Tiger vs Gangsters & Dragon: 3.5/5
Dragon/Turbo vs Gangsters: 2.25/5
Kun vs Double Devils/Gangsters: NR
Dragon vs Double Devils/Gangsters: 3/5
Shibumi vs The Gate: 3.25/5
Shibumi vs Tiger/Turbo: 3.5/5
Shibumi vs Dragon: 4/5
How much hair product was in the budget for this movie? Anyway, this is a solid action flick. And it features the most one sided final battle (for the hero) I can remember. Donnie Yen's "Dragon" gets hit once in the course of the entire film. Unheard of for a kung fu protagonist. It's strange because Tiger and Turbo get some shine early on in the movie but become afterthoughts for the rest of it. It's all about Dragon. In fairness, Donnie Yen is the best screen fighter of the 3, but still, I expected Tiger to get more to do considering his name is in the title of the film.
The action is solid throughout but let me get to this final fight. Shibumi, who is one of the most strongly written badass martial arts villains in modern film, gets absolutely owned by Dragon. It's insane. Before this, we get to watch Shibumi do things like work over a Guinness World Record setting heavy bag, crush Master Wong to death, and just generally be awesome at everything. Then Dragon shows up, and Shibumi is completely outclassed. Normally in a martial arts film, the hero has to fight from underneath and overcome. Shibumi NEVER LANDS A HIT on Dragon. Dragon slaps him around about 50 times.
Now, let me also say, I really liked the fight. See the above score. The reason I rated it so highly is because the first minute of the fight features some of the best handwork choreography Donnie's ever done. It's so fast, sharp and fluid. Also I love how once Shibumi gets palm thrusted into a wall he looks up and says, "18 Dragon Slaying Palms?" like it's some mythical technique he'd only heard legends of.
Now normally, after that initial protagonist flurry the villain would start to take control and dominate. But nope. Dragon continues to slap Shibumi around for the rest of the fight. Shibumi gets zero offense until the end. And the ending gets a little ridiculous. Sometimes less is more. I actually would've rated this higher but the lack on drama due to Dragon's dominance takes it down a little for me. I wonder if Donnie's intention was to subvert the norm by having the hero just clean the floor with the big bad. I don't know.
Anyway, this is a solid flick, though not a must unless you're a Donnie Yen completist. Mildly Recommended.
