An earlier movie directed by Wilson Yip, with fight choreography by Donnie Yen (who also happens to star in the movie).
I’ll start off by saying that Dragon Tiger Gate seems to be an answer to Hollywood’s success with comic book adaptations. This particular movie is based upon the popular Chinese comic Oriental Heroes (龍虎門). Since I have never read the comic book series, I can only comment on the movie’s quality.
The movie itself gives credence to Wilson Yip’s creativity and give you a better understanding of how he has developed his art of camera placement and scene design. Each scene is well crafted and the artwork gives you a sense of comic book flair and adds to pull you further into the world of these heroes.
Unfortunately, I am one of those people that prefer to watch the movie in it’s original language (netflix streams english dubbing) because I like to hear the subtle changes in the character’s voice that you don’t generally hear in the dubbing. I also would just prefer to hear the original character’s voice – especially when you already know what they sound like. Additionally, dubbing usually doesn’t give you the proper meaning for words that subbing is typically able to present. If you ever compare the same movie with dubbing vs subbing, you’ll notice that there’s a fair bit of discrepancy between translations. I’m in the crowd that thinks that subbing gives you a better understanding of what they’re actually saying and adds more to the movie.
All that aside, the movie is pretty well done with some spectacular fight scenes. Well done, Donnie Yen. There’s some wire-fu but with a movie that is based off a Chinese comic book, I expected that. The CG is well done and not over-the-top gimmicky.
As far as martial art styles, Wilson Yip does a good job tying in old-style Chinese martial arts wizardry and strange powers with new action-packed modern style fight sequences. You’ll know what I’m talking about when you see it. Think back to Iron Monkey and Kung Fu Hustle. Remember the odd and quirky powers some of them had? Dragon Tiger Gate, though not quirky, makes these powers seem kind of cool and modern with the help of CG.
I think the best part was seeing Wah Yuen again as the Master. If any of you remember Kung Fu Hustle, you’ll know him as the Landlord. He was, by far, my favorite character in that movie.
Overall, I give this movie an 8/10 for entertainment value, cool looking background art & CG, a great mix of the old and new, and making me want to go learn some fun tricks.
