“Exciting Dragon” Poster
AKA: Drunken Dragon
Director: Chiu Chung Hing
Cast: Suen Kwok Ming, Chiang Sheng, Chow Mei Yee, Philip Ko Fei, Leung Kar Yan, Yeung Hung, William Yen, Ko Jan Pang, Chen Chin Hai, Lam Gwong Wing
Running Time: 94 min.
By Henry McKeand
One set piece in Chiu Chung-Hing’s Exciting Dragon (or Drunken Dragon, depending on who you ask) involves a man steering a wheeled rowboat as he fights, indoors, against two men who lay on top of one another and use a flame-thrower hat and bladed wheels to create a lethal human vehicle that can cut a man’s leg off. The “eight-year-olds with toys” quality to this scene has turned it into a minor classic amongst action fans who appreciate its unrestrained creativity and zany choreography. For kung fu fanatics who have seen almost everything and are starved for something new and fresh in the genre, the half-infamous “rowboat scene” may seem almost too good to be true.
“Surely, this kind of gonzo spectacle is just an isolated occurrence,” I told myself. “If a movie actually managed to maintain this level of energy for its entire runtime, I would have heard of it before.”
When I pressed play on Exciting Dragon and saw that the scene arrives in the first ten minutes, I braced myself for disappointment. If Chiu was so quick to show his hand by frontloading the film’s most inventive brawl, what else would there be to look forward to?
Surprisingly, while Exciting Dragon breaks the cardinal rule of “save the best for last,” the remaining 80 minutes are far from boring. In fact, it’s an engaging comedy that thankfully has more than a few fresh ideas up its sleeve.
The story is predictably ridiculous. Suen Kwok-Ming plays Gao, a young man with limited martial arts skills who lives with his grandmother (played by a then-34-years-old Chiang Sheng, “hidden” under a cheap wig and thin layer of make-up). At first, getting to know his arranged bride (Chow Mei-Yee) is the extent of his problems, but he soon must discover his inner-hero when a trio of villains arrives in town to steal a set of magic armor owned by the unassuming granny.
In terms of basic narrative, it’s nothing special. Gao is the same hapless, good-natured village boy that you’ve seen in a thousand of these lighthearted Kung Fu flicks from the 70s and 80s. He’s immature and clueless right up until the point where he gets his training montage and becomes a master martial artist. The villains are no more complex, and the coincidences that lead them to Gao strain credulity even by genre standards.
Still, the story has some interesting ideas. Chiang is having a blast as the grandmother–he’s there for comic relief more than anything else, but it’s hard not to feel a little attached to the plucky matriarch by the time the final act kicks into gear. Also impressive is Leung Kar-Yan as Gao’s vain and eccentric granduncle. Leung has one of the most expressive faces in the history of martial arts cinema, and he puts it to skillful use as an old man who oscillates between unearned confidence and embarrassing cowardice, often several times within the same scene. On paper, the character is little more than a collection of strange tics, but Leung turns him into a character you want to see more of.
Like similar films of the time, the humor walks a fine line between good-natured and mean-spirited. Sometimes, the vulgar slapstick results in genuinely funny moments (most of which involving Chiang and Leung), but it often feels like an unnecessary distraction. Take for Chow Mei-Yee’s character, Miss Tiger. Most of her time on screen focuses on her power as a fighter and her awkward-but-sweet relationship with Gao, which makes the frequent fat jokes and casually cruel visually gags centered around Chow feel out of place. This offensive filler detracts from the otherwise charming story.
In the end, kung fu flicks are measured for their action, and Exciting Dragon delivers. In addition to that killer opening sequence, the film features several left-field action scenes. One involves an opera performer who is controlled like a marionette and forced to fight the grandmother. Other highlights are a bat-shaped hypnosis wand, a cartoon-style musket with a Mercedes logo for a sight, and one of the greatest uses of an exercise wheel in martial arts history. Even the training montage goes for broke, with Leung using a Tom and Jerry mallet to bash Suen’s knees and elbows so that he’ll learn to strike using only his knee-jerk nerves and reflexes (it is never made clear why this is preferable to standard punches and kicks). Even better, each action beat is clear and satisfying. The fact that this ultimately amounts to a B-tier 80s martial arts film shows just what a golden age the decade was for the genre.
Chiu cut his teeth as an action director on The Miracle Fighters and similarly over-the-top efforts, and he used his extensive experience with Yuen Wo-Ping to create a colorful and kinetic first film. It’s not without its flaws, but Exciting Dragon is a full-bodied debut that offers a glimpse at what he would go on to do with The Child of Peach and Magic of Spell.
Henry McKeand’s Rating: 7/10
