Dragon Tiger Gate: the Movie (SPOILERS)

[@PLUGO]

So . . . Wilson Yip, director of S.P.L. is working with Donnie Yen again on his next film. Dragon Tiger Gate, the 70's era Hong Kong comic created by Tony Wong. In the U.S. Jademan Comics translated and marketed the series under the title "Oriental Heroes" sometime around the late 80's and early 90's.

The Weinstein Company is handling US distribution and the film will include Jaycee Chan, Anthony Wong and Zhou Yu. The US$10 million action film is Mandarin Films' first co-production with Beijing Polybona. In addition to Hong Kong and China, it will open in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand as well as travel to Europe after being sold to Benelux, France and Scandinavia.

Some behind the scenes footage can be found here.

Anyone remember the comic?

Anyone have an opinion based on Wilson's directing of S.P.L?

[doug maverick]

yeah the film is in post right now according to donnie's site and donnieyen.us, i remember the book. this film is acording to donnie he was looking to a sin city feel for this flick. i don't know how thats gonna turn out, the poster's look kinda cheesy the story sounds warped, but then again so does most of yips work, spl was his first solid film in my opinion and it still had more holes thin swiss cheese. i've been a donnie fan since i was like 8, so i'll see this just like i saw the rest. if anything it's gonna have some great fights!!!!!!!!!

[jethro]

I've seen some bad donnie stuff.

These may have already been aswered but I'll ask em anyway.

1----how long did this take to make, meaning did they actually take a lttle bit of time?

2----is donnie in it?

3----is there anyone even close to donnie's caliber in it?


Sorry I can't comment on slp, I keep hearing so muhc about jacky wu, i don't want that to be the first movie I see him in, im weird

[doug maverick]

they started like in march! so it was a relative quick production, but that doesn't mean anything, directors who know what they want can shoot pretty fast espiecially if they work with the same actors and crew(i shot a feature film for television in like ten days).

yes donnie is in it, but no i don't think theres a good equal for donnie, sean yue and nicholas tse are in it, i half to find out about the villian but i'm pretty sure he's no one important.

[doug maverick]

check it out i found the official site and guess what? they have it in english, check out the trailer it pretty good:


http://www.dragontigergatemovie.com/index2.html

[jethro]

they started like in march! so it was a relative quick production, but that doesn't mean anything, directors who know what they want can shoot pretty fast espiecially if they work with the same actors and crew(i shot a feature film for television in like ten days).

yes donnie is in it, but no i don't think theres a good equal for donnie, sean yue and nicholas tse are in it, i half to find out about the villian but i'm pretty sure he's no one important.

It looks pretty good I guess, but if it is like OUATIC 3 or something, it's gonna suck. They rushed through the first 2 movies(just going off how many goofs there were), but they were still really good, so I hope I can see it in the next year or 2 or 3.

[Shaolinlueb]

wilson yip is one of my favorite directors. he did awesome with spl. one of my favorite hk movies is by him. "bio zombies" great stuff. i hope there isnt too much wire work in this one.


edit*
nicholas tse is in it.............. god i hate him.

[GeneChing]

OUATIC3 is a special case. Li and Hark split during production. Li went on to make his own version of the movie, which became Wong Fei Hong's Iron Rooster vs. Centipide, aka Last Hero in China . Both films came out in '93, same year as Tai Chi Master and Fong Sai Yuk I & II. Jet was working it in '93.

LHiC was supposed to be some kind of a remake of the 1956 Kwan Tak Hing classic. I've never seen the KTH version, but maybe that would be the cypher. Both LHiC and OUATIC3 were very surreal films. I'm still not sure what either Li or Hark were after. I didn't care for either movie that much, but OUATIC3's weird battle lions and LHiC's chicken fight finale were so bizarre, it's hard to discount either films as just bad. They were beyond bad in a totally Hong Kong way. Of course, if you have issues with bad film, you shouldn't watch Hong Kong cinema because as genre's go, it's got to be the worst when it's bad (except maybe Bollywood.) Personally I kind of enjoy bad HK film sometimes. It's a guilty pleasure. I'm glad I saw both LHiC and OUATIC3, but I certainly wouldn't recommend them or would sit through them again. OUATIC3 was just a shame because OUATIC1 & 2 were amazing films. The later OUATICs aren't much better, except when Zhou Wenzhou took over the role in 4.

BTW, if you're not into seeing Jacky Wu in SPL, jethro, check him out in Tai Chi Master II. Like Zhao Wenzhou in OUATIC4, stepping into Jet's shadow was challenging. Tai Chi Master II isn't connected to Tai Chi Master I at all really, except for the fact that both are directed by Yuen Woo-Ping. I think Tai Chi Master II is the best showcase so far for Jacky Wu's martial arts. Jacky Wu is Wu Jing, another Beijing wushu team champ like Jet. I think he's one to watch. He just needs a good vehicle to take him to the next level.

[jethro]

the only good part in #3 is where wong and the bad guy are fighting and wong gets distracted, guy jumps up on roof, then yells, wong you can't catch me I'm so much better than you, then he runs away. Teh clubfoot scenes were just retarded, you may have seen him in that crap wong movie fist of the red dragon. In that movie he got to show his stuff, for some reason hark doesn't want to showcase him, and Yuen Biou for that matter.

