“Year of the Dragon” French Theatrical Poster
Director: Michael Cimino
Producer: Dino De Laurentiis
Cast: Mickey Rourke, John Lone, Ariane, Leonard Termo, Raymond J. Barry, Caroline Kava, Eddie Jones, Joey Chin, Victor Wong, Fan Mei Sheng, Mark Hammer
Running Time: 134 min.
By James H.
Stanley White is a man obsessed. He is a Vietnam veteran, and a New York cop assigned to Chinatown. Moreover, he is a racist. His experiences in ‘Nam have left him jaded and hateful. He has a personal vendetta against Chinese, and wants to clean up Chinatown. He is obsessed with his job and leaves everyone else behind him.
White is played by Mickey Rourke (“9 1/2 Weeks”, “Johnny Handsome”, “Double Team”) with style and conviction. And for some reason, he looks like Bruce Willis. This should have been a career making performance for Rourke, but for some reason he has fallen into oblivion. He’s engaging and relentless in his performance. With Rourke, we don’t see any of him show through in Stanley. No one could have pulled off a better performance as White.
The supporting cast also does a terrific job, with the exception of Ariane. Ariane plays Tracy Tzu, a TV reporter who befriends White and helps him bring the underworld of Chinatown to the surface. Her dialogue comes across as very wooden. Come to think of it, most of her lines are just shouting at Rourke for being an asshole and a son of a bitch.
The other principle actor, John Lone (“The Last Emperor”), shines as well. He is absolutely brilliant as the sly and conniving young Triad Godfather. He always remains cool and composed. Lone is definitely something else. He oozes as much charisma as Chow Yun-Fat and Sean Connery.
“Year of the Dragon” can be found in most video stores under the Action section, which I think is misleading. There is some action in this film, but it is by no means an action movie. The film’s violence is quite realistic and graphic (blood spurts from gaping bullet wounds). The action sequences are kept gritty and low key for the sake of the story. The story would not be half as believable if the film featured outlandish, John Woo-like action scenes.
Michael Cimino (“The Deer Hunter”, “Heaven’s Gate”) keeps the film moving at a slick pace, and never really loses sight of its thought. It’s a very tense film, loaded with great dialogue (it was scripted by Cimino and Oliver Stone). The cinematography is very picturesque, and stylish. Also, David Mansfield’s score beautifully underlines the action on the screen.
“Year of the Dragon” definitely ranks as one of the best Triad films ever. It has some great performances and is a very powerful film. It is also a brilliant character study, dealing with Stanley’s obsession to fight his own personal Vietnam on the streets of Chinatown.
James H’s Rating: 9/10
By American Ninja Man
I really can’t say much about the over-complicated plot. I can say I enjoyed this movie a lot. Mickey Rourke plays the best cop in years. His personality is so cool – so hardened, so mean, so selfish and so racist; he’s just plain obnoxious and it sometimes hard to feel sorry for him. The supporting cast are good with the exception of Ariane, who sounds like she’s reading off her que cards throughout the movie.
John Lone, in my opinion, gives the best performance in the film. He plays the chilling villain; he’s surprisingly sympathetic and interesting. The showdown is built up to where nobody really knows who to root for and this is what prevents Year of the Dragon from being an excellent movie.
Year of the Dragon is at least 3 cuts above the usual cops/revenge stuff. Highly recommended!
American Ninja Man’s Rating: 7/10
