User reviews

Just when you've come to hate him more than love him for truly frustrating duds such as 'From Vegas to Macau 3' and 'Mission Milano', Hong Kong's most prolific filmmaker Wong Jing compels you to take him seriously once again with the best gangster drama we've seen in a long while.

Written, produced and co-directed by Wong Jing, his latest period epic charts the rise and fall of two of Hong Kong's most infamous real- life characters from the 60s and 70s – the one-time most powerful drug lord in Hong Kong Ng Sik-ho (or better known as 'Crippled Ho') and the notoriously corrupt detective Lui Lok (or otherwise known as 'Lee Rock').

Perhaps because he had already previously told Lee Rock's story, Wong Jing anchors this movie around Sik-ho (Donnie Yen), who first steps foot in Hong Kong in 1960 as an illegal immigrant from Chaozhou with his three buddies (Philip Keung, Wilfred Lau and Kang Yu) and younger brother Peter (Jonathan Lee). Although engaged in odd jobs, the quartet find more lucrative means of employment by being paid to make up the numbers in street fights. One such fight is that purportedly between rivalling triad heads Comic (Jason Wong) and Grizzly Bear (Ricky Yi). Unfortunately, the fight turns ugly with the arrival of the riot police led by the British Superintendent Hunter (Bryan Larkin), and before the night is over, Sik-ho ends up in a run-in with the arrogant and supercilious 'gwei-lo'.

All that is witnessed by Lee Rock (Andy Lau) and his right-hand man Piggy (Kent Cheng), who spies Sik-ho's superior fighting skills and decides to recruit him and his buddies while they are in lock-up. As circumstances would have it, in order to save one of his buddies caught stealing from mafia boss Bro Chubby (Ben Ng), Sik-ho will end up working too for the former, running his drug business within the legendary Kowloon Walled City.

It is within this hotbed of lawlessness that Lee will venture into one day. Things go south obviously, and the subsequent turn of events binds Sik-ho and Lee in a complex brotherhood embrace – Sik-ho springs to Lee's rescue but ends up caught in the crosshairs of another parallel ambush sprung by Sir Ngan in collusion with Chubby. In the ensuing scuffle, Chubby breaks Sik-ho's right leg as punishment, thus birthing a hardened and even more driven 'Crippled Ho' upon his discharge from hospital.

Sik-ho's transformation comes at the midway point, and it is in the second hour that he truly comes into his own. Not only does he resist Lee's manoeuvres to alter the state of play, Sik-ho takes matters into his own hands against Lee's better advice in order to exact his own vendetta against Superintendent Hunter. There is a lot of plot crammed into a slightly-past-two-hour runtime, but its machinations consistently revolve around the dynamic between Sik-ho and Lee; an especially poignant scene near the end has a visibly embittered Sik- ho pointing out squarely to Lee the personal costs and consequences of the latter's actions over the decade plus on the both of them, and the duo coming to recognise how little of life, death, or anything in between they can truly control.

Oh yes, the movie is equal parts plot and character-driven, and Wong Jing's (rare) achievement is how he balances both perfectly to deliver a sprawling but constantly spellbinding account of the fates and fortunes of his two key male protagonists. Due credit also goes to his co-director cum director-of-photography Jason Kwan, who not only brings a vivid cinematic feel to the visuals but also imposes rigour in crafting and building up several pivotal sequences, both of which are too often lost on a frequently sloppy Wong Jing.

More prominently, 'Chasing the Dragon' has been sold as a showcase of Donnie Yen's acting chops, and sure enough, Yen doesn't disappoint; in fact, as Sik-ho, Yen probably makes the most significant breakthrough of his career since 'Ip Man'. His portrayal of Sik-ho is understated, nuanced and impressively authentic, especially in depicting his character's transformation from underdog to kingpin. Yen and Lau don't share as many scenes together as we'd have liked, but the duo have great chemistry when they do, embodying the genuine camaraderie between their characters as well as the seeds of distrust, suspicion and resentment sowed by their own respective ambitions, egos and greed.

It should also be said that this gangster tale is always careful not to glorify its socially deviant protagonists – principally for fear of running afoul of Chinese censors – and is therefore less unhinged than the early 90s flicks of Sik-ho and/or Lee. In fact, Yen and Lau aren't playing so much criminals as they are anti-heroes, so not only are there redeeming qualities about their characters in this movie, both will come in an epilogue set thirty years later to realise and regret the folly of their ways. Yet these politically (and commercially) savvy considerations aside, Wong Jing's latest is still a solid and solidly entertaining example of the genre that is bloody, violent and thrilling.

