Dragon Tiger Gate/Lóng Hǔ Mén/龍虎門/龙虎门/Lung4 Fu2 Mun4 (2006) or, The Fighting Hairdos!

4/20/2016

Dragon Tiger Gate/Lóng Hǔ Mén/龍虎門/龙虎门/Lung4 Fu2 Mun4 (2006) or, The Fighting Hairdos!

♥

The strangely stylized poster for Wilson Yip's Dragon Tiger Gate

QUICK REVIEW:

Three young men fight for their Dragon Tiger Gate!

- Which is possibly a martial arts school, but after having watched the film I'm still not entirely sure. Dragon Tiger Gate is written by Edmond Wong (Ip Man 3 (2015)), based on Yuk Long Wong's (Long Hu Men (1979), story) manhua (Chinese comic) Oriental Heroes (1970-), and directed by Wilson Yip (Ip Man (2008)).
The fight scenes are done with an abundance of energy and stylistic excess, but they are also of the kind that are so exaggerated as to arouse laughter. Even more laughable is the way the three heroes' long hairdos wave dramatically around in these scenes, and the general look throughout the film of these puppy-like wigs, which often completely cover the actors' eyes! Particularly the silver wig seems to me it must be one of the wackiest things an action hero has ever been asked to wear for an entire film.
Donnie Yen (Iron Monkey 2/Gaai Tau Saat Sau (1996)) is pretty cute to look at. The few women in Dragon Tiger Gate are completely powerless like dolls, and the plot is mostly something elusive about the art of using nunchuks. Add to this some ugly CGI effects and you have Dragon Tiger Gate, which is best described as a super-commercial botch-up.

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2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

The three lavishly haired heroes of Wilson Yip's Dragon Tiger Gate

Donnie Yen strikes a rather peculiar pose beneath an incredible head of hair for Wilson Yip's Dragon Tiger Gate

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 12.1 mil. HK $, equal to approximately 1.6 mil. $
= Unknown (but likely a huge flop)
[Dragon Tiger Gate was released July 28 and runs 96 minutes. The film, which was shot in Heng Dian, China, is notable for having had created the world's largest punching bag for it, recorded by the Guiness World Records. It was 8 ft. tall, 5 feet wide and weighed around 400 pounds. The film was mostly released in Asian countries and never in North America. Without knowing the cost, or if the gross listed above is the world total, it is impossible to say for certain what commercial standing belongs to Dragon Tiger Gate, however, I surmise that it was a huge flop. Talk of a sequel has not resulted in anything. 5,285 IMDb users have given Dragon Tiger Gate an average rating of 6.2.]

What do you think of Dragon Tiger Gate?

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

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Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

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Wolfgang Petersen has died

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Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (5-24)

4/20/2016