Dragon Lord

One from early in his career the movie has everything that would make him a Kung Fu super star.

It's a great comedy about a spoiled rich brat trying to send a love note via a kite but ends up stumbling onto a plot to steal China's artifacts.

It's the type of friendly kung fu flick for all the ages that Jackie Chan would become known for. Thought the stunts are small compared to the extreme risk he would take in the future, it was still impressive to see Jackie do the physical stuff not just the kung fu but there were scenes of Jackie and his friends playing sports similar to football but more extreme.

Extremely entertaining!!!

`Dragon Lord' is more of a comedy than a martial arts movie. There are a few action sequences in the movie - a strange ball tournament at the beginning, a scuffle between Jackie and his friend over a girl, an interesting shuttlecock game in the middle of the movie - but there are really only two fight sequences in the movie, both near the end. Despite this, the movie's great. It's never dull. There are some funny moments, and the final fight scene between Jackie and the baddie is awesome. Definitely worth seeing over `Shanghai Noon' or `Rush Hour'.

This movie is bufoonery! and I loved it! The "dragon lord" (Jacky Chan) and his buddy, "cowboy", totally made the movie fun, meaningful, and just plain silly. The movie is a rare blend of a good vs. evil fight and (somehow) the wonders and fun that is growing up. Long Shao Ye takes the viewer through the daily activities of the young "dragon lord" (so named because he is the son of a wealthy family) and "cowboy", which include implementing clever, elaborate ways to escape studying (with the help of the entire household, including the tutor), competing in rather boyish (and idiotically interesting) ways to gain the affection of a local girl, competing in "soccer" (you will see what i mean) and the list goes on. Somehow they find themselves in the midst of a fight to save the a shipment of valuable antiques and the lives of several people.

The movie has its serious moments. But they do not depress, but rather inspire. The playfulness of the boys are not lost in this exchange, but is actually employed against evil. What I really loved about this movie is how it ends. Not the typical confrontation (which in itself was awesome), but well, you'll see. Let me just say it truly captures the spirit of the movie.

silly, witty, meaningful, and nostalgic. great movie.

For a Jackie Chan movie, then "Dragon Lord" was a fairly mediocre experience. There wasn't the usual Jackie Chan magic or personal touch to this movie. The movie tried too hard to mix comedy and serious action, and it just didn't go well together.

The movie was also weighed down by a storyline that was intended to be serious, but trying to incorporate slapstick comedy, and again it was to an extend where it just didn't fully work as intended. And it didn't help the movie one bit that it had a couple of scenes that were taking too long to execute. Especially the last fight scene, it was dragging on for a very long time, and it started to become stale and somewhat of a parody to watch.

So what worked in this movie? Well, the fighting and the action, of course. As to be expected, as this is a Jackie Chan movie after all. As with most of his other movies, the martial arts and action scenes were well executed and brought to the screen.

I am a big fan of Jackie Chan, and must admit that "Dragon Lord" is not amongst the best of his entire movie career. But bear in mind that this movie is from 1982. That being said, then it should be stated that it is not his worst movie either. But it is, of course, a movie that is well deserved a place in the DVD collection of any Jackie Chan fan. Just sad to say, that this isn't really the type of movie that you watch more than once.

Dragon Lord was something of a pivotal film for Jackie Chan in that it saw him decisively making the move away from old school style kung fu cinema to his own distinctive brand of goofy comedy and situational fighting. Its a shame then that it isn't great (this was apparently reflected in the cold initial box office response), though its charms are enough to make it a mostly good watch even though when all is weighed up it doesn't amount to much. It's a sequel of sorts to The Young Master, following his Dragon Ma character as he slacks off, hangs out with his buddy (a likable turn from Mars) and tries to pick up various local girls, eventually getting mixed up in the plans of nefarious individuals to smuggle Chinese relics out of the country. The juvenile nature of things takes a bit of getting used to, Chan being in his late twenties at the time yet paying essentially a teenager, but his gusto and innate likability carries things well enough. It helps that one or two scenes are actually pretty amusing in a silly sort of way, like Dragon trying to cheat his way through an exam of sorts by his dad. Although there's a downright criminal lack of actual threat to near the hour mark the film doesn't completely lack action, boasting a couple of quality sporting scenes, one somewhat modelled on rugby but considerably more chaotic and the other like football but with a shuttlecock (which apparently required a record number of takes to get right). When things warm up the results are pretty cool and the climatic fight is an absolute doozy, Wong In-Sik reprising his villainy from The Young Master in a great extended bout with Chan making good use of the barn setting and plentiful trading of crunching blows, its right up there with the finales of any of Chan's bona fide classics. Its just a shame that the film as a whole is so unfocused and generally inconsequential (with little hint of anything serious until close to the halfway mark), its an easy watch but mostly forgettable until the last twenty minutes or so, I liked it well enough as I'm kind of a geek for this kind of thing but it really isn't that good. Still a 6/10 as its quite fun, but definitely a completists only film.