Indeed, there is much to enjoy in this period gangster epic, from the storytelling to the characters to the actors and as well to the richly detailed sets of Tsim Sha Tsui, Wan Chai and Kowloon Walled City. This dragon is one you won't mind chasing from start to finish, and we guarantee you it will leave you on a visceral high.

Right, well with two of the heavy weights of Hong Kong cinema coming together in this movie, then what could go wrong?

I had not actually heard about "Chasing the Dragon" (aka "Chui lung") prior to stumbling upon it by sheer luck. I didn't even had to read the synopsis for it; I saw that it was a Hong Kong movie and it had both Andy Lau and Donnie Yen on the cover. This was an instant pick-up.

The movie turned out to be quite entertaining, and it is one of the better orchestrated gangster movies that I have seen in quite some time.

The storyline was good, fast-paced and nicely written. And the fact that the characters were so well detailed and unique also helped to make the movie experience that much better. Of course, having an amazing cast to portray these characters just helped the movie along all the more.

Donnie Yen was good in the role as an immigrant turned criminal in order to make a living in Hong Kong, and Andy Lau is, as always, doing a great job in a police role. Needless to say that both their performances were phenomenal. But the movie also boasted other quite interesting supporting actors. If you are familiar with Hong Kong movies, then you will definitely see some familiar faces - some of them even in small roles that weren't that important to the movie.

"Chasing the Dragon" was nicely paced and it didn't really have a dull moment throughout the course of its story. That worked quite nicely in favor of the movie.

If you enjoy Asian cinema, or Hong Kong cinema in particular, then you should take the time to sit down and watch "Chasing the Dragon"...

A good drama of wonderful collaboration of Yen and Lau. Telling the fans about mafia and corrupt cops back then in Hong Kong is something.

But definitely we may not find Yen's usual fighting scenes. As rumbles are here and there, we have seen how it is supposed to be by The Raid, so from that on, audience expect same thrill. But it is not. Yes this is not Yen's martial art film, but a brawl is always a brawl, should be depicted as real as possible. Using multi cameras and many takes like Hollywood does, would be better, to deliver the violence.

I also have no idea, why smoking scenes have to be the way to show the brotherhood. It is too much. Sharing one cigarette is weird for all the wealth they possess eventually. Unless it has been a habit since they were zero. Sharing weed makes sense more, but I guess there is certain reason, just a cigarette not weed.

My compliment is also for the western actors, they act so natural.

One more thing, the reunion of actors from TVB Hong Kong 1980's, "Kwee Cheng", "Ho Tu", "Oey Yok Soe" and of course, "Yo Ko" himself, is quite a fun.

Obviously, the movie "Chasing the Dragon" is not a remake of the 1991 movies "Lee Rock" and "To be Number One". Instead, it borrows their main protagonists and antagonists, and tells a completely different story. In some sense, "Chasing the Dragon" is a reboot of the gangster epics.

The production design, music score, action sequences and acting performances are most notably brilliant. The action sequences are unexpectedly brutal and bloody, and really stun me from time to time. Donnie Yen has long established himself as one of the best martial artists of all time, and here in "Chasing the Dragon" he gives an almost career-best emotional performance, even better than that in "Rogue One". The acting of Andy Lau, Kent Tong, Kent Cheng, and Ben Ng is fantastic as always.

On the other hand, the plot and the editing are not satisfying. Wong Jing is not a talented filmmaker. Some scenes simply lack consistency and credibility.

In a nutshell, the rating for this movie is 7/10.

Here's The Lowedown on "Chasing the Dragon" (NR - 2017 - China)...who says we can't win?

Genre: Action/Foreign My Score: 7.4

Cast=8 Acting=9 Plot=7 Ending=8 Story=5 Violent=9 Pace=4 F/X=7 Crime=8 Dubbed=9

An illegal immigrant from Mainland China sneaks into corrupt British-colonized Hong Kong in 1963, transforming himself into a ruthless and emerging drug lord.

