Chasing The Dragon almost had no business being as good as it was. Produced in Hong Kong, which to me seldom produces quality and sensible movies these days; and co-directed by Wong Jing, who is a big part of the reason for the aforementioned fact.
And for some unknown and illogical reason, Andy Lau was listed as "Special Appearance". How is that a special appearance when he was in half of the movie. He should be the second name billed. What, he opted not to get paid?
But Lau and Donnie Yen came to play. They both showed why they are still Hong Kong's best and brightest stars today. I haven't seen Lau's movie in a long time (and I'll discount him appearing in The Great Wall), and he has made me realize how much I have missed his acting.
Based on the true story, but not so much of a biopic of Yen's Crippled Ho. And Lau's Lee Rock apparently was the same character he played back in the early 90's in the trilogy Lee Rock - so not sure if this character's part in this movie was still based on real events.
But it was great to see how these characters changed through the decades, to see them go from nothing to their highest peak - which was to rule Hong Kong with invisible hands.
However, as the movie tried to be of an epic proportion, there was just not enough running time for it to fully tell a certain period of time in enough detail. So a few times it seemed jarring that the story chose to skip forward by a lot more than it should.
And there was one section where Yen and his gang had to fly to Thailand for some "negotiations". That whole section did not feel realistic and I am curious if it actually happened at all.
I really liked how serious the movie was. And the action sequences were really good as well, although at one part it felt a little too much like the The Raid - again another trait Hong Kong movies always choose to do, as in copy.
But overall, this movie is again another reason why I should not give up on Hong Kong cinema, yet.
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