4 Star
Waiting for the Mouse to Turn.
Actor, stuntman turned director Woo-Ping Yuen (Drunken Master, Tiger Cage, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny) brings us a tale of murder and extreme violence, as a wicked criminal tries to evade the authorities. From the early 1980s, this film fits right into the action/ comedies that were coming out of Hong Kong at the time. Fast-paced with some original touches to the martial arts. Killer moves, killer comedy and a big scary dude.
Serial bandit White Tiger (Shun-Yee Yuen, Once Upon a Time in China, The Close Encounters of Vampire) and his wife (Kar-Fung Kam) are on the run and they come across a restaurant. Thinking they have given the law the slip, they decide to have a rest and get some food. Something doesn’t seem right, there are too many cooks and waiters, and they are all male. This is a sting, the police pounce, and our first action is under way. There are many police dead, but so is White Tiger’s wife, and the last thing he hears when the dust settles is the bell around his wife’s ankle.
In a near-by town is Mousy (Biao Yuen, Project A, Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars, Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain) a laundry man, who is in business with his sister (Lily Li, Swordsman and Enchantress, The Perfect Wife). It is time to pay up, but the problem with Mousy is that he lives up to his name, no-one will pay-up. His sister punishes him by making him do the rinsing out, with just his two fingers, ouch.
Meanwhile, a very angry White Tiger has made it to town, he is beaten up, and he heads to the famous physician Wong Fei-Hung (Tak-Hing Kwan, The Hidden Dagger, The Skyhawk)(one of his 77 appearances of the famous physician, and Martial artist) and his student Leung Foon (Ka-Yan Leung, 10 Brothers of Shaolin, The Postman Strikes Back). Fei-Hung soon sorts out the injured man, who goes and hides amongst the myriad of people of the local theatre troupe.
Mousy returns to the theatre to collect his money, this time he is backed up by his friend Foon. During the persuasion, White Tiger hears Mousy’s family lucky charm, a silver bell around his neck, and this reminds White Tiger of his wife’s violent death. He must take out his rage on this scaredy-cat.
Dreadnaught is an innovative Martial Arts film, with some amazing choreography, and stunts, the lion fighting is just something else.
Out now on Blu-ray, it is a must for fans of Martial Arts.
Dreadnaught is available on Blu-ray.
SPECIAL EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES
Limited Edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Darren Wheeling [First Print Run of 2000 copies only] | Reversible sleeve design featuring original poster artwork | Original Cantonese mono audio | Optional English dubbed audio | Optional English Subtitles, newly translated for this release | Brand new feature length audio commentary by Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival) | Brand new feature length audio commentary by action cinema experts Mike Leeder & Arne Venema | Archival interview with actress Lily Li (21 mins) | Trailers | PLUS: A Limited-Edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing by James Oliver [First Print Run of 2000 copies only] | *All extras subject to change
Director | Woo-Ping Yuen |
Genre | Action, Comedy, Horror |
Starring | Yuen Biao, Bryan Leung, Kwan Tak-hing, Philip Ko, Yuen Shun-yee |
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