"Life or Death...Poverty or Riches...it is all destined." When I saw this was Donnie Yen and Andy Lau...I jumped at the chance to buy this. It was a solid movie all around. The only issue I had was with the pace...it's 128 minutes and seemed like a lot longer. I guess in the 60's everyone was corrupt. This period piece is worth a look if you like foreign crime movies.

Fun to watch,good story,good acting,good music but the editing is too hush,many scenes lack of consistency,you may feel the movie is bit like fastforwding,couple of charactors come from nowhere yet been explained later on but still not very logical in details.

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 psychopathic 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, he 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.

It is been long time I have never satisfied after watching this movie. It is indeed an Oasis since a good TRIAD movie resurface theater in my Country

I was thought it would gonna be Good Cop VS Drugs Kingpin. I was wrong the movie going run more than I expected : Cop co-op with Drug kingpin to dominate Hong Kong.

I found no cheesy-expected twist on this movie. Everything gone wild. You will found a classic way how a TRIAD conquer their territory, you will found how servant civil climb up the pyramid food with "their way", also you will found what if both side co-op to satisfy their thirst of wealthy.

In sort, if you are HK movie fan, just sit tight an enjoy this movie.

Ow, not to forget, don't leave your chair before you see the "cast list"

There are many things I can't fault the movie for - it has excellent action, tension and details in the historical setting. However, there are just far too many characters. It felt like a mess and it was hard to keep track.

Chasing the Dragon is a Chinese crime drama film directed by Wong Jing and stars Donnie Yen and Andy Lau. When I first heard about the movie in production last year, a biopic based off the true story of infamous crippled Hong Kong gangster Ng Sek Ho, I thought it was a strange choice to have a world-renowned action star like Donnie Yen play him. Not that he is a bad actor or anything, but Yen is more famous for his karate chops than his acting chops. So who in their right minds would cast him as a handicapped character, essentially immobilizing and disallowing him to what he does best? Equally peculiar of a choice is Wong Jing as the director of the film. I felt his slapstick humor and sloppy storytelling would conflict with the overall serious tone intended for the movie. Coming out of the theater, I felt Donnie Yen is once again the best thing about a movie featuring him, but unfortunately Wong Jing's amateurish direction ruins everything just about everything else.

Donnie Yen plays Ho, an illegal mainland Chinese immigrant in Hong Kong. His character is very sympathetic, as he is family man looking after his people, earning 10 Hong Kong dollars a night as a street fighter. Here he gives the best performance I have ever seen and I really enjoyed his character, I felt he was able to channel between different emotions and display empathy, sympathy, loyalty and relentlessness. While he is probably not going to win an Oscar in February, he did go above and beyond his usual spectrum. The Chaozhou accent and language he used was very good and along with the excellent costumes and set design of 1960's Hong Kong, giving the film an overall authentic feel.

Where Chasing the Dragon really failed however was the storytelling, particularly as it relates to the editing and pacing. The movie starts out very simple and easy to follow, but soon expands unnecessarily to convoluting proportions with subplots of different crime bosses and corrupt officials I did not really care about. One of the worst piece of editing I have ever seen was a tragic sequence that bookends the first act. The scene was supposed to make you feel emotional and wrecked, but it just made me roll my eyes the entire time. I felt really annoyed because story-wise, the tragedy made very little sense for us to feel sad since we do not even know who the character is, but the technical execution of the scene was even worse. The film then transitions months ahead into the story and at that point, it had no idea what it wanted to focus on. Was it his love for his brothers? His friendship with Andy Lau? His mourning of his family? His desire to rise to the top? No, the film touches upon everything only slightly, but never truly exploring any of it in great details. Any of important plot points were montaged through quickly, with the director expecting the audience to know the true backstory to fill in the gaps. Instead of seeing Ho earning his power, we just see things getting handed to him. What exactly has he done except being a good fighter and a loyal friend to deserve all the accolades? Another big issue I have is the final 20 minutes, which pertains a subplot that blows up and becomes the main plot and the whole movie then turns into a revenge fantasy for no reason at all, because the writers said so.

My initial trepidation of Donnie Yen playing a crippled character, hindering his ability to perform his trademark moves was right on point. Donnie's acting was good, but because for half the movie he can barely walk, he is utterly wasted nonetheless. Simply put Chasing the Dragon is not an action movie, so if you go in expecting Ip Man quality fight scenes, you will be sorely disappointed. There are few hand to hand action scenes in the first half, but even those were poorly done by Donnie Yen standards. They were short, shaky and lack the oomph of a satisfying fight scene.

