Three Brothers, A Retrospective - Part 3: Dragons Forever (1988)

Now it's time for the third and final part of my retrospective look at three key films starring the wonderful trio of Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. In my previous installment I talked about Wheels on Meals and despite the many times I've seen it, I was still flawed by how amazing the action scenes were and the fight between Jackie and Benny Urquidez is by far one of my all time favourite martial arts fight scenes. This week I'm going to take a long look at the final film to star all three of the Three Brothers; Dragons Forever.

With Wheels On Meals having been a massive success, Golden Harvest thought they would try and continue the trend and put together another film using most of the same cast and crew. A story was put together which would see the three leads play against type. Jackie, who often portrayed himself as the underdog hero fighting for justice would play a skirt chasing lawyer who had no qualms about using under handed tactics to win cases. Sammo, who often played timid characters during this point in his career was a conniving arms dealer and Yuen Biao would play a cat burglar who was mentally disturbed. An interesting idea and one which ultimately works in the film's favor.

Jackie plays Jackie. Yep, that's his character's name. A lawyer who is having lunch with a female witness for a case he is working on when a group of thugs turn up and try and intimidate her. Jackie leaps straight to the rescue and makes quick work of the attackers. Right from the off director Sammo is establishing the kind of action we will be seeing. This time the style of choreography seems to concentrate more on impactful and painful looking kicks and punches as opposed to the lightening fast exchanges used in Wheels on Meals. It's not a particularly long scene but Jackie gets to indulge in his penchant for using props by throwing chairs and leaping across tables.

After he rescues the witness she slaps him in the face for not acting quick enough. It's here that Jackie's character isn't as morally upright as his other characters which he's played before and promptly slaps her back and verbally berates her before walking off. Later we see him in court representing a criminal who he is able to get off charges. While the previous scene established he's not the typical boy scout, we see here that Jackie's character is conflicted as he is visibly upset at having to defend such a repugnant character. He even goes so far as to assault his client when the Judge's back is turned. Realistically there's now way a lawyer would be able to do something like that but of course this film has one of the most lenient and tolerable judge's I've seen so who am I to argue.

Leaving the courtroom he then has a meeting with another client. A local chemical company is being sued by a fishery over allegations that they have polluted the water. Jackie is hired by the chemical company in hopes that he can convince the fishery to settle out of court. He holds a meeting with the owner of the fishery Miss Yip played by Deannie Yip. As you would expect she has no interest in settling and vows to take the case through. It's during this scene that Jackie meets Ling played by Pauline Yeung. Ling is an environmental scientist who intends to testify on Yip's behalf, she's also her cousin. After a swift rebuke from her, Jackie decides to put a plan together that will hopefully result in the case never being put in front of a judge.

He recruits his friend Wong Fei-Hung (Sammo) we're introduced to his character in a scene in which he is selling guns to a pair of criminals intent on robbing a bank. When it turns out that they won't pay him, Sammo doesn't hesitate to knock them on their arses. One thing has to be said about Dragons Forever is that it doesn't waste too much time getting to the next action sequence. Sammo knew what his audience liked (most of the time) and giving them lots of action to watch was one thing he was certain on. The fight scene itself is short but it's tightly edited and there's some nasty throws being used. 

Wong meets up with Jackie who gives him the task of getting close to Miss Yip in an attempt to try and coerce her into selling her business. He wastes no time by moving in next door and introducing himself to her when he pretends to mistake her house for the one he just moved into. I liked this scene because right away you can see that both Sammo and Deannie have good chemistry. Both actors had previously worked together on Carry On, Pickpocket (A great 80's action comedy that's worth seeing) and The Owl Vs Bumbo (A not so great 80's comedy that isn't worth seeing) so they seemed to play off each other quite well. Not long after we are introduced to the final of the three leads Tung Te-Biao played by, you guessed it, Yuen Biao.

