Heart of Dragon

Infobox Film
name = Heart of Dragon


caption = UK DVD cover
director = Sammo Hung
Fruit Chan
producer = Lam Chua
Wu Ma
writer = Barry Wong
narrator =
starring = Sammo Hung
Jackie Chan
Emily Chu
Lam Ching Ying
James Tien
Yuen Wah
music = Lam Man Yee
cinematography = Arthur Wong
editing =
distributor =
released = 1985
runtime = 98 mins
country = Hong Kong
language = Cantonese
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:118409
imdb_id = 0091427

"Heart of Dragon" (zh-c|c=龍的心|cy="Long De Xin") is a 1985 Hong Kong action film directed by Sammo Hung, assisted by Fruit Chan.Sammo stars as Danny / Do-do, a man with a mental illness, cared for by his brother Tat, played by co-star Jackie Chan. Yuen Biao assisted Hung with the action choreography, though did not appear in the film.

It is also known by the titles "Heart of the Dragon", "The First Mission" and "Powerman III".

The final scenes were filmed on the building site that was later to become the Regal Riverside Hotel in Sha Tin.

Background

The film is unusual in that although featuring Sammo Hung and Lam Ching Ying, two actors famed for their kung fu abilities, neither actually perform any martial arts. Golden Harvest had wanted Hung to perform fight scenes in the film, but he refused, rationalising "My character was mentally retarded, mentally disabled, so how can you ask me to fall down and suddenly become well again? And fight? They knew my fighting skills and wanted me to be part of the action but I thought that would have completely destroyed the tone of the film, the principles behind the film." [cite video
people = Sammo Hung
title = Heart of Dragon, "Different Strokes" interview with Sammo Hung
medium = DVD
publisher = Contender Entertainment Group
date = August 2004]

The action is left to Chan and his fellow CID officers, Mang Hoi, Yuen Wah, Chan Lung and Corey Yuen. Despite the relative lack of action scenes, the film was nominated for the Best Action Coreography award at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 1986. It was beaten by another Chan film, "Police Story".

The bad guys are led by James Tien and include Dick Wei, Chung Fat, Phillip Ko and Sau Leung Ko (aka Blacky Ko). The film also features a small role for Wu Ma as a restaurant owner, and like My Lucky Stars, Sammo Hung's real-life brother makes a cameo appearance as a henchman.

Versions

As this was intended as a dramatic film, showing a different side of Hung's acting abilities, it contains comparatively few action scenes. Two additional fight scenes were filmed, but these were cut from both the domestic Hong Kong print and the international print of the film. Due to the demands of certain markets, these scenes were included in some prints of the film, notably the Japanese release. They are included as additional features on the US, UK and Australian DVD releases of the film.

Awards and nominations

* 1986 Hong Kong Film Awards
** Won: Best Original Film Song - for the song "Sui Hoh Seung Yi" ("Who Could Be Dependent").(Lam Man Yee - music, Poon Yuen-Leung - lyrics, Noi So - performer)
** Nominated: Best Action Choreography
** Nominated: Best Director (Sammo Hung)
** Nominated: Best Actor (Jackie Chan)
** Nominated: Best Original Film Score (Lam Man Yee)

References

ee also

* Jackie Chan filmography

External links

*imdb title|id=0091427|title=Heart of Dragon