Today’s quick review: Legend of the Red Dragon. Seven years after their village was massacred for defying the Emperor, Kwun (Jet Li) travels with his son Ting (Miu Tse), practicing martial arts along the way. While working as a bodyguard, Kwun confronts a con artist (Chingmy Yau) and her mother (Deannie Ip). But the enemies become allies when the traitor Ying Lee (Chunhua Ji) comes looking for a map to a Shaolin treasure for the government.
Legend of the Red Dragon is a martial arts action movie starring Jet Li. The story follows the adventures of a father-son duo who are in hiding from the Imperial Chinese government. What follows is an eclectic mixture father-son bonding, childhood bullying, low-grade criminal antics, resistance to an oppressive government, and fantasy-tinged martial arts. Legend of the Red Dragon has its moments but it is much more uneven than similar films.
Legend of the Red Dragon has plenty of action, but it is less focused than other martial arts movies. The individual fights include one-on-one fights between Kwun and the con artist, contests between Ting and his bullies, brawls with Imperial troops, and fantasy-laden fights with the supernaturally augmented Ying Lee. The stunts are creative and executed well, but the fantasy elements are haphazardly chosen, resulting in some odd conflicts.
The story suffers from a similar lack of focus, chasing tangents that have only a partial connection to the main plot. The premise—a father and son on the run from soldiers and forced to take odd jobs to survive—is a promising one, but the drops it quickly as first the con artist duo and then Ying Lee show up to disrupt the plot. Likewise, Ting’s conflicts with the local children and a plot point about hidden Shaolin treasure never quite fit.
Legend of the Red Dragon is a fairly entertaining watch for fans of the martial arts genre, but both its action and its story are uneven. Those willing to go along for the ride will enjoy the quality of its stunts and the creativity it shows. However, the movie finds itself outclassed by other martial arts films that are more cohesive.
For a more grounded martial arts drama starring Jet Li, try Fearless. For a martial arts action movie that makes better use of the fantastic, check out Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or Hero. For a ridiculous martial arts comedy that parodies the quirks of the genre, try Kung Pow: Enter the Fist. For a father-son story set in Prohibition-era America, check out Road to Perdition.
[6.4 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110054/). I give it a 6.0 to 6.5 for eclectic action and storytelling.