Fire Dragon (1994)
[director Yuen Woo-Ping]
Cast: Brigitte Lin Ching-Hsia, Max Mok, Sandra Ng
Brigitte Lin plays the Fire Dragon in this film. She’s a kind of a Jiang-Hu supervillain, using lightning kung fu and amazing fire tricks to help a crooked boss who’s trying to take over China. Eventually, she switches sides and helps the good guys.
This is a terrible movie, but it features wonderful action scenes, sandwiched between rancid bits of non-sequitur comedy and horribly-played pathos.
Director Yuen Wo Ping is great at choreographing high-flying action. This thing is the “Batman” of kung fu flicks—full of tricks and gadgets and special effects. Yuen clearly belongs there, in the action—because when he drifts into drama and comedy—basically anything involving acting—he becomes hopelessly lost at sea. Yuen’s talents are much better showcased in Jet Li’s Tai-Chi Master, an out-and-out kung fu fantasmagoria, or as the action director responsible for the fantastic scenes in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
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