Wednesday, October 24, 2007

The Dragon Family

I remember watching this movie in the 80's and by that time it was the best movie I'd seen in years, although my cousin ruined the ending moment for me, because when the bad guy was in flame, he said that it was only a doll. Last night Celestial channel showed this and it turned out that I had forgotten so many scenes.

The Dragon family (Lung family) was the center of the story. I liked how they used the actors's real names for the characters' names. The father of the Lung family was the big brother of the 4 who had the power in Hong Kong triad and this organization had swore not to sell drugs. Problem came when Father Lung's godson, Alan (Alan Tam), killed one of the 2nd brother's sidekicks for selling drugs. The 2nd brother was furious because he thought the big brother had violated his affair and he wanted the organization to end. The accountant was panic because there was a lack of 5 millions in the balance and he privately asked the big brother for time to settle the matter. Meanwhile, Qiang (another sidekick - I forgot this actor's name, but he was very popular then after playing in Reincarnated series) came from abroad to help the 2nd brother. Together with the accountant, they set up a trap for the big brother. Lung's youngest son, A Yeh (Tan Ceng Yeh), liked to gamble and the accountant proposed to A Yeh that they would forget his debts (for his father refused to pay them) if he could received a drug cargo on his pier. A Yeh agreed but the 2nd brother caught him on the move and wanted a meeting which ended in the big brother's death. Not satisfied, the 2nd brother made a big massacre in the funeral house and killed the 3rd & 4th brothers, but Qiang stabbed him as well - made the 4 brothers were all gone and left Qiang as the leader of the organization. There was a funny line when Qiang's people made a comment that Qiang was more popular than Chou Yuen Fat.


From the Lung family, only A Hua (Liu The Hua) and the mother were alive, plus A Cung (Mo Sau Cung) who was studying in London, and Alan who had run away to Taiwan after killing the 2nd brother's sidekick. A Cung went back to Hong Kong, only to found his life was in great danger and ran to Taiwan to find Alan, and both went back to Hong Kong for revenge, when they accidentally found A Hua, who worked as a pimp (He was selling 2 actresses. One of them was Chang Man Yi, I didn't catch the 2nd's name because in the subtitles it was her Cantonese name). When A Hua brought them to meet the mother, who lived in a boat, it was too late because the boat and the mother were on fire, burned by Qiang's people. The revenge must go on!

Other actors I knew was Miao Ciao Wei, who played A Wei, Lung's eldest son. The actors who played the accountant, the chief police and Uncle Bao were also familiar, but I didn't know their names.

The actions were great, and my favourite was still the same: the scene where A Yeh ran away with the mother on a wheelchair from the funeral house until how A Hua sacrificed his hand to stop the wheelchair before it hit a car. After years, it was still a very entertaining movie, although now I think it seemed that there was no law in Hong Kong. Also found the acting was so-so, except Liu The Hua and the actor who played Qiang and Uncle Bao. Also loved A Yeh's sweater!

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