After watching this film, it felt like I watched a thirteen parts TV series that was just compressed into a two hours movie. As a biographical tale based on the true story of "Crippled Ho," there's a lot that happens in this movie that covers multiple years worth of story. Yet it still tried to cram all that into a feature length film. Did it succeed in condensing all that material into a satisfying narrative? Yes and No.
I suppose the important thing about this movie is that it gets the point of the story across, and in many ways it did. I may wish that it would have elaborated on certain plots introduced in the story more, but I did in fact comprehend the overall story of what happened, and that seems to be all that Writer-Director Jing Wong is truly concerned about. Because of how it just goes through all that story in a short time frame though, it did feel like I was just watching a plot summary, as opposed to this epic crime drama that it tries to be. I dare say that an extra 40 - 60 minutes would have been welcome.
For those unfamiliar with the corruption found in Hong Kong during the 60s and 70s, which involved law enforcement, drug dealers, the British colonial rule, this movie should be a decent introduction to that interesting era in time. That setting is really more a backdrop to the characters of Crippled Ho; played by Donnie Yen, and Lee Rock, played by Andy Lau. The camaraderie of this powerful drug lord and the influential Chief Detective Sargeant, is what's truly at the core of this movie. The way this film depicts their relationship does work more or less, but once again without further expositions and elaborated plot details, I truly only cared about them in superficial levels.
Although the final execution of "Chasing The Dragon" wasn't as ideal as I hoped it would be, it was still an entertaining movie, with some good action sequences. By far though, the performance of Donnie Yen alone should be worth checking this out. Plus it's hard to deny that the true story this film is based on is definitely fascinating to be exposed to nonetheless.
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