Heart of Dragon (1985)

Not enough! Not enough of the “exhilaration” expected from a Jackie film. Not enough of Sammo in action. Not enough good humor. Good , but not great.

Story & Writing:
The premise is interesting: a cop is torn between pursuing his lifelong dream of becoming a sailor or taking care of his adult mentally deficient brother, who seems to have gotten entangled with mobsters, but it is a letdown.
It takes 55 minutes until the action or any development in the plot starts. Before that, it is mainly the setup and introduction, with lots of uninteresting scenes of Sammo Hung’s character playing with the neighborhood children.
The writing seems to fluctuate between the two story arcs, Jackie’s dilemma and the missing jewels of the local gang. Too much importance is given to Sammo being a kid and not enough to maintaining a tight fast moving plot. In addition, the humor is not funny.

Action Scenes:
The action can never be disappointing in a Jackie and Sammo film, and here Sammo Hung directed. So, of course there are several extraordinary stunts, with the trademark Jackie style. However, the only memorable action is in the finally sequence where Jackie fights the mobsters in order to save and free his brother. Sammo, unfortunately, does not have enough action scenes.

Conclusion:
I am not “wowed”. Overall the action is good, entertaining, with a very good final action sequence. The attempt at humor is tedious. Nothing else is noteworthy.

Special Note: Jackie kisses his onscreen GF. I have not seen Jackie kiss on screen before.

Disclaimer:
I watched the English dubbed version, I am sure that takes away from the film.

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