The Dragon the Hero

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AKA: Dragon on Fire, Dragon the Great, Muscle of the Dragon

Year of release: 1979

Genre: martial arts

Director: Godfrey Ho

Action director: Tang Tak-Cheung

Producers: Joseph Lai, Tomas Tang

Writer: Sze-To On

Cinematography: Yau Kei

Music: Chen Zhong, Ma Man

Editor: Vincent Leung

Stars: John Liu, Tino Wong, Phillip Ko, Dragon Lee, Bolo Yeung, Chan Lau, Chiang Kam, Pak Sha-Lik, Alexander Grand, David Wu, Mars

Not rated; contains IIB-level violence and language

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So, what did you dear readers do over the big Fourth of July weekend? Did you have some fine grilled meat chased with chilled beverages before watching a ostentatious pyrotechnic display? Well, over here at the Hong Kong Film Net home office, we spent our time digging beneath couch cushions for loose change to buy a couple of Icehouse tallboys and then simmering in our own sweat marinade while watching Godfrey Ho movies.

The latest subject for our reviewing displeasure and your reading pleasure is Ho's 1979 effort The Dragon the Hero. For something that was obviously shot for little more than what we scraped up for beer, it's actually not that bad of a movie. Oh, yes, it's nothing up to the level of the better kung fu flicks out there, and there is enough cheese present (especially via the terrible English dub) to cover Pizza Hut's output for a month, but this is a surprisingly competent and assured picture from a director better known for hastily cutting and pasting different films together so he could re-sell them to foreign distributors.

Godfrey Ho's movies were never really known for their deep or meaningful stories -- hell, it's usually a crapshoot as to whether the story is even going to make sense, and The Dragon the Hero is no exception. The basic plot has John Liu as an undercover agent sent in to investigate Chan Lau's stealing and subsequent sale of antiquities to nasty gwailos. In true Ho form, possibly so he could later chop up and re-sell the footage from this movie, there are several other subplots thrown in, most notably one featuring Dragon Lee (aka Bruce Lei), who runs afoul of the aforementioned gwailo and begins his own quest for revenge, all the while pulling off his best Bruce Lee imitation.

Like most of Godfrey Ho's movies, The Dragon the Hero is quite bizarre at times in its' execution, having a feeling that the director was just making up things as he went along. In most instances of his work, this leads to end products that simply end up boring and/or confusing the viewer. But here, the schizophrenic nature works, at least in the sense that this becomes one of the more unique old-school kung fu movies you'll see. From seeing Bolo Yeung covered in fake chest hair to the main villain employing the "rabid dog" style, there's rarely a moment here where the viewer will be bored -- at least if they're going into this movie with an open mind, and perhaps a stomach full of libations.

RATING: 6