This movie is available for purchase at www.sensasian.com

Rating:

7

AKA: Dragon Loaded 2, Dragon Re-Loaded

Year of release: 2005

Genre: comedy

Director: Vincent Kok

Action director: Yeung Tak Ngai

Producers: Vincent Kok, Paco Wong

Writers: Vincent Kok, Patrick Kong

Music: Raymond Wong

Stars: Ronald Cheng, Sam Lee, Cheung Tat-Ming, Miki Yeung, Tang Jin-Fung, Ha Yue, Ken Lo, Mimi Chu, Jimmy Wong, Guy Lai, Liu Fan

Rated IIB for language and crude humor

DVD Information

Company: Mei Ah

Format: widescreen

Languages: Cantonese, Mandarin

Subtitles: Chinese, English

Extras: deleted scenes, bloopers, making-of featurette, trailers

Notes: A solid 2-disc set.

Related links:

Sam Lee biography
Movie Review index
Main Page

Dragon Reloaded

The sequel to 2003's surprise hit Dragon Loaded has Ronald Cheng reprising his role as Dragon, a cop who has become very successful despite the fact that he's just not that smart or good at his job. Along with his buddies Gold (Cheung Tat-Ming) and Hei (Sam Lee), Dragon runs his local precinct like a massage parlor, while also appearing as the host of a "America's Most Wanted" type TV show. The trio decides to take a break from "work" and go on vacation with their former boss (Tang Jin-Fung) to a village on a remote island. While there, the village's valuable Goddess Statue is stolen, and the bumbling cops get blamed for the heist. To avoid a scandal, the group is re-assigned to the island until the statue is found.

Dragon Reloaded's fairly thin plot is just mostly an excuse for Ronald Cheng to run around and act like a nut. He has quickly become one of Hong Kong's top comedic actors, but much like most any popular HK star, fans tend to either love or hate him. The haters point out that he's really doing nothing more than ripping off Stephen Chow's "nonsense comedy" schtick while being really annoying at the same time. I do agree that Cheng does use "moy len tau" -- most of the comedy is based on Cantonese wordplay and parodies of both Western (Harry Potter, Boogie Nights) and Chinese (Mr. Vampire) movies.

However, I personally don't find Ronald Cheng all that annoying, especially when compared with some other Cantonese comedians, whose antics often tend to grate on Western viewers. Perhaps it's because I haven't seen Cheng in too many movies and so he hasn't worn out his welcome, but I found him an endearing enough lead that I was able to forgive some of the jokes that fell flat or simply flew over my head due to my lack of fluency in Cantonese. With a solid supporting cast and some truly funny gags (I really enjoyed the part where some undercover SDU cops adopted the names of various movie directors), Dragon Reloaded is one of the better Hong Kong comedies I've seen in quite some time -- though, like most HK comedies, those who are new to the genre aren't likely to get most of the jokes. But for those who have already gotten their feet wet, Dragon Reloaded is well worth your time.