He returns to his home during the night to find someone has forced their way inside. Climbing through the roof he attacks his would be assailant only to discover it's Jackie. Right away we know there's something not quite right about him. It turns out that Jackie wants to use Tung's skills as a burglar to plant a bug in Miss Yip's home in the hopes of being able to gather some information that he may be able to use against her in the case. Tung reluctantly agrees and soon we see him infiltrating Miss Yip's apartment. Unfortunately Wong spots him and watches him closely.

Inside we get to see Biao's talents for acrobatic tumbling as he tries to find a good hiding place for the listening device. One thing I found odd was despite being a professional burglar instead of choosing dark clothing that would avoid him from being seen, he decides to wear a bright yellow jumper. Of course, it was the 80's and primary colours were worn a lot and also Biao's character is kind of a nutjob so I suppose it makes a little sense but not much. Wong rushes in thinking he's robbing the place and they have a little fight. This time it's mostly played for laughs with Yuen trying his best to wriggle out of Wong's grasp but his escape is cut short when Yip smashes a vase over his head.

Jackie bails him out prison and bumps into Yip and Ling. Jackie tries to ask Ling out and again and she agrees. Thinking she would be able to get more information out of him. This is where we get a real treat of a scene. Jackie is busy entertaining her at his home and he soon finds out that Tung is hiding in his bedroom. Not long after Wong shows up and is forced to hide them both or his whole plan would be exposed. We get an excellent mix of action and physical comedy and what I like most about this scene is that you could show this to anyone from any country, regardless if they could understand the dialogue and they would completely understand what was happening. That's one of the toughest aspects of comedy in getting it to translate and physical comedy always works and this particular scene is no exception.

Later on we see the three of them trying to let bygones be bygones and go for a drink. Here we meet the main villain played by Yuen Wah. After some expository dialogue we get yet another fight scene when a rival gang come in and try to kill Wah. You get the feeling that with each scene that Sammo is building them up and up. Each fight becomes faster. harder. more painful. So you can imagine by the time we reach the end just how brutal things are going to get. The next day Jackie takes Ling for dinner on a yacht. It's not long before Jackie receives a visit from what I like to call the Big Bad Guy Brigade. Which consists of such Hong Action bad guys like Dick Wei, Chung Fat, Fung Hak-On, Lau Kar-Wing, Wong Yu, Meng Hoi and a few others.

The choreography is pure Jackie all the way. You see him climbing up stairs, leaping across tables, rolling across the ground. Everything you expect Jackie to be doing in a fight like this, he does and it's a great fight, especially given the talent involved. At this point though, this is when we get into cheesy Hong Kong romantic territory, which isn't something I care for much. We get the montage of Jackie and Ling going on various dates  to the soundtrack of a Canto Ballad. It always annoys me when this happens but since it's over fairly quickly it's not as irritating as I usually find it.

Sadly Jackie's happiness doesn't last long when Tung tries to kill Ling. The reason for this is that two scenes were filmed in which Tung see's a psychiatrist played by Stanley Fung. The second scene he is being robbed and the robber, with Tung thinking he is his shrink tells him to kill her. So him suddenly wanting to do that seems a little out of context with the removal of those scenes. As a result of Tung's attempted murder, Jackie's plot to get information and Wong's plan to get Yip to sell her business are exposed. As you'd expect the women aren't happy and this causes the three friends to duke it out Hong Kong action style.

I loved this fight, still do. It's so perfectly done and it's such a shame we never saw all three do more of this in other films. Their timing is spot on and is a hell of a thing to see these three "brothers" fight each other in such a vicious way. This ends up causing a rift between them and they go their separate ways. Wong however still feels guilty and confronts Miss Yip about his feelings. After accepting his apology he agrees to help her get evidence that will help her win the case in court.

