It’s October, so I guess it’s oddly fitting that I’ve found myself watching something that’s dressed up as an original film but isn’t. 1983’s Fire Dragon comes to us courtesy of a five-film Jackie Chan set put out by Madacy Entertainment. It’s actually arguably in better quality than the Tubi release.
At first I thought Jackie wasn’t in this film - that I had been the recipient of a trick rather than a treat - and felt that I was robbed of one of my five dollars, but it turns out he is in this… through archive footage. Jackie comes to us via reused footage from Fantasy Mission Force and a body double who never looks at the camera. At least Dragon the Master didn’t hide its Jackie knockoff out of shame or sleaze. Can’t knock the hustle, I guess.
This is sort of like if Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid was a “getting the team together” kind of film, and there was martial arts involved. Kwan Chung and Yi-Chan Lu (I think, despite the credits all being in Chinese; the film was dubbed in English) work to assemble a team of mercenaries to stop the Nazis invading China. Jackie is one of the mercenaries, so he pops up every once in a while. It’s an action-comedy, with hints of wuxia in it and a bizarre mix of seriousness (scenes of implied rape and lots of violence) and bizarre comedy (dogs tickling people’s feet). I guess it’s passable, but clearly trying to ride the Jackie Chan train, especially in the wake of Rush Hour.
It’s October, so I guess it’s oddly fitting that I’ve found myself watching something that’s dressed up as an original film but isn’t. 1983’s Fire Dragon comes to us courtesy of a five-film Jackie Chan set put out by Madacy Entertainment. It’s actually arguably in better quality than the Tubi release.
At first I thought Jackie wasn’t in this film - that I had been the recipient of a trick rather than a treat - and felt that I was robbed of one of my five dollars, but it turns out he is in this… through archive footage. Jackie comes to us via reused footage from Fantasy Mission Force and a body double who never looks at the camera. At least Dragon the Master didn’t hide its Jackie knockoff out of shame or sleaze. Can’t knock the hustle, I guess.
This is sort of like if Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid was a “getting the team together” kind of film, and there was martial arts involved. Kwan Chung and Yi-Chan Lu (I think, despite the credits all being in Chinese; the film was dubbed in English) work to assemble a team of mercenaries to stop the Nazis invading China. Jackie is one of the mercenaries, so he pops up every once in a while. It’s an action-comedy, with hints of wuxia in it and a bizarre mix of seriousness (scenes of implied rape and lots of violence) and bizarre comedy (dogs tickling people’s feet). I guess it’s passable, but clearly trying to ride the Jackie Chan train, especially in the wake of Rush Hour.
