''Dragon Lord'' (also known as ''Dragon Strike'', ) is a 1982 Hong Kong martial arts

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

starring and directed by

Jackie Chan Fang Shilong (born Chan Kong-sang; 7 April 1954), known professionally as Jackie Chan,; is a Hong Kong actor and filmmaker, known for his slapstick, acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, and innovative stunts, which he typically perf ...

, who also wrote the screenplay with Edward Tang and Barry Wong. It was originally supposed to be a

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music, or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

to ''

The Young Master ''The Young Master'' () is a 1980 Hong Kong martial arts film starring and directed by Jackie Chan, from a screenplay by Chan, Edward Tang, Lau Tin-chi, and Tung Lu. It co-stars Yuen Biao, Fung Fung and Shih Kien. The film was released thea ...

'' and even had the name ''Young Master in Love'' until it was changed to ''Dragon Lord''. The film was experimented by Chan with various elaborate

stunt A stunt is an unusual, difficult, dramatic physical feat that may require a special skill, performed for artistic purposes usually for a public audience, as on television or in theaters or cinema. Stunts are a feature of many action films. Befo ...

action sequences in a period setting, serving as a transition between Chan's earlier

kung fu Chinese martial arts, commonly referred to with umbrella terms Kung fu (term), kung fu (; ), kuoshu () or wushu (sport), wushu (), are Styles of Chinese martial arts, multiple fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in Greater Ch ...

comedy

period film A historical drama (also period drama, period piece or just period) is a dramatic work set in the past, usually used in the context of film and television, which presents history, historical events and characters with varying degrees of fiction s ...

s (such as ''

Drunken Master ''Drunken Master'' (), also known as ''Drunken Master The Beginning'', is a 1978 Hong Kong martial arts comedy film directed by Yuen Woo-ping and produced and co-written by Ng See-yuen. The film features much of the same crew as Yuen's '' ...

'' and ''The Young Master'') and his later stunt-oriented modern action films (such as '' Project A'' and '' Police Story'').

Plot

Dragon (

), the son of a Chinese aristocrat, is always getting in trouble, and likes to skip his lessons. Dragon tries to send a love note to the girl he likes via a kite, but the kite gets away. Dragon tries to get the kite and letter back which have landed on the roof of the headquarters of a gang of thieves who are planning to steal artifacts from the town's temple. Dragon interferes with the gang's plans and is forced to fight off the gang.

Cast

– Dragon Ho / Lung *

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

– Cowboy Chin * Hwang In-shik – The Big Boss *

Tien Feng Tien Feng (born Tien Yu-kun, 4 June 1928 – 22 October 2015) was a Chinese actor, who appeared in hundreds of films in Taiwan and Hong Kong. He has acted with Bruce Lee in ''Fist of Fury'' (1972) and with Jackie Chan in ''Little Tiger of Canto ...

– Dragon's Father * Paul Chang – Chin's Father * Wai-Man Chan – Tiger (as Hui-Min Chen) *

Fung Hak-on Fung Hak-on (12 September 1948 – 2 March 2016) was a Hong Kong actor. He appears in Hong Kong films since the 1960s until mid 2010s. Career In 1955, Fung became an actor in Hong Kong films. Fung first appeared in Seven Bodies, Eight Deaths an ...

– The Killer King (as Ke-An Fung) * Cheng Kang-yeh – Ah Dee * Fung Feng – The Referee * Kang Ho – The Reteree * Kam-kwong Ho – The Commentator * Pak-kwong Ho – Spectator * Yeong-mun Kwon – The Hatchetman (as Kuen Wing-Man) * Lei Suet – Alice (as Sidney Yim) *

Corey Yuen Corey Yuen Kwai (; 15 February 1951 – 2022) was a Hong Kong film director, film producer, action choreographer, and actor. Yuen attended the China Drama Academy and was one of the Seven Little Fortunes. In Hong Kong, he worked on several ...

– Lu Chen gang member *

Mang Hoi Mang Hoi ( zh, 孟海; 1 May 1958 – 9 October 2023) was a Hong Kong actor and action director. He won the Best Supporting Actor at the 5th Hong Kong Film Awards for ''Yes, Madam''. Personal life and death Mang dated American actress and mar ...

