CHASING THE DRAGON is the latest in a long time of gangster-themed movies from the prolific Hong Kong director Wong Jing. It stars Donnie Yen and Andy Lau in the true story of Crippled Ho, a man who rose through the ranks to become one of the region's biggest drug lords in the 1960s and 1970s. The kind of format is familiar, this specific story not so much so, which makes it interesting and engaging in equal measure. Yen gets a handful of superb fight scenes to himself, ones which are more grittily realistic than most (think the influence of something like THE YELLOW SEA) but this is mostly about his acting and very good he is too. Lau plays a cop for the umpteenth time and can do this kind of role in his sleep by now. Jing allows supporting roles for veteran performers including Kent Cheng, Kenneth Tsang, and Michael Chan Wai-Man, all of whom shine, but what sees this film through is the stylish storytelling and wealth of plot movement to keep it going.

After arriving illegally into Hong Kong from mainland China "Crippled Ho" (Donnie Yen) and his three friends hire themselves out as low-level street thugs to make a few bucks here and there. Then one night they find themselves in the middle of a riot and when the police arrive Ho defends his buddies but in the process gets into a major fight with a corrupt and pyscopathic British policeman named "Ernest Hunt" (Bryan Larkin). Although Ho gets the better of him in a fair fight he is arrested by a Chinese police officer named "Lee Rock" (Andy Lau) and taken to jail. Hours later Hunt arrives with a few British policemen and proceeds to beat Ho who is isolated and completely defenseless. Fortunately, Lee Rock arrives and stops Hunt before Ho can be killed and after he gets out of the hospital conveys his gratitude to Lee Rock. From this point on both Lee Rock and Ho become good friends and although Hong Kong itself is controlled by the corrupt British police, Kowloon is just the opposite and that is where the two of them decide to make their fortunes in the drug trade. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that I thought that this was an entertaining film which combined plenty of action with an interesting-if not entirely realistic-plot. But even so I enjoyed this movie for the most part and have rated it accordingly. Above average.

I am remembering the days when i was watching at least 7-8 films from hong kong cinema each year and one or even two movies from these would have make my back-hair lift of excitement and awesomeness. But since 2008 or 2009 forward, i must say, the chinese/hong kong movie industry has become something without head and tale. The screenplays are at the lowest level of intelligence, the editing of every film is downright baaaad, they are trying so hard to copy american movies, that it makes me almost wanting to give up watching any movie from HK or the main land. Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Donnie Yen... it's been a decade since any of them had made a good movie (the last big HK movie beeing IpMan - first part from 2008). I am only hoping that someone will appear, someone new (a director and writer),although is hard; i think the audience in china is very uneducated and they love films that are so easy to swallow, and they are many, there strenght is in their numbers. But who knows, maybe with not so many money, but with conviction, a young writer/director will get his chance, you never know. Greetings from Bucharest, Romania! :)