Revenge of the Green DragonsAmerica is called the "land of opportunity"; but for some that opportunity is nothing but another smash and grab. Revenge of the Green Dragons is a crime movie set in Queens, New York during the Eighties; it is based on true events, and depicts the violence, drug dealing, and human trafficking in the Chinese underworld during that time. The film follows Sonny (Justin Chon), a rising member of the Dragons, who is introduced to the gang by his adoptive brother, Steven (Kevin Wu), when they were children. The two brothers find confidence in the dark embrace of the criminal gang, but learn that their trust is an illusion--and that they are disposable to their new family.
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Revenge of the Green Dragons is co-directed by Andrew Lau, who also directed Internal Affairs, which was later remade by Martin Scorsese as The Departed; coincidentally, Scorsese was an executive producer of this film. Like The Departed, Revenge of the Green Dragons deals with a group of criminals bound together by their community, who exploit the ease of building a criminal empire in America, and feature protagonists who are forced to reconsider their values in the face of unconscionable brutality. If Revenge of the Green Dragons has a spiritual precursor, it is Brian De Palma's Scarface; both films take place during an influx of immigration into the United States at the start of the Eighties, and chronicle the political coverage of it in a similar fashion. The contentious issue of immigration is a key theme in Revenge of the Green Dragons, though the film does not advocate for or against one position or another--it merely depicts what follows. Both Sonny and Steven are smuggled into the U.S. as children--along with many other Chinese--by an enigmatic woman known only as the "Snake Head" (Eugenia Yuan), who works alongside the urbane and educated head of the Green Dragons, Paul Wong (Harry Shum, Jr.). They know nothing of the true reason they have been brought en masse to America in their naive innocence, which amounts to creating a niche for surrogate crime warlords like Wong to exploit--the Chinese who populate Flushing, New York with restaurants and mahjong parlors still have to pay "protection money" to gangs like the Dragons. The Dragons are just an upstart gang at first, getting their kicks by picking on kids like Steven, who is folded into the gang after they humiliate and abuse him, showing up later with sneering confidence in their trademark letterman jacket. He convinces Sonny to join his newfound lifestyle, and escape his inevitable slavery as an illegal immigrant. It's shocking to see Steven transform into a little punk almost overnight, until the gang's commanding lieutenant, Ah Chung (Leonard Wu)--a.k.a. "Dai Lo", or "Big Brother"--points out that he can either grow old like Steven's mother, or finding freedom and independence in a life of crime with his new "family". It is the offer a wide-eyed kid with dreams of being powerful could never decline, and recalls the infamous line from Milton: "It is better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven".
Revenge of the Green Dragons does nothing to engender sympathy for the cruel and corrupt punks which swell the eponymous gang's ranks; yet Sonny finds his identity within its shadowy embrace, proving himself by killing a rival of Paul's when he is a boy. Sonny and Steven live the high life, partying all night; Sonny is drawn to the beautiful Tina (Shuya Chang), who the daughter of a performer to whom Paul owes a debt. Sonny shields Tina from a spray of gunfire during a raid on their club by a rival gang known as the "White Tigers", and they develop a relationship afterwards, in spite of her protestations against dating one of the Dragons. Steven is wounded in the shootout and craves vengeance, losing control to his violent impulses. Sonny and Steven feel the pangs of morality creeping in after all their years in the Dragons; Sonny discovers what a cold-blooded opportunist Paul really is, while Steven's rage--fostered through the years by the Dragons--becomes an uncontrollable force, what Paul calls a "death wish". There is a pervading sense that a terrible storm is brewing in New York. The sole Chinese-American cop assigned to the Chinese gang violence, Detective Tang (Jin Auyeung), has doors slammed in his face by the Dragons when he investigates the mutilated body of a member of the White Tigers. FBI Agent Michael Bloom (Ray Liotta) leads a personal crusade to curtail the rise of illegal alien crime in the United States, and joins forces with Tang. They coordinate a task force to put an end to Snake Head and her sophisticated trafficking ring, despite her outward appearance as a grocery store proprietor. Bloom's attitude toward immigration would superficially peg him as a racist, paranoid of minorities storming the shores of New York to inject crime and terror into the lives of upstanding citizens. But the horrifying brutality of the Dragons and their peers only strengthens his argument that this problem won't just go away by turning a blind eye. Sonny's tragedy is the loss of his innocence at a young age, and the knowledge that by joining the Dragons to become powerful and independent, he has only traded one set of shackles for another. He will always be just one more tile in the ruthless game of mahjong which people like Paul Wong play with human lives.
Recommended for: Fans of a cautionary tale about the dangers of selling your birthright--as is often the case with gangs--and a commentary about the paradigm of criminality that flourishes in marginalized communities. Revenge of the Green Dragons exploresn a world where everything from illegal immigration, racism, and insufficient police oversight are stirred together into a volatile concoction, ready to explode.
Revenge of the Green Dragons does nothing to engender sympathy for the cruel and corrupt punks which swell the eponymous gang's ranks; yet Sonny finds his identity within its shadowy embrace, proving himself by killing a rival of Paul's when he is a boy. Sonny and Steven live the high life, partying all night; Sonny is drawn to the beautiful Tina (Shuya Chang), who the daughter of a performer to whom Paul owes a debt. Sonny shields Tina from a spray of gunfire during a raid on their club by a rival gang known as the "White Tigers", and they develop a relationship afterwards, in spite of her protestations against dating one of the Dragons. Steven is wounded in the shootout and craves vengeance, losing control to his violent impulses. Sonny and Steven feel the pangs of morality creeping in after all their years in the Dragons; Sonny discovers what a cold-blooded opportunist Paul really is, while Steven's rage--fostered through the years by the Dragons--becomes an uncontrollable force, what Paul calls a "death wish". There is a pervading sense that a terrible storm is brewing in New York. The sole Chinese-American cop assigned to the Chinese gang violence, Detective Tang (Jin Auyeung), has doors slammed in his face by the Dragons when he investigates the mutilated body of a member of the White Tigers. FBI Agent Michael Bloom (Ray Liotta) leads a personal crusade to curtail the rise of illegal alien crime in the United States, and joins forces with Tang. They coordinate a task force to put an end to Snake Head and her sophisticated trafficking ring, despite her outward appearance as a grocery store proprietor. Bloom's attitude toward immigration would superficially peg him as a racist, paranoid of minorities storming the shores of New York to inject crime and terror into the lives of upstanding citizens. But the horrifying brutality of the Dragons and their peers only strengthens his argument that this problem won't just go away by turning a blind eye. Sonny's tragedy is the loss of his innocence at a young age, and the knowledge that by joining the Dragons to become powerful and independent, he has only traded one set of shackles for another. He will always be just one more tile in the ruthless game of mahjong which people like Paul Wong play with human lives.
Recommended for: Fans of a cautionary tale about the dangers of selling your birthright--as is often the case with gangs--and a commentary about the paradigm of criminality that flourishes in marginalized communities. Revenge of the Green Dragons exploresn a world where everything from illegal immigration, racism, and insufficient police oversight are stirred together into a volatile concoction, ready to explode.