– Lu Chen gang member * Chiu Chung-san - Lu Chen gang member * Yuan-li Wu – The Matchmaker (as Yuen-Yee Ny) * Yan Tsan Tang – Smuggler * Po Tai – Ah Dum Pao (as Tai Do) * Clement Yip – Thug * Benny Lai – Braves' team player * Johnny Cheung – Smuggler

Production

''Dragon Lord'' went over budget and took twice as long to shoot as was originally planned due to Chan's many retakes of shots to get them exactly as he wanted them. One scene in the film is reputed to have taken 2900 takes to complete, although sources disagree on whether the scene in question is the opening scene involving a

human pyramid A human pyramid is an acrobatics, acrobatic formation of three or more people in which two or more people support a tier of higher people, who in turn may support other, higher tiers of people. People above the bottom tier may kneel or stand on ...

or a sequence depicting a

Jianzi Jianzi (), is a traditional Chinese sport in which players aim to keep a heavily weighted shuttlecock in the air using their bodies apart from the hands, unlike in similar games such as peteca and indiaca. The primary origin of jianzi is an a ...

game. The opening bun festival scene was originally intended to end the film but was moved as Chan wanted a spectacular opening to the film. The final fight scene, which takes place in a

barn A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain.Allen G ...

, also featured elaborate stunts, including one where Chan does a back flip off a

loft A loft is a building's upper storey or elevated area in a room directly under the roof (American usage), or just an attic: a storage space under the roof usually accessed by a ladder (primarily British usage). A loft apartment refers to large ...

and falls to the lower ground. According to his book ''I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action'', Chan injured his chin during a stunt, making it difficult to say his lines and direct. This is the first Jackie Chan film that includes outtakes (bloopers). Jackie Chan says that he was inspired to do this by the use of bloopers at the end of ''

The Cannonball Run ''The Cannonball Run'' is a 1981 action-comedy film directed by Hal Needham, produced by Hong Kong firm Golden Harvest, and distributed by 20th Century-Fox. Filmed in Panavision, it features an all-star ensemble cast, including Burt Reynolds ...

'', a film in which Jackie Chan also starred. His subsequent films all include outtakes.

Release and box office

In its original Hong Kong theatrical run, ''Dragon Lord'' grossed 17,936,344 (). The film did not make as much as it was expected to in Hong Kong, but was a big hit in Japan. It was 1982's ninth-highest-grossing foreign film in Japan, where it grossed (). In

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

, it became the 14th-highest-grossing film of 1982, selling 92,957 tickets and earning (US$152,551). In South Korea, it was the highest-grossing film of 1982, with 298,122 ticket sales in the capital

Seoul City Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

, equivalent to an estimated (). In Spain (where it released in 1984), the film sold 188,958 tickets, equivalent to an estimated (). Combined, the film grossed an estimated total box office gross of approximately in Asia and Europe. Hong Kong Legends released the DVD on 25 August 2003 in the United Kingdom.

Dimension Films Dimension Films was an American independent film and television production and distribution label founded in 1992, and currently owned by independent studio Lantern Entertainment. Formally one of the American " mini-majors" (i.e., small to m ...

released the film on DVD in the U.S. on 11 May 2004.

Reception

Joey O'Bryan of ''

The Austin Chronicle ''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogra ...

'' rated it 2.5/5 stars and wrote that the film, while not one of Chan's best, is an early attempt to take the genre into a new direction and set the stage for many of Chan's better, more-realized films. O'Bryan highlighted the film's climactic fight as a "worth the price of admission all by itself". ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...

'' rated it 3/5 stars and wrote, "Aside from the meandering, stop-and-go screenplay, there's much to admire about the film." John Sinnott of

DVD Talk DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman. History Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...

rated it 3.5/5 stars called it a "fun movie" that moves away from conventional martial arts films.

Awards and nominations

* 1983

Hong Kong Film Awards The Hong Kong Film Awards (HKFA; ), founded in 1982, is an annual film awards ceremony in Hong Kong. The ceremonies typically take place in April, and have mostly been held at the Grand Theatre of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre since 1991. The a ...

: ** Nomination: Best Action Choreography (

, Fung Hak-on, Corey Yuen Kwai)

References

External links

''Dragon Lord''
at Hong Kong Cinemagic * {{Jackie Chan 1982 films 1982 martial arts films 1980s Cantonese-language films 1980s Hong Kong films 1980s martial arts comedy films Films directed by Jackie Chan Golden Harvest films Hong Kong martial arts comedy films Hong Kong slapstick comedy films Karate films Kung fu films Wushu films