Brilliant and touching

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

This movie was originally going to be the sequel to the Young Master and was going to be called the Young Master in Love. What ended up happening is that the movie drifted so far away from the original Young Master, that they decided to make it a separate movie on its own. (Gee, I can quote Des Mangan word for word, almost). Anyway, the movie is set during the colonial times in China and Jackie Chan is a young kid (with a rich father) who is doing what all kids do - chase girls and play sports. What ends up happening is that during his cavorting, Jackie stumbles across a plot to steal ancient treasures from China and he and his friend beat up the nasty bad guy and become heroes.It is a pretty basic plot, but then who watches Jackie Chan for the plot. We watch it for the fighting and for the comedy. The thing with Jackie Chan comedy is that it can be quite subtle at times. In this movie it is basically him chasing women around and bumbling constantly. Not only that, we see him scheming with the gods and his friends to manipulate this woman into his life. The thing is that in the end she ignored the advice of the gods and decided to go for him anyway.Do I really need to say more about this movie? No, I thought not.

His father wishes that Young Dragon would be a great student and attend to his classes, but Dragon himself is full of youth and is just as interested in fighting and chasing girls. Full of arrogance and confident in his own knowledge, Dragon continues down this path until he finds that he has stumbled onto a plot to steal Chinese artefacts.Everyone has said it before me but I will add my voice to those here that believe, for the vast majority, this is a very poor Jackie Chan film which sort of redeems itself towards the end. This surprised me because I have been watching a few early Chan movies recently and, for all their faults boring is never a word that I have had occasion to use – until now. It is probably because the plot is so weak for the entire film – even by the standards set by martial arts films of the period. For the first two-thirds of the film what we get is light comedy and some sports action involving a game where you chase an egg and also a cross between football and badminton. These are interesting ideas I'm sure but they do not come off in practice, with even the impressive moves in these sequences being lost in a sea of banality. The usual bed of comedy that can normally be relied upon in Chan films is also much weaker than normal, with basic pratfalls and little in the way of witty dialogue.A lot of this comes from the writing but reaction shots are also weak – not down to the cast being unable to deliver but rather Chan the director not catching them. It is hard to describe but, if you wrote a list of the things that normally work in a Jackie Chan film – pretty much none of those come off here. Fortunately we do have a very strong final twenty minutes and I credit any roundly positive review with only having remembered this part of the film. It is here that finally we get a decent fight scene and it turns out to be a really good one where everything fires on all cylinders. Firstly it is shot really well and I mention that first because of the barn location making it difficult to get a good shot, but here we get good use of angles and long static shots to show that the action was not created in the edit room but on the set. It is also tough and really well choreographed with plenty of impressive and engaging moves all well pulled together. It is literally the reward for making it through the previous 70-odd minutes to get to this sequence.So Dragon Lord as a total product deserves to be remembered as pretty poor film. The plot is weak, the comedy basic and the total delivery leaves much to be desired. Thanks goodness then for the final fight that does wash the taste out of your mouth by how much fun it all is in a generally excellent final 20 minutes that makes you wonder where this Chan was for the rest of it.

"Dragonlord" sees Chan returning to his role of "Dragon" from "The Young Master". Not much has carried over from the first film though. "Tiger", his older brother, is nowhere to be seen; neither is the Marshall, his daughter or his son played superbly by Yuen Biao in the original film. Dragon does have the same master though - presumably all the other students have moved on to other things. (Dragon's laziness at training is portrayed heavily in this film, so maybe he's still studying!) Originally titled "Young Master In Love", this film sees Dragon (for the first sixty minutes at least) pursuing a villager girl in various idiotic and slapstick ways. His rival for her affection is his friend (inappropriately named "Cowboy") played comically by the longtime Chan Stunt-team member Mars. We see various scenes where their silly schemes backfire. It is one of these scenes that we (thankfully) find "Dragon" in over his head.This film is notorious in that it failed expectations at the box office. That said, I'm sure the expectations were pretty high, and I feel that this film has never had a fair judgment based on it's own merits. But even when I try to do this, I still feel that there is a problem with the film. It seems quite unfocused, sometimes rushed, and I think the action is too sporadic and not as brilliant as Chan's other work from this period.The thing that really saves the film is the ending sequence. As in "The Young Master", there is a fantastic final reel that it full of incredibly exhausting action - you really feel every blow. And again, Chan goes up against the same rival from "The Young Master" (is it the same character?), and the timing and energy here is brilliant. Chan's style of using every last bit of his environment to help defeat his opponent - not just relying on pure physical ability - is as apparent here as anywhere else. The barn they fight in is full of clever little prop gags and improvisations. This is an absolute highlight of the film and one of Chan's incredible career.It's not necessary to see the prequel before seeing "Dragonlord", in fact, it might even raise more questions than what it hopes to answer. But it must be said that the original film is the superior film, and "Dragonlord", with it's focus on girl-chasing and team-sports does seem baffling. Luckily, the few fight scenes it offers (plus a fantastic shuttle-cock scene) push it over the line as a must-see film in this genre.

Up until the last 20 minutes, I was thinking that this is possibly Jackie Chan's worst movie (excluding his pre-1978 work, which I am not familiar with). The final fight sequence changed all that: it is long and good and intense - indeed, one of the highlights of Chan's career. But to get to it, you have to sit through a lot of "comedy" that might amuse five-year-olds (oh, look! someone threw a tomato at that guy's face) and endless "football" scenes. Not to mention the dubbing (which includes the line "How can I turn it off? It's not a tap" - watch to find out what it refers to). "Dragon Lord" is worth renting for the final fight alone, but the rest of the movie is only for Jackie collectors, and even then only for those who've already seen at least 15 of his other movies. (**)