|
Year of the Dragon (1985)
Starring Mickey Rourke, John Lone, Ariane, and Ray Barry. Cinematography by Alex Thomson. Edited by Noëlle Boisson and Françoise Bonnot. Produced by Dino De Laurentiis. Written by Oliver Stone and Michael Cimino. Directed by Michael Cimino.
Power is shifting in New York’s Chinatown. The murder of crimelord Jackie Wong has left the heads of the criminal underworld in chaos. Through the madness a new leader has immerged; Joey Tai. Tai is young, ambitious, and extremely violent. On the other end of the law is Stanley White. White is an angry Vietnam veteran who hides his hatred and racism behind his badge. Just recently appointed to captain of the fifth prescient, White has vowed to clean up his territory starting at the top. He starts by closing the restaurants that act as fronts for criminal activities on health code violations and then moves underground to the gambling parlors and sweat shops. But White’s ambition doesn’t slow down Joey Thai. He has made arrangements with a drug lord in Thailand to import hundreds of kilos of heroin that he hopes will give him the power to rule Chinatown.
Director Michael Cimino had become Hollywood’s golden child after the critical and financial success of his Vietnam epic The Deer Hunter in 1978, but only two years later he was nearly run out of town after the unprecedented failure of his next project, Heaven’s Gate; a film that almost single-handedly shut down United Artists. Still ripe with ambition, Cimino would make his comeback effort five years later with Year of the Dragon. Based on the 1981 Robert Daley novel by the same name, Year of the Dragon had been offered to Cimino a number of times before he finally accepted it under the condition that he could write the screenplay himself. But unbeknownst to him, MGM had already scheduled a start date for the production before he even took the job. With only a limited amount of time available to him to write an acceptable screenplay, he called on his friend Oliver Stone to come in and help him assemble the screenplay.
Stone, who still hot from the success of Scarface, had met Cimino through his screenplay for Platoon. Stone eventually agreed to work on Year of the Dragon with the condition that Dino De Laurentiis, the film’s producer, would put up five million dollars for Platoon. When Stone and Cimino completed the screenplay, Stone headed down to the Philippines to begin pre-production for Platoon. With the film cast and the locations scouted, Stone was suddenly hit with the news that though De Laurentiis had the money, he could not find anyone to distribute the film. On top of that, De Laurentiis claimed that because he had financed Stone’s trip to the Philippines he would control the screenplay for Platoon until he was repaid. Ultimately the threat of litigation returned the script into the worthy hands of Stone. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Year of the Dragon would go on to find modest success, but would not end up being the catalyst for Cimino’s renaissance as he had hoped. If you’re looking for a Chinese crime film that has virtually no hand to hand combat, look no further.
Budget: ???
Total US Gross: $18,707,466
Genre: Crime
Runtime: 134 Minutes
US Release Date: 8/16/85
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Awards: Golden Globes: Nominated for best supporting actor and best original score.
Tagline: It Isn’t The Bronx or Brooklyn, It Isn’t EvenNew York. It’s Chinatown… And It’s About To Explode.
Quote: “You people, you think that gambling, extortion, corruption are kosher because it’s a thousand years old? Well, all this thousand year old stuff; it’s a lot of shit to me. This is America you’re living in, and its two hundred years old, so you better get your clocks fixed.”
|
