The Dragon From Russia (1990)

Directed by Clarence Fok Yiu Leung

Produced by Dean Shek

Starring Sam Hui Koon Kit, Maggie Cheung Man Yuk, Carrie Ng Kar Lai, Nina Li Chi, Dean Shek Tin, Rachel Lee Lai Chun, Suen Hing, Yuen Tak, Ying Pai, Lau Shun, Sarah Lee Lai Yui

The Dragon From Russia

While everyone is decrying Pathe's recent DVD edition of Christophe Gans' "Crying Freeman" for its less than overwhelming packaging, the more adventurous would be better advised to hunt down Clarence ("Naked Killer") Fok's wild rendition of Kazuo Koike & Ryoichi Ikegami's cult Japanese Manga. Although Gans' film is far truer in tone to its comic book origins, Fok's outing is a crazed take on the material for those more in tune with Hong Kong's hyperkinetic (and wire-driven) kung fu cinema. Yeah, sure Sam Hui is too old to be comfortably playing Yo, Maggie Cheung too cutesy to fulfill her part as Emu, but Yuen Tak's Master of the Dead is a truly creepy creation and his action choreography is truly staggering. Playing fast and loose with its comic book origins, "Dragon From Russia" is a rollicking action piece that layers on just enough combat theatrics that one almost doesn't notice that its plot is nothing short of virtually impenetrable.

Opening on a powerhouse fight between Japanese crime lord Kishudo (Lau) and the figurehead of the 800 Dragons, Master Of The Dead (Yuen Tak), the film kicks off in jaw-dropping style. Cut to Moscow, where orphans Yao (Hui) and May Yip (Cheung) have been brought up by Snooker (Shek), himself a former member of the Dragons' organisation. All is not well within the organisation though, as it is now riddled with betrayers and the Master is fearful that the identity of his assassins will be revealed to his enemies. With this in mind, he despatches a team of deadly foot soldiers, inclusive of Chimer (Li) and Huntress (Ng) to track down and silence his AWOL members. Sources lead them to Russia, where Snooker and his daughter Queenie (Sarah Lee) are snuffed out for their troubles, and Yao is kidnapped back to the Master's training grounds.

Once there, Yao is drugged and brainwashed, wiped of his past memories and rigorously trained as the 800 Dragons new assassin. Befriending the Master's daughter Pearl (Rachel Lee), he is given the new identity of Freeman (ironically of which he is not) and unleashed into the world in a manhunt for the organisation's enemies. Governed by orders from Chimer, and paired with ruthless assassin Teddy Wong (also Tak) he becomes the organisation's most powerful weapon. However, when the assassination of Kishudo brings him to the resurgent attention of the once lost May, his subconscious memories begin to flood back, making him a target for his own team. Not to mention the attentions of ruthless double agent Huntress! A showdown with the Master of the Dead threatens to become his only chance of restoring his prior simple existence, and that which will ultimately reclaim his status as a true "free man".

Perhaps the most off putting element of Fok's film is the disjointed confusion of the initial first act, as its non-linear narrative editing stumbles into a clumsy, jumbled mess of celluloid. Until Hui's abduction and the training sequences kick in, the viewer is left with precious little (bar luridly convoluted) plot to hang on to. Thus, unless you're an extremely patient audience member, or indeed a fan of Hong Kong cinema, the first half hour may lose some viewers completely. However, if you can stick out the scattershot madness that is that first half hour, then you will be rewarded with an hour of furiously excessive action cinema. Martial arts and action choreography is handled deftly by (screen villain) Yuen Tak and veteran stunt co-ordinator Blackie Ko Sau Leung, heavily reliant on wires (per many early nineties Hong Kong films) but blisteringly executed. A big thanks to the many helpful souls over at the Mobius boards who confirmed for me that former Jackie Chan/Sammo Hung classmate, and kung fu screen icon, Yuen Wah doubled as the Master Of The Dead in a number of the film's more cracking fight scenes (most notably the training sequences and the fight on the Russian train). The manic energy of the fight scenes lifts this one well above the seeming obscurity that it has since slipped into.