Overall, I feel the movie failed to tell a compelling story with its cast and production value. Wong Jing was definitely a very poor choice of director, and it shows throughout. His style simply does not mesh well for the story content. Who is the movie made for? Action fans? The action is not very good. Crime drama fans? The drama is muddled with technical problems. While not a terrible movie, the only good reason to watch it is two words: Donnie Yen.

Chasing the Dragon concludes with the end of an era, as the pair go their separate ways in the face of a government clampdown against corruption and crime

Wang Jing's rare movies in recent years what can be seen, or at last tells a serious old story. However, for the film's people, Raylo's momentum is too low, and the lame hero does not have the Ouxiong section of the bridge, all of them are brave and fierce.

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! :)

Andy Lau in this film continued to play the role of Lee Rock, portraying his early rise in Hong Kong's police system under the colonial sovereign governing governing. Donnie Yen played a role as new comer and a new input of this Hong Kong generic and stereotyped underworld gangster who later associated himself and was manipulated by Lee Rock.

What I don't like too much of this film are the usual fatal flaws that almost every Chinese movie would always be unavoidable:

• Lousy screenplay with horrible dialog, making this film so painful to swallow.
• Bad acting that included Any Lau and Donnie Yen. The overly weight control

diet has deformed Lau into a skinny physical body with gaunt skeleton face, resulted him as a non-outstanding ordinary little guy without any special dominant aura to support his upper-echelon status in any job title, police or gangster organization. Any GREAT or POWERFUL role he played only gave me an impression that movie needed to make him being that role. There's not enough believability to convince me he could be that great or powerful person in that movie so far.

Donnie Yen is no exception in this movie with very bad acting with his bloated facial condition. He was also deeply affected by the bad screenplay to play a convincing enough character.

• Bad casting with many unnecessary clowns and jerks roles, such as Kent

Cheng, who played the sidekick and yes-man of Lee Rock. But in Chinese movie industries, returning favors or special relationship always needed to be considered from the cash-cow production groups behind the scene. So manuscripts would always have to be revised, added more unnecessary roles, thus unavoidably messed up the films. This trend and must-do is a tumor, an appendix that Chinese movie industries could never cut off clearly.

• Poor make-ups with funny wigs that included Donnie Yen's cosmetic extra

eye-lid liner surgeries and moving Botox on his face.

• Status-quo no brainer trademark directing. Jing Wong has produced and

directed so many similar genre film like this one. He never improved or evovled his directing technique and skill at all. Every film he directed or produced was almost the same, no new ground was ever broken.

This film, in my opinion, is just another shallow farce with lot of back alley fights typically in Hong Kong gangster films. Donnie Yen has been trying very hard to make him not just a martial-art fighting machine in his films but an actor with more depth, but with only such lousy screenplays lying around, with his aging process, the only choice he could do is making money first with his fighting skills whenever big payloads throwing his way like Jackie Chan.

Another production from HK Producer/Director Wong Jing... and, as one might expect from Wong Jing, a crappy scipt, cheap production.... although, they went the extra mile with this production, mainly, because it stars 2 most of their most prized Hong Kong actors (Andy Lau and Donnie Yen).... it was a really nice tandem, to see both actors acting side-by-side....

note, that this is not a sequel to "Lee Rock" or "Lee Rock II", but rather a side story that tells the story of Crippled Ho, played by Donnie Yen... it was nice to see Andy Lau reprise his role as Inspector Lui Lok, and to see familiar faces (such as Kent Cheng, Felix Wong, etc...)

if you are a fan of HK triad movies, and then this one is for you....

First, Donnie Yen interpretation here is even better than Yip Man movies. Second, the characterization of his character is pretty well executed and developed. He remembered me in some ways a Chinese version of Tony Montana in Scarface. Don't get me wrong Al Pacino's interpretation is two steps over Donnie's one, also the movie, but Chasing the Dragon is the best Chinese movie I've watched in a long time. So, overall this is great Chinese drug-thriller to enjoy during this long days.

Very disappointing movie considering the big name cast.

Everything from the props (weapons, slum set, cars, etc.) to Donnie Yen's wig is a massive distraction. They must have used the cheapest grade props known to the industry (you'll notice this in multiple scenes where's there's bottling/glass).

