As a kid, Sonny lost his mother on their trip being smuggled to the US. The Snakehead Lady, leader of the smugglers, gave him to a new family thus he became brothers with Stephen. One day Stephen went missing and returned as a Green Dragon gang member. Sonny went with him and they grew up that way. One day the Dragon's leader Paul has his relative Teddy and Teddy's daughter Tina from Hong Kong. Sonny takes interest to Tina. But as they talk, men from rivaling White Tigers come and open fire on them, serious wounding Stephen with eight bullets in his chest. The Dragons exact revenge by kidnapping and killing a Tiger. Paul take Sonny to visit Ah Tai, the Tiger's leader to make peace and propose a new business of smuggling heroine inside mooncakes, which Ah Tai agrees to.
Sonny arranges Teddy for the run. Teddy succeeds but as he deliver the powder to the Tiger's base, cops storm the place. Paul closes the door on Ah Tai and Tina hates Sonny for Teddy going to jail. One day Sonney and Stephen collect tax from a car workshop owner, which deliver less from his part. A Tiger jumps on them but Stephen kills him quickly. Finding money shortage, Stephen tells their gang captain Dai Lo about his uncle having money stashed. They then rob the place and the captain let the Dragons rape the wife and daughter, which stuns Stephen. One night Sonny and Stephen went to teach a lesson to a restaurant manager who harassed the Dai Lo's girl. When the manager finds out who Stephen is, he mocks him. Stephen shoots him repeatedly, also shooting a white man out of reflex when the man stands up.
This means Stephen breaks one cardinal rule of gang killing: no whites. Tina makes a deal for Teddy's sake on info implicating the Dragons, enraging the gang. But after Tina dropped her case, Paul instructs the captain to kill Stephen. Paul leads the Dragons to execute Tina, in front of Sonny, with Paul giving Sonny another chance to "find his way back home". Paul then goes missing as the six Asian gangs convene with Dai Lo as the Dragons' leader. He kills the Tiger's leader, instilling fear to the other gangs and uniting them in a drug running operation. Sonny rats on them so the police easily cracks down the operation, even arresting Dai Lo. Sonny followed Paul to Hong Kong. But as he's about to kill Stephen, the Asian detective Tang whom Sonny ratted to comes and shoots Sonny dead.
The story is a fresh take on the gang war and violence scene after the scarce of such stories for quite a while. It's hard boiled, tough and raw. To some degree it can capture the ferocity of the violent and rivaling gangs and their turf wars. However it's kind of unbalanced as those violent scenes mostly take place indoors. I kind of grew up watching Hong Kong triad movies, especially the ones with Andy Lau or Ekin Cheng in them, most of which has some of Andrew Lau's work. They sure have some nice fight or brawl scene outdoors.
I like how the movie only put romance only as coloring or spicing ingredient to this movie and didn't take it any further. The focus of the story is nicely kept between the gang members, their relationships and the intrigue and betrayal among them. The action scenes look nice with the touch of hand-carried camera angle emphasizing the panic in them. The movie doesn't get to be too graphic about the violence, fading out to black or just out right skipping to other scenes when things are about to go visually disturbing.
The acting overall however feels like it's missing something. Justin Chon tries his best at an action-crime role, but being known as the Asian dude from Twilight sure doesn't lift his status on this movie. The other casts just barely kept the acting going with no real effort on the expressions. Having Ray Liotta didn't really help the acting overall. For me the movie overall feels like a Martin Scorcese movie about street gangs with Hong Kong standard acting.
Revenge of the Green Dragons (2014) is worth a 6 out of 10 score for me. A recommendation is just a so-so from me. It's quite a nice action entertainment, especially for those of us who crave gang war stories.
Sonny arranges Teddy for the run. Teddy succeeds but as he deliver the powder to the Tiger's base, cops storm the place. Paul closes the door on Ah Tai and Tina hates Sonny for Teddy going to jail. One day Sonney and Stephen collect tax from a car workshop owner, which deliver less from his part. A Tiger jumps on them but Stephen kills him quickly. Finding money shortage, Stephen tells their gang captain Dai Lo about his uncle having money stashed. They then rob the place and the captain let the Dragons rape the wife and daughter, which stuns Stephen. One night Sonny and Stephen went to teach a lesson to a restaurant manager who harassed the Dai Lo's girl. When the manager finds out who Stephen is, he mocks him. Stephen shoots him repeatedly, also shooting a white man out of reflex when the man stands up.
This means Stephen breaks one cardinal rule of gang killing: no whites. Tina makes a deal for Teddy's sake on info implicating the Dragons, enraging the gang. But after Tina dropped her case, Paul instructs the captain to kill Stephen. Paul leads the Dragons to execute Tina, in front of Sonny, with Paul giving Sonny another chance to "find his way back home". Paul then goes missing as the six Asian gangs convene with Dai Lo as the Dragons' leader. He kills the Tiger's leader, instilling fear to the other gangs and uniting them in a drug running operation. Sonny rats on them so the police easily cracks down the operation, even arresting Dai Lo. Sonny followed Paul to Hong Kong. But as he's about to kill Stephen, the Asian detective Tang whom Sonny ratted to comes and shoots Sonny dead.
The story is a fresh take on the gang war and violence scene after the scarce of such stories for quite a while. It's hard boiled, tough and raw. To some degree it can capture the ferocity of the violent and rivaling gangs and their turf wars. However it's kind of unbalanced as those violent scenes mostly take place indoors. I kind of grew up watching Hong Kong triad movies, especially the ones with Andy Lau or Ekin Cheng in them, most of which has some of Andrew Lau's work. They sure have some nice fight or brawl scene outdoors.
I like how the movie only put romance only as coloring or spicing ingredient to this movie and didn't take it any further. The focus of the story is nicely kept between the gang members, their relationships and the intrigue and betrayal among them. The action scenes look nice with the touch of hand-carried camera angle emphasizing the panic in them. The movie doesn't get to be too graphic about the violence, fading out to black or just out right skipping to other scenes when things are about to go visually disturbing.
The acting overall however feels like it's missing something. Justin Chon tries his best at an action-crime role, but being known as the Asian dude from Twilight sure doesn't lift his status on this movie. The other casts just barely kept the acting going with no real effort on the expressions. Having Ray Liotta didn't really help the acting overall. For me the movie overall feels like a Martin Scorcese movie about street gangs with Hong Kong standard acting.
Revenge of the Green Dragons (2014) is worth a 6 out of 10 score for me. A recommendation is just a so-so from me. It's quite a nice action entertainment, especially for those of us who crave gang war stories.