Dragons Forever (Chinese: 飛龍猛將) is a 1988 Hong Kong martial arts action comedy film directed by Sammo Hung, who also co-stars in the film alongside Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao. The three actors, known colloquially as the Three Brothers, had attended the famous China Drama Academy together, and became members of the Seven Little Fortunes. This is the last film to date that all three have appeared in together.[1] It was directed by Sammo Hung and another former member of the Seven Little Fortunes, Corey Yuen (aka Yuen Kwai). Yet another classmate, Yuen Wah, plays the film's main villain, while legendary kickboxer Benny Urquidez plays his right-hand man. Dragons Forever was filmed between September and November 1987.
This documentary was taken from the Hong Kong Legends Platinum DVD release of Dragons Forever.
On the Hong Kong Legends DVD release of Dragons Forever, Hong Kong cinema expert Bey Logan offers his opinion on why the film underperformed both in the domestic and Japanese markets. The primary reason cited is that the actors played roles against type. Jackie Chan plays a slick lawyer who chases women, in contrast to the happy-go-lucky everyman characters he usually plays.[3][4] Similarly, Yuen Biao plays an eccentric and possibly mentally disturbed character, rather than the underdog character fans were used to. For Sammo Hung, rather than the timid character that has been described in earlier films, he instead plays like a rascal. Logan explains that in general, the cinema going public in Hong Kong are not as open to such departures of role as, perhaps, Western audiences would be.
Additional reasons cited include the occasional use of coarse language in the film, and the scenes of narcotics production, particularly Hung's character being injected with drugs against his will. The fact that Chan's character has a relationship with a woman may also have had an effect, particularly in the Japanese market, as many female viewers could not accept that their idol was not single. On learning that Chan was in a relationship in real life, one Japanese fan had committed suicide, and another poisoned herself in the offices of Golden Harvest.
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