Dragon Eyes: Van Damme Done Right

When I saw the preview for Dragon Eyes, I became extremely excited. I haven’t seen a decent looking Jean-Claude Van Damme movie preview in years. I might even venture to say that one would have to go as far back as Time Cop in order to see Jean-Claude in anything resembling his former glory: actiony greatness. Several years ago I had a Jean-Claude marathon of what were, at the time, his latest films. But they were pretty bad. Strictly B-Movie, and they didn’t pull you in to the satisfyingly transparent plot that all of these things are equipped with. The action movie is the masculine equivalent of the chick-flick romantic comedy. Also, during this regrettable movie marathon, there was barely any action. Ridiculous… considering that’s the whole point of watching a Jean-Claude film. You want to see him kicking the asses of others. You will probably also want to see him overcoming injustice and doing the splits… or whatever, but those are just add-ons to the first thing.

Now, while there was a distinct lack of Jean-Claude in this movie—he only has a sort of mentorship role to the main protagonist who he meets and protects in prison—the action more than makes up for his absence. The violence is appropriately severe. I didn’t find it boring or obvious like some of the over-used clichés that we’ve all seen before. But I also didn’t find it horrifying, which is good. I would rather keep my responses to the action within the levels of yelling “oh damn!” at the screen, as opposed to vomiting into my popcorn. So thank you, filmmakers, for keeping it “real” (but not too real). Seriously, I still spazz out in guttural shiver moans whenever I think of American History X—bleaugh.

But let’s get to the story. Here’s the main situation. Mr. Hong (Cung Le) arrives in prison and is nearly killed on his first day, but Tiano (Jean-Claude Van Damme) steps in and kicks the attacker square in the face. Shortly thereafter we see Mr. Hong, newly released from prison, driving a bad-ass classic car into a very dangerous neighborhood. He inquires about an apartment for rent. On his way back to the car, the local hoodlums get in his face and threaten him. He destroys them, even though he is unarmed and they all carry guns. It is clear that Mr. Hong is here for some purpose, but it’s hard to figure out just what that might be. He keeps to himself, and he is disciplined and seems to follow some sort of code. In a town like St. Jude, full of drug dealers and corrupt cops, how long can a person like Mr. Hong survive? And is he, an ex-con, really so honorable?

This film was very quiet and long. It confused me initially because I knew, based on what was going on, that I was supposed to be bored. I should’ve been bored. But somehow I was drawn in. And then it hit me. This film is stylized to feel like one of those samurai/western animes. Not in a cheesy way, but in an effective way. This is pretty impressive when you consider that there are horrible live-action adaptations of this form—such as Sukiyaki Western Django or Bunraku, which actually were pretty epic but tended to drag time-wise and incorporated over the top, almost operatic elements that felt indulgent and distracting at times. Dragon Eyes strays from that type. Instead, it feels more like something along the vein of Afro Samurai or Samurai Champloo. The subject matter is hard, and so are the characters, and there’s a strange soundtrack that pulses beneath things, but it’s also subdued and meditative. If I had to relate it to something more old-school (for our non-anime reader base), I would say it’s like a gang movie filmed by Sergio Leone and scored by the RZA (think hip-hop Samurai).

But no matter what movies the stylings of Dragon Eyes were inspired by, it is original and moving. The quiet strength of the protagonist inspires us all, and Jean Claude is excellent in the mentor role. There are a lot of flashbacks, but they are incorporated smoothly and work within the genre style that this film adheres to. So even though flashbacks are usually wise to avoid, I would definitely recommend studying the ones in this film, as they actually added depth without detracting from things. This movie is slow-paced, but it extremely watchable—especially if you are into “dude movies.” And make that doubly-especially if you are into samurai or cowboy dude movies. Definitely, check it out.