Dragon Lord, Jackie back again with the similar cast of The Young Master, the film was originally entitled ‘The Young Master in Love’ yet changed at last minute. Dragon (Jackie Chan), now an excellent sportsman and budding Martial Artist is getting himself in all kind’s of trouble when he falls in love with one of the village girls, Lai. Yet the same problem is shared by Bull (Mars) who happens to be Dragons best friend. Dragon gets in and out of trouble one many occasions, for example getting his teacher to write calligraphy for him whilst he goes out or secretly hidden the poems in his shoes so he can memorizes them when tested.
Bull, an young man manipulated by the western goods is surprisingly lively and often gets into trouble with Dragon. Dragon and Bulls love for Lai soon gets out of hand with the ‘Hero to the rescue’ stunt to help win Lai’s love. Yet Dragon fools him and ends up making Lai thinking that Bull is the enemy, Bull doesn’t take it too well and the two begin scrapping. Dragons and Bull’s friends attempt to pull the two apart but they still end up tearing each other part until Dragons Father appears on the scene. Bull being brought up different from others from his fathers work, being an English Consultant, Bull’s family often receive various western goods including a trouser zip’s, rifles, Telescopes, pocket watches and CANNON’s (trust me you need to see it for yourself).
The relationship between Dragon and Bull is strong, what ever predicament the two get into they always end up saving each other in the end. Yet both of them come across a beaten man, being chased by a gang of antique smugglers, led by a mysterious man (Wong In-Sik). The gang soon mistake the two friends as the man they were chasing and merely assaults them before realizing that they are in the wrong. The man leaves the two alone and wonders off, not before the two get to insult them, strangely enough they get away with it.
This film not only showing you some of Jackies fight skills but they also put him into the sporting scene. In the beginning of the movie you see Dragon’s team competing in the Sweet Bun competition, climbing a tower of Bamboo and outline with many Sweet Buns, the team must climb up, collect the golden Bun and return it to their camp and place it in their colored bag. This soon sets out to be a war seeing Dragon and his friends fight to get up the tower, we even see Dragon reach the top, then flung down back to the bottom (ouch! you need to see the landing). Not only was Dragon’s team in the Sweet Bun, they also played against The Killers in the finals of a Hackey Sack match. The Killers team leader turning out to be Fung Hakk-On. This match is a great example to show you all the skill, speed and agility of both teams. With Dragon’s team winning by an outstanding kick from the half way line straight into the goal. That sequence of Dragon scoring the winning goal had actually got Jackie into the Guinness World Record for the highest number of takes, if you want to know it was over 2900.
In the ending half hour of the film we get to see some explosive action sequences between Wong In-Sik and the two friends. With Bull’s father being included in the enemies group he is strung into this mess as well. After a dropping Bull’s father from a good in the barn, Bull looses his temper and jumps to conclusions, believing that his father is dead. But after both men give it all they got, they still don’t seem to be enough for Wong in-Sik. Dragon tells Bull that they should give up, but Bull explains to Dragon, why? Bull convinces Dragon to turn back and fight after a touching speech, what if it was your father Dragon? Would You run Away? You soon feel Dragons energy as he closes the door and stares deep into Wong In-Sik.
Dragon Lord seems to be the perfect mix of Martial Arts action, excellent sport sequences and another mere able fight sequence which will stand out clearly in Hong Kong Action Cinema from 1982 onwards!
