Revenge of the Green Dragons (2014)

Directed by: Andrew Lau / Andrew Loo
Country: USA / Hong Kong

Movie Review: Hong Kong filmmaker, Andrew Lau, achieved major success in 2002 with “Infernal Affairs”. After that accomplishment, his career has been punctuated with ups and downs. In the American-Chinese gangster story, “Revenge of the Green Dragons”, surprisingly executive produced by Martin Scorsese and based on true events, he got the company of co-writer Andrew Loo in direction, returning to the style he identifies himself the most: crime thriller. But instead of surprising us, Lau and Loo try to manipulate the viewer through repetitive words, moves, and postures coming from the obnoxious characters depicted. The narrative starts in 1983 in Flushing, Queens, where two undocumented immigrants and inseparable childhood friends, Sonny and Steven, join the criminal gang ‘Green Dragons’, encouraged by its charismatic leader Paul Wong whose bait consisted in ‘you can’t be anything but a fisherman in China’. The gang will have the fierce opposition of an FBI agent, performed in an unrefined way by Ray Liotta, who investigates a crime related to the New York’s Asian underworld. Stepping in adverse territories, “Revenge of the Green Dragons” is a depressing tale filled with cycles of violence, where the absence of creativity in the plot and taste in the execution, relegates it to those C-action movies where there’s no message and absolutely nothing to be learned. Its atrocious scenes are the only aspect that we furiously keep in mind. No positive things to take out from this weary gang scene.