the American criminal movie works on another script – decisive and adventurous heroes here like Michael Corleone, Tony Montana or Vincent Vega are well respected by the spectators, even if they behave as ruthless psychopaths. And sissies such as Sonny and Steven look like losers; thereby the viewer will be bored by their “struggle for life”.
The United States of America was built not just by emigrants. It was built by ethical gangster clans: Irish, Italian, Jewish and, surely, Chinese. In general, the idea of creation of the criminal saga such as “Once Upon a Time in America” and “The Godfather”, only on the Chinese material, is extremely productive: here the traditions of American gangster cinematography and Hong Kong thrillers of the 80s could get together. However, “Revenge of the Green Dragons” falls short of the high-level film. Therefore, this theme is still waiting for its adequate embodiment. Nonetheless, thank Andrew Loo for an attempt.