To my mind, the formation of "the three kung-fu-teers"--Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan, and Yuen Biao--was more unexpected than their eventual break-up. The latter two are portrayed as the former's playthings in Chan's autobiography, I Am Jackie Chan, whose early chapters recount the Dickensian power structure at the China Drama Academy. The school's unforgiving master sanctioned his older pupils (collectively, "Big Brothers") to administer swift, cruel punishments on the younger students; the wrath of Hung, the biggest Brother (in both body mass and repute), seemed measureless and put aside for Chan and Biao. At least it does via Jackie's memory.
Hong Kong's 1987 Dragon Forever (a.k.a. Dragons Forever and Cyclone Z), the last picture in which the aforementioned alumni performed together, was, after I Am Jackie Chan, my introduction to them as a team, and I was fazed by their easy, breezy, naturally Cover Girl chemistry. The film betrays a reconciliation of the past, and little indication that this will be the trio's final outing, a far cry from the North American tendency to sentimentalize the last of anything beyond repair.
Here, Jackie plays a defense lawyer who enlists antipodal buddies (Hung, playing a snoop, and Biao, playing an inconceivable existentialist) to spy on the owner of a fish pond, for his client's cocaine mill is poisoning its livestock. When Jackie falls for the owner's daughter, natch, he removes himself from the case, and joins his chums in shutting the factory down from the inside-out.
Adolescent tensions were apparently flaring up again by the time the film was into production. It's hard to say whether this influenced the first on-screen tussle between Hung, Chan, and Biao, and equally difficult to determine if Dragon Forever's marketing campaign, which focused on said fight, was capitalizing on rumours of backstage strife.
Whatever the case, it's a scene defined by its reticence, neither as violent as a moment in which Hung is bashed bloody in the head by his girlfriend, nor as rousing as the long-awaited rematch between Jackie and the androgynous Benny "The Jet" Urquidez. If the action is wanting when all's said and done, the comedy is more sophisticated than usual, and the requisite farcical courting subplots overflow with charm. Never greater than a time waster, Dragon Forever was likely never intended to be.
Universe's region-free NTSC DVD, available online from HKFlix, is letterboxed at an accurate 1.85:1 (Dragon Forever is the rare non-'scope martial arts vehicle) though not enhanced for 16x9 televisions. The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundmix, preceded by the elegant "temple" trailer, is phenomenal for an eighties-era foreign film, with one restaurant skirmish inspiring several over-the-shoulder glances. Bonuses: trailers for The Young Master, Heart of the Dragon, Wheels on Meals, and Winners and Sinners, plus "stars files" on Jackie, Sammo, and Yuen.-Bill Chambers
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