Review of Dragon Lord

Introduction

Dragon Lord is a film that can be best described as ‘a Jackie Chan movie’, because it bears his distinctive mix of comedy, fighting and stunts. I thought about writing a summary of the plot, but realised that the one written above is probably the best and most concise description you could wish for, and that the storyline, unlike the vast majority of films out there, isn’t essential to your enjoyment of his film anyhow. So let us go straight into the technical specs of the disc…

Video

As per usual HKL have another pretty pristine looking 2.35:1 widescreen anamorphic presentation: the colours are rich and consistent, and the level of detail high throughout. Yes, there are specks of dirt and grain, but I’ve seen the video version of this movie, pre-HKL treatment, and it was terrible. The improvement here is amazing, and a credit to the fine work HKL do.

Audio

I listened to the 5.1 Cantonese track, although there is an English dub available too. As far as remixed tracks go, this one is very good, yet it isn’t the most impressive of HKL’s. The sound effects are clear and there is good use of the surround channels, but for a bassier experience you would have to look at Jackie’s Police Story franchise or their pure action range.

Features

Whilst Dragon Lord may seem slightly less filled than usual in the extras section, HKL put such a good effort into finding bonus material that even when, as in this case, there is not a huge amount, the quality of the extras are excellent.

There are two submenus, a trailer gallery and an interview gallery. The theatrical trailer and promo trailer, as with every HKL disc, are included in the former. In the interview gallery are three substantial interviews with some of the supporting cast and crew – unfortunately not with Jackie himself, but you wouldn’t expect materials like that to already exist, nor for HKL to commission a new interview with such a notoriously busy man. Probably the best interview is with ‘Mars’, Jackie’s best friend in the film and a regular collaborator on his movies, taking both acting and stunt roles. The interviews with the villain of the movie, Wong In-sik, and production manager Louis Sit, are very good too, but the sheer entertainment of listening to Mars’s anecdotes about the film and his humour makes for better viewing.

Of course there is also the practically mandatory commentary by Bey Logan and – I say this on every HKL DVD I have ever reviewed – is as excellent as usual. Logan makes for one of the best commentators, not just because of his incredible knowledge of the genre (Roger Ebert’s commentary on Citizen Kane wasn’t as good as any of Logan’s), but also for his humour and sheer enthusiasm for each and every film he has commented on. Anyway, that’s just my way of saying this commentary fleshes out what would otherwise be a smallish sized set of extras and turns it into a fairly impressive one.

Conclusion

Dragon Lord is very much like Jackie’s other films of this era, where, without Jackie’s charisma, the basic storyline of the movie could have turned the film into a succession of stunts and slapstick. However, with his special brand of humour and a good supporting cast, and admittedly, great stunts, Dragon Lord is really fun to watch and one of Jackie’s better movies. The fights are good, and the standout of the whole movie has got to be the shuttlecock football scene – it took months to film, and one particular move is said to have taken Jackie over 100 takes!

Overall, HKL have put together another outstanding package of a very good film, and if you were thinking of buying it, you should consider your mind made up as this is a very worthwhile purchase.