Tung agrees to help and they both sneak into the factory and split up. Wong finds a hidden entrance and discovers that the factory is in fact a front for heroin manufacturing. He is discovered almost immediately and is captured. Meanwhile Jackie is in court and is about to cross-examine Ling only to ask her to confess her love for him. Now at this point another other judge would not be tolerating such ridiculous behaviour but since we have the friendliest movie judge ever he just goes with it. As you'd expect it goes exactly the way you think it will but once we've got that out of the way Tung meets up with Jackie and tells him Wong is in trouble.

With Ling in toe they head to factory and find their way into the heroin plant. At this point the film wastes no time in giving what the audience has been waiting for. Jackie and Biao leap into action. Biao goes up against the man who would go on to take Dick Wei's mantle for Villain of Choice in the 90's, Billy Chow and Jackie has to take in Yuen Wah. They're both excellent fights and are certainly more hard-hitting then anything that has come before, especially when one stunt sees a poor bloke slam his head and neck into the floor. How they didn't get seriously damaged by that bump I have no idea.

Yet, all this does is lead us right into the Pièce de résistance when we get round two between Jackie and his opponent from Wheels on Meals, Benny Urquidez. Benny is beyond a shadow of a doubt one of Jackie's greatest on-screen adversaries. They may have only faced each other twice but both times have left such an impact on the face of martial arts cinema that it's easy to see why many fans around the world cite them as some of the best examples of screen fighting ever produced.

What makes this fight different to Wheels on Meals is fundamentally choreography. While that film had them throwing lightening fast exchanges, this time they're out to really hurt each other with stiff kicks to the chest and some nasty fists to the face. Each move looks like it hurts and it should as they really had to push the bar further because they had set it so high last time. I already explained Benny is the real deal and even he was impressed with how well Jackie handled himself the few times they actually made contact during some of the moves

As you'd expect after getting a hell of a beat down Jackie is able to push himself beyond the limit and manages to get the victory over Benny. With the bad guys defeated and everyone saved that ends the film. So too does my retrospective on three films that are some of the best in which all three stars have ever made. Sadly this was to be their last collaboration. There was attempt made in the 90's to get all three involved in a film but Jackie couldn't be a part of it and so that film later become Don't Give A Damn, with Takeshi Kineshiro filling in Jackie's original role.

If you're wondering when the film came out if it was a hit, well, this may shock you but no it wasn't. Expert Bey Logan theorizes the reason the film didn't live up to expectations had a lot to do with the characters they played. Hong Kong audiences were very particular about the roles their stars played and weren't very receptive whenever they tried to play against type. Still, all parties involved should be proud of the final film.

So that's that on my three part retrospective, it's been an absolute blast going back and watching these bona fide genre classics and being able to share my thoughts with you. I hope you enjoyed reading these articles as much as I enjoyed writing them. Until next time, my friends.

Three Brothers, A Retrospective - Part 2: Wheels On Meals (1984)

Here we go. Part 2 of my retrospective in which I'll be taking an extended look at three films starring the triple threat of Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. Last time I revisited the film Project A for the first time in many years and it was an incredibly enjoyable experience. Let's see if I can carry on that enjoyment with Wheels On Meals.

After the massive success of Project A Jackie, Sammo and Yuen wasted little time in gearing up for their next project. This time it would be Sammo in the director's chair and much like Jackie had done with Project A he decided to do something different. So he thought it would be a good idea to shoot the film on location in Barcelona, Spain with interiors being filmed in the Golden Harvest studios in Hong Kong. It was decided that the film be called Wheels On Meals instead of the other way round as two other films by Golden Harvest; Megaforce and Menage A Trois had been box office flops and they felt the letter 'M' would be bad luck.

Joining them would be Spanish actress Lola Forner playing the love interest and American martial arts champions Benny "The Jet" Urquidez and Keith Vitali playing the henchman of the main villain played by Spanish actor Jose Sancho.

With an exotic location, a great cast and some solid action the final result was a film that was an even bigger hit then Project A and further cemented Jackie,'s, Sammo's and Yuen's reputation as three of the biggest stars in the Hong Kong film industry during the 1980's.

