Everything in YEAR OF THE DRAGON is over-the-top: direction, acting, writing, editing, score. Michael Cimino is not the master of subtlety. He's like the little kid who starts crying to get attention, not in order to get just one thing but starts crying for attention for everything. Practically every scene in this film is directed in such a way as if they were the climax: a car crash is not just a car crash, it's a spectacular ball fire explosion of a car crash; a funeral is not just a somber affair but something as revered as a funeral for the Pope; a gunshot to the head is not just to kill the bad guy but to be as gory as a Tom Savini scene in any horror film; the characters are not just people affected by the circumstances of the drama but are as extreme as those types in a Jerry Springer show; the unusual attention to details is not because the film wants to be true-to-life but because the film confuses such anal-retentive attention to details as validation for the unpleasant, over-baked story it's trying to tell, and in turn, becomes almost a parody of itself (Rourke's hair being the best example of this); the dialogue is not just dialogue if it's as loud as a Russ Meyer script; so on and so forth.
The direction is really at fault here. The director doesn't know when or where to stop with the OTT stuff and just tell a story. Because of this, the film's weight is totally lopsided. For instance, it spends more time on the wife after her death than when she was alive. Or we really do not feel the loss when she's killed and yet the direction makes it so that it's like the most important thing in the entire film. Had we known her a bit better maybe it would have worked but because the film only showed her bitching and screaming at Rourke that her death didn't seem that important to us. Hence, the OTT direction.
There are a few good things in the film. John Lone gives an amazing performance, when everyone else is screaming their dialogue at the top of their lungs. Some scenes are effective, like the chase scene between Rourke and the two Chinese girls (it's the best scene in the whole damn thing). But the film is a cleverly disguised mess. Too many pointless scenes that really add nothing to the story. Too many uninspired scenes, like the overlong moments when the Chinese mobsters talk endlessly about the virtues of being in the mob. For a film where every scene is over-directed, the resolution to is remarkably disappointing because it's so low-key. It falls flat and really doesn't work at all. We went through all that trouble for such a lame resolution? The last scene, when Rourke's presence causes a riot and then he and Arianne kiss, is so corny that it's truly embarrassing.
I've seen YEAR OF THE DRAGON on numerous occasions and will probably watch it again in the future as I'm fascinated by this mess. While watching it, I always try to understand what the director (and writer) thought they were doing. And I still can't figure it out even after seeing all these times, aside from leaving a bitter aftertaste.
The direction is really at fault here. The director doesn't know when or where to stop with the OTT stuff and just tell a story. Because of this, the film's weight is totally lopsided. For instance, it spends more time on the wife after her death than when she was alive. Or we really do not feel the loss when she's killed and yet the direction makes it so that it's like the most important thing in the entire film. Had we known her a bit better maybe it would have worked but because the film only showed her bitching and screaming at Rourke that her death didn't seem that important to us. Hence, the OTT direction.
There are a few good things in the film. John Lone gives an amazing performance, when everyone else is screaming their dialogue at the top of their lungs. Some scenes are effective, like the chase scene between Rourke and the two Chinese girls (it's the best scene in the whole damn thing). But the film is a cleverly disguised mess. Too many pointless scenes that really add nothing to the story. Too many uninspired scenes, like the overlong moments when the Chinese mobsters talk endlessly about the virtues of being in the mob. For a film where every scene is over-directed, the resolution to is remarkably disappointing because it's so low-key. It falls flat and really doesn't work at all. We went through all that trouble for such a lame resolution? The last scene, when Rourke's presence causes a riot and then he and Arianne kiss, is so corny that it's truly embarrassing.
I've seen YEAR OF THE DRAGON on numerous occasions and will probably watch it again in the future as I'm fascinated by this mess. While watching it, I always try to understand what the director (and writer) thought they were doing. And I still can't figure it out even after seeing all these times, aside from leaving a bitter aftertaste.