The dialogues are predictable and cliche. All their portrayal of triads is something I'd expect from a Young and Dangerous film back in the 90s (much better films than this actually).

The Western actors were also given horrible scripts. Some of their scenes made me question, did the film crew even watch their work after the takes?

I normally don't get frustrated with these films because at least I get good action, but this very much a crime-drama with small parts of action (with almost no martial arts, so casting Donnie seemed like a waste).

It seems the producer of this film is banking on stirring anti-colonialism to keep the audience entertained and had no intention on making an actual worth-while film.

Chasing the Dragon is a gangster epic based upon real events that have inspired numerous similar movies in the past. It tells the rise and fall of Ho, an illegal immigrant to Hongkong who starts as a street fighter before his skills impress local police officer Lee Rock who gradually makes him a renowned boss of the underground. While his rise makes Ho a respected member of his community, he must fight ferocious opponents, loses many people around him and passionately hates the corrupt British police that is trying to control him.

Chasing the Dragon convinces with profound real-life characters played by some of Hongkong's greatest contemporary actors such as Andy Lau and Donnie Yen. The movie focuses on character developments and tense rivalry between crime syndicates and police forces instead of gratuitous action sequences. That being said, the film still includes a few quite tense and brutal gunfights and wild chases that are used in small doses and offer welcome breaks from the dramatic dialogues. The locations are particularly interesting, leading us from crowded and poor suburbs or cheap bars and casinos to lush mansions and exotic locations in Thailand. The camera work is precise and easy to follow. The jazzy soundtrack complements the settings accurately. It's also refreshing that the movie doesn't involve any distracting subplots such as love stories and rather focuses on the love-hate relationship between two men and their immediate collaborators.

Chasing the Dragon might not reinvent the gangster movie genre but it's among the best movies of its kind in recent memory. It's obvious that a lot of money, passion and thought was put into every single detail of this movie by the filmmakers, from the great set of casted actors over the realistic fight sequences to the choice of authentic locations. Fans of classic gangster movies such as The Godfather and the likes will certainly enjoy watching Chasing the Dragon.

With a script this complex, spanning the rise and life of the main character from poor street fighter to druglord, it almost felt like they were going for a Scarface-level epic. but instead of developing realistic characters they used caricatures - the British villain felt particularly bogus - and unrealistic scenarios, such as large groups of people brawling in the streets with sticks and saucepans, who all happen to be amazing at martial arts. Perhaps having a main character who is too good at martial arts distracts from the biographical, historical tale. Tries to walk a balance between a heartfelt historical drama and an action movie. Didn't really work for me

6/10/18. It's a gangsta movie, Hong Kong style. Interesting backstory - not the type of story the current Chinese regime would allow, given the violence portrayed. However, because the time period when all this was going on was during the British colonial times, and then it was ok because such violence was inspired by colonialism. Whatever. Lots of shooting and violence of all kinds.

Donnie yen is the secret word, he will make any movie appear epic.

I am baffled to see the overall score. I can't help but question, is that score authentic?

I watched this with my wife. This movie is easily the worst HK movie I have ever seen. There are many bad HK movies, but this movie beats them all. The ones at fault are obviously the director and writer.

First off, the pacing is bad, really bad. There isn't proper introduction and characterization at all. We can hardly know anyone in the movie. They come and go as fast as the wind. When some names are mentioned in the movie, we can only roll our eyes and ask "Who are they again??" When some people die, followed by awful scream and cry and melancholy music, again we look at each other, roll our eyes and ask "Who are those people anyway?" It's true. Until the end, we don't really know they are, what are their relationship to the main character.

After that there's nothing but going downhill. The movie keeps time skipping and nothing seems to be important. People die here and there, but excuse me, who are they anyway, and why should we care? They have only been introduced like, two minutes ago! And then end credit rolls...

How giddy was I to see, in my opinion, Donnie Yen CRUSH his most complex role that I have seen him portray. Marry that performance with a film that is influenced and inspired, with regards to so many American gangster movies. I see elements of The Godfather Part II, Scarface, Goodfellas, American Gangster, Blow and a sprinkling of A Bronx Tale, both in script and cinematography. I stress, influence and inspiration. In no way a rip-off. I would suggest a tip of the cap. The story is definitely singular. WATCH THIS MOVIE...TWICE!!