Golden Dragon, Silver Snake (1980; Kim Si-yeon; South Korea)

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Killer Meteor
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Golden Dragon, Silver Snake (1980; Kim Si-yeon; South Korea)

Post by Killer Meteor »

For some reason, people keep getting me this one for Christmas and birthdays. It's like when you keep getting those cheap knock-offs of Disney movies as a kid.

Anyway, this is a seriously lame Dragon Lee offering, ripping off the Way of the Dragon plot where gangsters go to ludicrous lengths to get a titchy bit of real estate (in this case a farm) that can't possibly be worth the trouble. Maybe real gangsters do this, but it doesn't make for great cinema.

Since comedy kung fu was all the rage, we have South Korea's Jackie Chan clone, Johnny Chan, joining the fray. Oh, and a sifu character who manages to clone Dean Shek more than Yuen Siu-tien. Johnny Chan is less one for throwing himself off high ledges and more for goofing around with eggs.

The fights are many but fairly hopeless. Blows frequently miss, the undercranking creates a Keystone Kops look, and the squeaky sound effects would shame a kid's show. As a wacky form of damage control, someone inserted a random fight scene from Dragon on Fire, with the usual HK sound effects but new dubbing. This fight didn't actually feature Dragon Lee, instead showing another Bruce double (!) and Cheung Nick fighting Samuel Walls, so random shots of Dragon Lee grinning absurdly are spliced in!

This film's Special Guest HK Villain is Chiang Tao, who besides the free water skiing holiday gets a special birthday party from his fellow gangsters. Maybe real gangsters do this, but it doesn't make for great cinema.

Probably the saddest part of the movie is seeing Gam Kei-chu as the final boss. An intimidating and charismatic antagonist in King Boxer and When Taekwondo Strikes, here he looks tired and drunk, rather like I feel after watching sour cheese like this!
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Masterofoneinchpunch
King of Beggars
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Re: Golden Dragon, Silver Snake (1980; Kim Si-yeon; South Korea)

Post by Masterofoneinchpunch »

It is funny seeing Dean Shek clones at the time. Shek can be annoying enough. This film sounds pretty bad. Only one review on HKMDB. Yours is definitely better than the one there.
Killer Meteor
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Re: Golden Dragon, Silver Snake (1980; Kim Si-yeon; South Korea)

Post by Killer Meteor »

This film can sound bad literally, too! The print on the US video releases left the voice of the sound engineer on it!
bradavon wrote:
but I guess you're more intelligence than me.
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Markgway
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Re: Golden Dragon, Silver Snake (1980; Kim Si-yeon; South Korea)

Post by Markgway »

30 years ago in a basement somewhere...........


Steve the producer: Bob, you left your voice on the track again.

Bob the engineer: Who gives a shit? No sane person will ever watch this crap!
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Killer Meteor
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Re: Golden Dragon, Silver Snake (1980; Kim Si-yeon; South Korea)

Post by Killer Meteor »

Funnily enough, there is a very recent picture of Dean Shek on his Wikipedia page. It's been so long since I saw a film of his, I was worrying the triads got him!
bradavon wrote:
but I guess you're more intelligence than me.
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