Sadly, Dean Shek's wildly action packed production was one of the last produced in the flagging days of production house Cinema City, who folded soon thereafter, but it is a noteworthy coda to a studio who gave us "City On Fire", the "A Better Tomorrow" series, and the "Tiger On The Beat" films. Hugely popular singer Sam Hui, as previously mentioned, comes over as a touch too old for the part of Yao but commands enough screen presence to eventually win prospective viewers over with his personable style. Yuen Tak is uniformly excellent as both the Master Of The Dead and Teddy Wong, giving credence to his roles by being a martial artist that can actually act. The female cast are suitably impressive, Nina Li (Mrs. Jet Li) and Carrie Ng being the standouts, while Maggie Cheung engages yet another throwaway role that somehow went on to lend weight to iconography in the West. Fok's visual stylings are in overdrive here, post "Iceman Cometh" and pre "Naked Killer", ably complimented by Peter Ngor & Wong Chi Wai's stupendous cinematography and William Szeto's pleasing Art Direction. A big plus too is Violet Lam's catchy score (that may just invoke memories of Lalo Schifrin's "Enter The Dragon" theme), as well as Hui's rocky "Freeman" theme song. Overall, a zesty action flick let down by some gung ho editing and "flying paper" story development.

Of the disc, Mei Ah's presentation is a notch above the norm for their usual ordinary transfers, giving a decade old film about its best current version available on disc until Hong Kong Legends release their version in the near future. The letterboxing is a curious animal, as the film commences on the Cinema City logo with an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85 (per the film's theatrical format), then shifts back to roughly somewhere between 1.66 and 1.77 for the remainder of the feature. Although by and large quite good in its colour and detail levels, the print is marred by numerous instances of print damage. There is an abundance of white speckles, scratches, vertical lines and clumsy jump-cuts where source damage has left the print worse for wear. There is also some quite noticeable instances of film grain, but hey…this is Hong Kong cinema and I have mentioned more than enough times in previous reviews the levels of competency studios in the region exhibit in relation to film storage. If these issues determine to deter you from Mei Ah's disc, then your best bet would be to wait for Hong Kong Legends imminent anamorphic R2 release. I myself found the Asian disc to be a serviceable if not flawed release of a good film that is unfortunately rapidly fading into obscurity.

Audio is available in either 3 channel Mandarin & Cantonese mono Dolby tracks, or fairly competent Mandarin & Cantonese 5.1 remixes. As the original audio was optical monaural, and possibly largely post-synched to boot, Mei Ah's surround remixes are surprisingly much better than anticipated based upon their past track record. The mix is a bit bass-heavy, as well as capable of drawing attention its sometimes artificial "canned" quality, but there are plenty of separation effects that augment the cartoon visuals quite engagingly. I have heard Mei Ah execute much WORSE remixes than this one (look elsewhere for a rant!), but once again if a slightly exaggerated sound stage is going to miff you, wait for HKL's disc. The subtitles are a bit loopy for the larger part, with some glaring spelling and grammatical errors (which doesn't help trying to follow the disjointed plot), but that's a small complaint for this little black duck! I spent over a decade following fractured English subtitles in Asian cinemas and as far as I'm concerned it just added to the overall tongue-in-cheek fun factor of these films. And that's just what you get when you pop this disc in your player…a virtually incomprehensible plot, big action, gorgeous visuals and an inordinate sense of fun. What else could a potential viewer want in a film? This isn't Shakespeare you know…

Review by M.C.Thomason


 
Released by Mei Ah Laser Disc
Category IIB - Region 0
Running time - 95m
Ratio - Widescreen 1.77
Audio - Dolby digital 5.1, Dolby digital 2.1
Extras :
Synopsis + Cast & Credits text (in other words…nil!)
© 2001, Icon In Black Media
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