Btu claws of steel(aka 10 names) I thought was awesome on many levels. Tehy reteamed up bucktooth and beardy from my fav movie ever legend of fighter, master killer vs wong fei-hung, the music, the lion dances, bad guy being the funniest guy in the whole series. Jet li drunken style(for a second).

claws may not haev been the best movie but it did WAY too many things the way that I like it. But unlike OUATIC 2 and 3, I actually felt emotion in claws. Very good movie, but I can certainly see why people didn't like it

And I will certainly check out the one with billy chow and that tv show I heard was really good. Sorry I actually have to work a little bit I would have wrote l;onger bye

[jethro]

btw i have the 106 minute uncut version of this. My friend has an extreme cut-up version. But I think that if you watch again you can tell the difference in those movie. They were both very rushed but one was good and one was not. The fu in deadly china hero was not the best, but so much better than OUATIC 3 it's not even funny. And the dubbing is cool cause it's not the jet li collection guy(s) doing the dubs, it's the british guy just like the old school because of what was goin on in that time. The baddie voice is easily the best dubbed vioce I have ever heard, you have heard him in around 200-300 movies, but he puts on his best performance ever.

The things that make this one an enjoyable movie for me in comparison to 3 are:

Music-they actually changed it up in this one and if hark was the first one to put it into words on the big screen, then jing wong copied him pretty quick and was the second. The guitar added to the theme was pretty cool.

The fighting-all smoke and mirrors just like the kung fight, but does manage to give us a mighty gift at the end. Also watching jet in the chair and go against master killer were very good, and very fine smellin cheese.

THE COMEDY-it was stupid as hell but watching jet try not to crack up when the badie is like 2 inches form jet's face, that was truly classic.

Jet the actor-he was an actor in this movie unlike 3, also in 2 he was not a good actor but it is hark's fault, in 1 he was shown to be a GREAT actor, not versatile, but perfect for the role.I can certainly see why this entry in the series was frowned upon and may have even offended some non light hearted wong fei-hung fans but it DID stay true. What Jing Wong(hate him) did was keep the calm wong role for jet and made everything around him INSANE. It is a brilliant idea that I am surprised more people didn't like the movie because of it. Some of my favorite movies are return to the 36th chamber, disciples of 36th, young master, and this. Trust me though I like the movies more when they mix up the emotions like in MAd Monkey Kung Fu, KILLER CONSTABLE, deadly mantis, and 36th chamber itself. Can you tell I like shaw flicks and master Lau's inparticular

[Shaolinlueb]

after ouatic3 i liked 4 and 5 a lot. i thought the stories were decent and such. but club foot ends up getting shot in the same knee in both of those. you figure his knee would be destroyed lol. 6 i have somewhere too but i cant bring myself to watch it.

[GeneChing]

I agree with ya, Shaolinlueb, although for the life of me, I can't remember what happened in OUATIC5. I had high expectations for OUATIC6 with the return of Jet and Sammo directing, but what a disappointment. Jet spends most of the film practicing his English. And the cowboy kung fu thing is just old on me. Too much Kung Fu TV show. Too much Shanghai Noon/Nights. I enjoyed those, but Jet's (and Sammo's) stab at it sucked. I saw one of the following OUATICs - I can't remember which - I think those were from some TV show. The production quality was poor, and they weren't really 'official' installments, just billed as such on the video.

jethro, I hear ya about Wong Jing, but I like some of his work. It's so eccentric. I liked New Legend of Shaolin because it was so bizarre. And that chrome tank at the end? Actually, I liked High Risk and My Father is a Hero too, so I liked all the Wong Jing/Jet collabs. That's what I love of HK film. I also liked Dreadnaught, and of course, talking old school - Magnificient Butcher. I think where he really shines is with femme fatales, such as Naked Killer, Naked Weapon, the Raped by an Angel films, all totally NPC, and rightly so, but amusing.

[jethro]

i like a lot fo his stuff too like mahjong and royal tramp but I still think his out of place wong movie was one of his better efforts.

But he has to be the most prolific writer ever since he has come on to thwe scene. he did write and cowrite a lot of old school films before making his own stuff but my god he has written like 100 movies and his percantage is just not that good.

Thanks for the feedbck.

[GeneChing]

Everyone I know has dissed mahjong. I haven't seen it, but I was giving it a pass because of so many bad reviews. You're the first to give it a thumb's up.

I think a large portion of the charm of HK filmis that all the artists are so insanely prolific. When you're moving that fast, you don't have achance to second guess your work. You just do it. Sometimes, it flops. Occasionally, it works. Most of the time, it comes out like a jumbled mess, but that can be charming.

[doug maverick]

i think the films gonna resemble the comic book(which would be cool) i wonder how much tony wong(the creater) had to do with it i read that he and raymond chow were trying to make the film for like five years. truth be told i never really liked oriental heroes(dragon tiger in the us) that much, i liked force of buddha's palm and the one about the drunken kung fu guys. also i heard yen and yip will be teaming up again for spl2 set in mocow, it's suposed to be like training day. i don't know if thats going to work, unless they get somebody real good in there(in terms of acting as for ma donnie's got it covered) maybe andy lau or anthony wong, maybe even my man tony leung. the art house eats those guys up. i also heard there making seven swords 2, i hope tsui hark makes a better film, i mean come on if you make a film four hours and then cut like half the film out it's gonna suck. he should've pulled a kill bill, i guess somebody was sleeping on the marketing front, oh well what are you gonna do...............