Jackie and Yuen play Thomas and David a pair of fast food chefs who travel round Barcelona selling food to locals and tourists. It's established very early on the film when the two have a morning spar just what we're in for. The timing of both men are absolutely incredible and it's hard to imagine anyone else being able to pull of that same rhythm and speed in which they both effortlessly pull off.

After that nice little sequence we see both of them plying their trade out of a yellow van. We're shown that both men are known to the community and get along with them. This was something Sammo wanted to emphasize in the film and give it a more international flavour. It's not long before trouble appears in the form of a motorcycle gang led by the late Blackie Ko. Ko had made a reputation for himself as someone who was able to direct and perform vehicle stunts so whenever you saw a high profile action film that was made in the 80's and featured any kind of vehicle stunts, more often then not those scenes were directed by him.

Afterwards we meet Sammo's character Moby. He's a private detective who ends up being hired by a rich business man to locate a woman who is the heir to a large fortune. Moby agrees and sets about trying to find her. It's here we see Sammo sporting a a rather nifty jerry curl hairstyle. Hairstyles and playing with his overall look was something of a running theme in his films as he was always trying to find ways of making himself look different. The odd thing is he doesn't look too out of place with it. After all it was the 1980's and odd hairstyles was one of the many things that decade is remembered for.

Thomas and David pay a visit to David's father played by Paul Chang who is an a mental institution, it's here they meet Sylvia (Forner) who is the daughter of the woman David's father is in a relationship with. Quite how two mentally ill people are able to have a relationship within the hospital is never fully explained but it doesn't matter because thinking about that in this type of movie would be just silly. Besides, this scene also features comic actors Richard Ng and John Shum. There's a nice little exchange of dialogue between Ng and Jackie in which he explains there's a difference between having severe mental and emotional problems and being stupid and the way Ng delivers it with such a deadpan expression is absolutely priceless.

Later that night, Thomas and David are in the red light district (hookers have to eat, right?) and Thomas catches Sylvia who as it turns out is posing as a prostitute in order to rob her clients. Unfortunately she's caught red handed when trying to lift a man's wallet and flees, hiding in the boy's fast food van. Feeling charitable they take her to their home and let her stay the night. Here we get to see Jackie and Yuen's comedic interplay as they try and act all suave around Sylvia. It's all very silly Hong Kong humor but it did make me chuckle as Jackie and Yuen know how to play it exactly right without it becoming too farcical.

The next morning the boys awake to find that Sylvia has robbed them of their money and stolen their neighbor's car. Shortly afterwards Sylvia arrives home and finds a group of thugs waiting for her. It's revealed that she is the woman Sammo has been tracking and someone is after her for her inheritance. In the midst of their attempt to capture her, Sammo arrives, having just been robbed by her minutes before. We get this short but very nicely choreographed brawl, which leaves Sammo with another of his trademarks, a black eye.

Realizing he may be way over his head he decides to approach Thomas and David, having discovered their connection to her and asks for her whereabouts. They don't say anything and leave Moby to fend for himself. This was actually a disappointing scene. For one, it takes place in a night club and usually when we see these three in a night club, three things tend to happen. Dance off, Fight scene or a combination of the two and we don't see that here and instead we get a scene which Sammo's character inadvertently offends the Spanish patrons of the club. It was short but it did serve the purpose of showing that these three characters know each other but still, a bit of action couldn't have hurt.

Upon leaving the club they bump into Sylvia and they take her to their home again. After the obligatory heartfelt moment in which Sylvia explains why she's a thief we're treated to that all important moment in 80's Hong Kong comedies, the cheesy montage sequence. It's exactly what you'd expect to be but it gives Sammo the opportunity to show off some landmarks in Barcelona. Not long afterward Sylvia is found by the same thugs who tried to grab her earlier and this leads from some painful kicks to said thug's faces delivered by Sammo and Yuen and we jump right into an excellent car chase sequence.

