Year of The Dragon Review

 

Year of The Dragon

Director: Michael Cimino

Stars: Mickey Rourke, John Lone, Ariane, Raymond J.Barry, Caroline Kava, Dennis Dun and Victor Wong.

Running Time: 134 Mins

Release: 16^th August 1985 (US)

Firstly I must say Mickey Rourke is one of my absolute favourite actors of all time, well has been since 2012 when I saw Angel Heart for the the first time, that absolutely blew me away, his performance is one of the best I have ever seen, it was the film that kickstarted my interest in Mickey Rourke I had seen him in Sin City when I was a bit younger but I did not take that much notice, then again back then I did not pay much attention to films. It was only when I saw Angel Heart that I took notice of his film history and I found out that the 80's was his heyday all the way from Heavens Gate to Jonny Handsome and unfortunately after his bad boy behaviour and return to boxing (of which was always his passion and really good at) and some duds in the 90's of which made him fall out of favour with Hollywood, though in recent years he has now completely turned it around with performances in Sin City and The Wrestler. I am keen to see most of the films from his heyday and revisit and visit some of the films he has done in recent years, of which now brings me to Year of The Dragon.

The plot is a about the most decorated cop in New York Stanley White (Rourke) who's also became a bigot from his experience during The Vietnam war, who is now put in charge of Chinatown which is rife with corruption, injustice and untouchable triads of which Stanley wants 'to make the rice boil over' and a young, ruthless head of a chinese Mafia and leader of the community Joey Tai both men break the rules and there will be casualties on all side in there unavoidable bloody conflict.

The film is a slow pot boiling, taut thriller which is very talky with burst of brutal violence and it's an absolute masterpiece of a film that leaps onto the screen and is completely unforgettable. To me feels like a companion piece to The Deer Hunter as it deals a Vietnam Veteran in White of how the war has taken it's toll on him and his wife, I honestly did not expect that element to be in this film, but it works incredibly well. There's also a comparison in that White is of Polish heritage and that the men in The Deer Hunter are Russian.

The main reasons I wanted to watch this film 1) It's a Michael Cimino film and 2) it's got Mickey Rourke and it surpassed my expectations exceedingly. Of which now leads me to the acting.

Yet again Rourke proves to me that he is one of my all time favourite actors with his performance as Stanley White, it's simply amazing, he plays a reckless, insensitive, uncaring, sometimes unlikeable bigoted cop who can not be bought out nor settle for how things are with the relationship between the police and the big Triad families in Chinatown, he goes against his superiors who are comfortable with how things are and they are fantastic scenes. He is completely relentless, of course he has his faults as seen in his frayed broken relationship with his wife Connie (the brilliant Caroline Kava). You can tell Rourke was passionate about his role and had fun with it and was completely lost in his character which only a few actors can pull off. Also I should add White's hair colour (well Rourke's hair dye) changes quite significantly in the film first off it's completely grey/white and in the very next scene it's brown with some grey streaks in it, I think that Rourke, well Cimino wanted White to be considerably older than Rourke was at the time he was 33 the same age as Lone at the time. I rank his performance in this just beneath Angel Heart which i'll be reviewing in the near future.

Admittedly I have only seen John Lone in Rush Hour II aside this and after looking him up he's only been a few films which is an absolute shame as he blows everyone out of the water in this even Rourke which is really saying something ! He is very cold, merciless, ruthless and intelligent and has a brilliant presence on screen every scene he is is in he steals, also what I like about his character that even despite he is the villain in the film there's some good to him like in one scene when he's talking to Television News Journalist Tracy Tzu (Ariane) when she asks him about the triads than he brings up why they never talk about the good things that he as a businessman has done for the community of course it's all just for face, but good nether the less in my opinion. When he goes to Thailand though it's completely different picture he is incredibly chilling. He's a brilliant match for Rourke's White they have a great hate chemistry. His goal is to change how the Triads operate in Chinatown by separating ties with the Italian Mafia and taking the most of the profits rather than share it with there cohorts which the previous heads have done of course this upsets the Elders in the triads.

Ariane got a lot of flack for appearing in this film, mostly for the part that she's not an actress but a model and a very beautiful one at that and granted, this was her first film and she only appeared in a handful of films then stopped acting. In this she plays Tracy Tzu an american chinese Television News Journalist and for the most part I think she does very well, I had no problem with it at all, throughout the film she has a love hate relationship with White. He has an affair with her as his relationship is broken with his wife and he gives her information about the triads which will expose them and further her career, I thought there relationship was done very well as it shows they are human and that they have her faults.

In supporting roles we have Victor Wong as Harry Yung the former head of the Triads before Joey Tai takes over, despite being a triad he seems to be the voice of reason to me in the group of the heads of the Triads he is also in Big Trouble Little China as Egg Shen of which another co-star was in and that is Donnie Dun (who played Wang Chi) who plays Herbert Kwong an undercover rookie police officer who infiltrates the Triads to help White expose them he handles his performance in one scene in particular he reminds me of Al Pacino in Serpico.

The final notable supporting character is StanleyWhite's friend Louis Bukowski a superior cop that's a friend of White's wife, he tries to reason with White to not go against the triads in Chinatown of course White does not listen to him but Bukowski does not hate him like the other superiors in the precinct.

I mus say there was not much music in this film but I loved all the tracks especially the one when Tai is in the hoodlum place which is a pivotal scene. The theme by David Mansfield is also incredibly brilliant it suits the film completely pity it's not been released.

Also this film has one of the most unexpected deaths in my opinion but the next scene is one of the most unintentionally funny scenes I have ever seen in a film, once you've seen it you'll get what I mean !.

This film is also beautifully shot using a wide range of shots my favourite being the ones behind Stanley when he is walking it makes you feel that your walking behind him also there's a great use of panoramic shots throughout and most of the interiors were sets which brings me to a comparion between Cimino and Sergio Leone they tended to shoot everything at a grand scale and liked to have there way with the budget of the film when it comes to shooting which I see in a good light they have a vision of how they want to shoot it: at a cinematic grand scale and Cimino get's it here and it's amazing Tracy's apartment is set atop a tower I thought it was real it looked that good and it was beautiful and had a incredible view.

There's also quite a few quick edits and shots in the action orientated scenes which work really well for the film. Also this film goes at a quicker pace than The Deer Hunter though I had no faults with that i'll have to see Heavens Gate and see how it compares.

I must say I absolutely love this film and it's a strong recommend if you like a slow burning character rich thrillers. It excelled my expectations and I did not expect it to be at the scale it was it's just a pity this is not released on Blu-Ray it's well worth it and we only got the DVD here in the UK in 2012 of which i watched it on.