I was excited to watch this film as I’m a huge fan of old skool Donnie Yen. Hell I like whatever Donnie Yen movies I can get my hands on!
Donnie plays Dragon, an ex-cop whose divorced his wife and is looked upon as having an attitude problem. Dragon happens to be seeing his lawyer when a powerful criminal named Waise Chow (played by Robin Shou who played Liu Kang in Mortal Kombat) is robbed. Dragon tries to stop the men from stealing the money and in the process is identified by a woman on the scene, Mandy,as one of the men performing the robbery.
But things get more complicated as the robbers kill another woman who is discovered by Mandy, and later on, Dragon (as he tries to talk to her about her accusation). Eventually the Police arrive before the killer steps out and fires upon and killing everyone. Dragon and Mandy escape and become suspects of the murder.
So the two are on the run from the police whilst Chow wants to get his hands on them as he believes they possess the substantial amount of money stolen from him. Lots of fights to be had!
Love the Old Skool Yen!
While Donnie Yen produces some really awesome stuff these days (especially the last 10 years or so), his late 80’s (well, this was made in 1990) stuff seems to be pretty damn cool also!
The character Yen plays is pretty standard, a good guy trying to deal with the situation that’s landed on him, but watching him get defensive over being accused is actually slightly funny, however understandable.
The movie has a bit of comedy worked into it decently, with both his character Dragon and Mandy being cuffed to each other early on, this interferes with his fighting ability as Mandy’s movements prevent him from using his bodily movements effectively. Mandy continues to panic and make things hard for Dragon. Whilst it is funny also is a little frustrating but adds something different to what would have been a pretty straight forward action film.
Eventually Dragon starts to think of Mandy Romantically but has competition when he teams up with one of Chow’s men, David, who was betrayed by Chow. While this is technically a bit of a ‘love triangle’ it doesn’t seem to interfere with the pace of the movie. Instead it all helps to keep the characters interesting between action scenes.
The Action & Martial Arts
This movie has plenty of action that is frantically fast, long and entertaining! It reminds me a lot of Line of Duty 4.
Of course the finale is the most action packed and follows the climactic martial arts movie formula – saving the best for last! There’s fights between Chow and Dragon but also 2 American men who are pretty solid in comparison but offer a nice acrobatic performance also.
While the majority is frantically fast hand to hand fighting there’s an awesome fight at the end of the film between Donnie Yen’s character and another using a couple of swords – this fight is absolutely fantastic, fast and well choreographed. It’s awesome!
Donnie has a good way of adding emotion behind his fights also which seems to have you cheering for his cause a little more and adding a sense of urgency to each fight. This movie uses that emotion quite well to charge up the fights. It’s a good case of Donnie’s on screen presence and anger backing up the action both during and before each fight.
The Verdict
Love it, full of action, low on depth but who cares? It’s a fun and entertaining action film packed with fights – check it out!
On Blu Ray –
Region A (US & Canada)
Tiger Cage 2 (Blu-Ray)
On DVD –
Region 1 (US & Canada)
Tiger Cage 2
Region Free (Any Country)
Tiger Cage 2 (Region Free)