I mentioned earlier that Blackie Ko directed the vehicle stunts and it's obvious from the way it's filmed and edited that he must have enjoyed putting it together. As the car tears through the streets we get some lovely shots of Barcelona's famous landmarks, well, if you're shooting a film in Spain you're damn well going to show off. It's a great scene and shows that Hong Kong movies can do more then just martial arts action. After escaping they all manage to get home but soon Urquidez and Vitali show up and we get the first round between Jackie and Yuen against Urquidez and Vitali.

Urquidez and Vitali are no strangers to the movie scene. By this time in their career this was one their earliest roles. Urquidez had appeared in the film Force: Five directed by Robert Clouse and Vitali had appeared in Revenge of the Ninja. So they were already familiar with the way martial arts was filmed for screen. The fight itself is short but boy oh boy does it look painful. Jackie and Yuen especially take some nasty looking kicks to the chest.

Our heroes manage to give the bad guys the slip but the next day Sylvia and her mother are kidnapped. I have to give Urquidez and Vitali credit. They don't waste time trying to correct their mistakes. Most movie henchmen could learn a lot from these two. This leaves Thomas, David and Moby with no choice but to rescue them. Here we see that they are holed up in a castle and all three make their way inside using different methods. As you'd expect they're all caught and we end up seeing what is without a shadow of a doubt one of the best and I mean this, the best one on one martial arts fight scenes ever recorded.

Now having said that it would be understandable if you thought I might be hyping it up but I'm not neither men have ever looked better. One thing I've noticed about Jackie is that while he looked amazing in many of the fight sequences he did in his own films he never looked better then when he was working under Sammo. As I mentioned in my previous review, both men (along with Yuen Biao) grew up together and attended Yu Jim-Yuen's Peking Opera School. They had practiced and honed their craft since they were children, they all had this understanding and knew each other's strengths so well. It seemed Sammo was able to tap into just that little extra skill in Jackie's move set and could use it to great effect.

Which is why Urquidez makes the perfect opponent. For those who may not be familiar with Benny Urquidez. He grew up as part of a very athletic family. His mother was a professional wrestler and his father a boxer. His siblings were all black belts and Benny would go on to earn them in nine different forms of Karate. In 1974 he decided to pursue a career in the full contact scene. Throughout his career he would rack up an impressive score of 200 wins and 0 losses, including 63 title defenses and 57 knockouts. To add another string to his already impressive bow he is the only professional fighter to hold six titles in 5 weight divisions for 24 consecutive years. So early on in his career it was easy to see why he would want to be in movies.

Benny is the real deal and he made the leap to film fighting effortlessly. His fight with Jackie is intricately choreographed with both of them actually hitting each other during some of the exchanges. It's painful to watch but also astoundingly done. Vitali also gets his moment to shine going up against Yuen Biao. Here we get something a little different, instead of the brutal street fighting of Jackie and Urquidez we get a more acrobatic scene which sees Yuen leaping over tables and chairs trying to avoid Vitali's brutal kicks. It's fast, snappy and compliments the previous fight nicely.

Finally to cap off what has already been one of the finest finale's in Hong Kong action history we get what are essentially the desserts with Sammo taking on the main villain. Sammo combines traditional Chinese sword fighting with European fencing and it's an excellent way to end what has already been such a good film.

So there we have it, Wheels On Meals. I had a great time with this one and having been able to go back and watch it again has been a lot of fun. I had forgotten just how brutal the fight scenes are and the brawl between Jackie and Urquidez holds a high place on my list of top martial arts fight scenes ever. If you have haven't seen it yet then can I say you will be in for one hell of a good time. Join me next time for part 3 where I'll be taking a look at another action classic, one which will see our fearless trio play against type and take on the combined might of Yuen Wah and Benny Urquidez in Dragons Forever.