Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		2.0

Revenge of the Green Dragons Blu-ray Movie Review

Gangs of New York.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 15, 2015

There’s a lot about Revenge of the Green Dragons that feels recycled from other films, but perhaps the oddest déjà vu element is the rather interesting montage of illegal immigration comments which open the film. There are a number of fascinating aspects to this presentation, none more so than just about everything that’s being said in the montage, which takes place back in the 1980s, pretty much echoes the increasingly rancorous debate we hear on a virtually daily basis on any number of niche cable news outlets. But what’s perhaps more interesting is how some (un?)likely suspects like Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush are shown offering comments about the United States’ long struggle to secure its borders while also offering a welcoming hand to immigrants that would surely get these two iconic Republicans booted out of their own party had they deigned to utter them in the current political climate. That may have been an intentionally provocative gambit on the part of screenwriters Andrew Loo and Michael di Jiacomo and/or co-directors Andrew Loo and Andrew Lau, but it immediately offers a bit of context for a film that presents a group of supposed American interlopers who, finding themselves ostracized from the finer aspects of domestic existence, band together not just to have a supposedly nurturing community, but (of course, this being in essence a gangster flick) to pursue criminal activities. With Martin Scorsese credited as an Executive Producer and a film offering a gritty exploration of an ethnic group engaging in nefarious activities in and around The Big Apple, one might be tempted to think of Revenge of the Green Dragons as a 1980s Chinese inflected reboot of Gangs of New York. Unfortunately, the similarity pretty much ends with that perhaps whimsical comparison, for whatever flaws Scorsese’s grand 2002 opus may display, it’s a general model of cinematic excellence when contrasted with this largely hackneyed and underwhelming film.

While a lot of Revenge of the Green Dragons plays like the most overheated hyperbolic Hong Kong action film, it’s evidently actually based (at least more or less) on a well regarded factual account of insurgent Chinese gangs that appeared in The New Yorker in the early 1990s. There’s a certain incestuous quality in the film that may point to other (fictional) referents, however, for with Scorsese collaborating with Lau, one can’t help but think of The Departed , which was of course culled from Lau’s Infernal Affairs . But with Ray Liotta on hand as an FBI agent, toplining the American side of the cast, one is just as likely to start musing about GoodFellas. Unfortunately, none of these external “six degrees” connections augurs very well for one’s reaction to Revenge of the Green Dragons, for despite a frenetic pace and expectedly over the top action and violence, there’s ultimately not anything very compelling about the film’s well worn story of two Chinese youths who are subsumed by the then rampant gang culture afflicting that ethnic group in Queens.

Part of the problem with Revenge of the Green Dragons is that while it ultimately presents a rather trite story of gang wars, getting there involves a labyrinthine presentation of backstory and character introductions that are not always clear, and which tend to telescope events in a sometimes unhelpful manner. The basic story follows the exploits of two young Chinese illegals, Sonny (played by Alex Fox as a kid and Justin Chong as a young man) and Steven (Michael Gregory Fung as a youngster, Kevin Wu as an adult). The kids are thrown together in a plot development which hints at a trauma in Sonny’s life. Another trauma soon confronts Steven, in one of the film’s early harrowing scenes, when he’s accosted by Green Dragons in a school bathroom, and is “initiated” in a scene of horrifying violence. Before you know it, he’s a pompadoured, gun toting gang member, in one of the film’s most peculiar narrative jumps that simply offers up the way things are, instead of detailing how in fact they got to be that way.

Revenge of the Green Dragons seems to want to make some sort of grand sociological statement about limited options forcing poor illegal immigrants into an admittedly appalling life of crime, but the film keeps diverting attention to less weighty concerns with its frequent indulgences of extremely graphic violence, internecine skirmishes with a rival gang, and, ultimately, a fairly unconvincing love story involving Sonny and a girl named Tina (Shuya Chang). With Liotta’s martinet and borderline racist agent Michael Bloom offering little other than disparaging attitudes, the film devolves into an unfortunately cartoonish depiction of some very real, and potentially interesting, social ills.

For undemanding viewers who simply want the requisite adrenaline jolt courtesy of manic action sequences and over the top violence, Revenge of the Green Dragons will probably fill the bill. The ironic thing, though, is that the filmmakers obviously had grander ambitions, but either didn’t have the wherewithal to follow through on them, or simply decided to provide a lot of noise and fury, ultimately signifying not much. While nothing here may rise to the cinematic equivalent level of a “crime,” it’s at the very least a largely wasted opportunity.

Revenge of the Green Dragons Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Revenge of the Green Dragons is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. Probably a good 85-90% of the film takes place in shadowy or at least dimly lit locations (something that made getting 20 reasonably lit screenshots a bit of a challenge), making the prevalence of astounding fine detail problematic. When the film journeys out of doors in natural light, things improve measurably, with good sharpness and clarity, though there is such ubiquitous jiggly cam, whip pans, slow motion and other bells and whistles (not to even mention color grading choices) that the film seems to be soft looking perhaps when it really isn't. Generally speaking, though, there's an appealingly organic look to this transfer, one that reproduces the film's intentionally claustrophobic ambience, with looming shadows and sickly greens and yellows filling the frame. Despite being really dark a lot of the time and placed on a BD-25, there are no compression artifacts of any note to worry about.

Revenge of the Green Dragons Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Revenge of the Green Dragons' lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is suitably bombastic, filled with the sounds of a frenetic cityscape, as well as the punch of gunfire and on more than one occasion the sickening sounds of people being mercilessly beaten to within an inch of their lives (and sometimes a bit further than that). Dialogue, which segues from Cantonese (with forced English subtitles) to English and back again is cleanly presented for the most part, though accents are occasionally problematic (there are optional subtitles available for the English dialogue sequences as well). There's excellent surround activity throughout this track, part of which comes courtesy of Mark Kilian's somewhat overwrought score. Fidelity is top notch and there are no issues of any kind to report.

Revenge of the Green Dragons Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Director Andrew Lau and Co-Writer/Director Andrew Loo. Both of these guys are fairly soft spoken, making some of what they have to share a bit challenging to hear at times, especially during the noisier parts of the film. This is a resolutely low key commentary, with several pauses, but the two get into some of the aspects of the shoot and various anecdotes about the cast members.


• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 1:56)


• The Not So American Dream: The Cast (1080p; 13:37) features some okay interviews along with some behind the scenes footage.


• Stitches in Time: Costume Design (1080p; 6:14) profiles costume designer Elisabeth Vastola and her work on the film.


• A Claustrophobic World: Production Design (1080p; 4:47) does similar duty for production designer Wing Lee.

Revenge of the Green Dragons Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There are simply too many hoary clichés running through Revenge of the Green Dragons that undercut what is at its core a fascinating tale of socioeconomic disadvantage being morphed into a rather vicious interpretation of the American Dream. Liotta does what he can with his unlikable character, but some of the other actors are better in their action elements than delivering dialogue. The film moves at a breakneck pace, which has both its benefits and detriments. There are all sorts of plot issues that are never fully explicated or developed, but at least the action comes consistently furiously enough to provide momentary distractions. Technical merits are generally very strong for those considering a purchase.