Dragon Boys gets serious about action
JOHN DOYLE
Globe and Mail
January 5, 2007
Don't always believe what you read.
If you've read somewhere that Dragon Boys (CBC, Sunday and Monday, 8 p.m.) explores "themes relating to the immigrant experience, social dislocation, generational conflict within families . . .," don't be put off.
This is definitely not some worthy, earnest drama about multiculturalism in Canada today.
Well, it is about Canada today and the immigrant experience, sort of.
But it sure isn't earnest. Dragon Boys is a thriller. It's all action, all gloss and verve. It's a crisp, tough-minded roller-coaster drama about cops, criminals, dumb punks and ruthless no-goodniks. It's entertainment.
At the core of the two-part miniseries is a Chinese-Canadian RCMP detective, Tommy Jiang (Byron Mann), and an immigrant family who are drawn into a deadly confrontation with an Asian organized-crime gang. But that's just the core. There are numerous characters on the sidelines, all looking for an edge, revenge or just survival in a nasty gang war.
From the get-go, we are into the action. A creepy-looking guy turns up at some hoser's apartment, with a box of something to deliver. He says it's from somebody named "Movie Star" (Lawrence Chou) and, wouldn't you know it, all hell breaks loose. It turns out that Movie Star is a nasty piece of work, but far from the worst in the motley crew of bad guys.
One of Movie Star's favourite games is taunting Tommy Jiang. Meanwhile, Tommy has his own problems. His wife is angry and his ethnicity, his Chinese-Canadian status, seems to come to the surface in every personal and professional encounter. His wife sneers at him, "So you're out there like a Samurai warrior, taking them all on?" And Tommy can only reply, coldly: "Samurais are Japanese."
Tommy sees an opportunity to bring down a large part of the Asian-crime empire and play off one gangster, Movie Star, against the more established, more ruthless Willie the Duck (Eric Tsang). It's a slippery game, but not the only one that's going on. A Chinese-Canadian businessman, Tzi Ma (Henry Wah, from 24 and the films The Ladykillers and The Quiet American), wants a quiet life but his restless son has been drawn into gang warfare and he's desperate to save him. And then there's Steph (Chavy Pahn), a young woman who has paid money to get into Canada and then finds herself enslaved in a brothel. She's determined to get out.
Dragon Boys was written by Ian Weir and directed by Jerry Ciccoritti, who has enormous flair for potent television material. He made the original Trudeau miniseries and again, on Dragon Boys, he's very inventive. Famous for insisting on a particular "beat" to a production, Ciccoritti is a dab hand at keeping a pulsating rhythm going strong.
This miniseries is only to be taken seriously as a thriller. Yes, it has a state-of-Canada aspect, but it's about the action, not the solemnity that others might impose on it.
Globe and Mail
January 5, 2007
Don't always believe what you read.
If you've read somewhere that Dragon Boys (CBC, Sunday and Monday, 8 p.m.) explores "themes relating to the immigrant experience, social dislocation, generational conflict within families . . .," don't be put off.
This is definitely not some worthy, earnest drama about multiculturalism in Canada today.
Well, it is about Canada today and the immigrant experience, sort of.
But it sure isn't earnest. Dragon Boys is a thriller. It's all action, all gloss and verve. It's a crisp, tough-minded roller-coaster drama about cops, criminals, dumb punks and ruthless no-goodniks. It's entertainment.
At the core of the two-part miniseries is a Chinese-Canadian RCMP detective, Tommy Jiang (Byron Mann), and an immigrant family who are drawn into a deadly confrontation with an Asian organized-crime gang. But that's just the core. There are numerous characters on the sidelines, all looking for an edge, revenge or just survival in a nasty gang war.
From the get-go, we are into the action. A creepy-looking guy turns up at some hoser's apartment, with a box of something to deliver. He says it's from somebody named "Movie Star" (Lawrence Chou) and, wouldn't you know it, all hell breaks loose. It turns out that Movie Star is a nasty piece of work, but far from the worst in the motley crew of bad guys.
One of Movie Star's favourite games is taunting Tommy Jiang. Meanwhile, Tommy has his own problems. His wife is angry and his ethnicity, his Chinese-Canadian status, seems to come to the surface in every personal and professional encounter. His wife sneers at him, "So you're out there like a Samurai warrior, taking them all on?" And Tommy can only reply, coldly: "Samurais are Japanese."
Tommy sees an opportunity to bring down a large part of the Asian-crime empire and play off one gangster, Movie Star, against the more established, more ruthless Willie the Duck (Eric Tsang). It's a slippery game, but not the only one that's going on. A Chinese-Canadian businessman, Tzi Ma (Henry Wah, from 24 and the films The Ladykillers and The Quiet American), wants a quiet life but his restless son has been drawn into gang warfare and he's desperate to save him. And then there's Steph (Chavy Pahn), a young woman who has paid money to get into Canada and then finds herself enslaved in a brothel. She's determined to get out.
Dragon Boys was written by Ian Weir and directed by Jerry Ciccoritti, who has enormous flair for potent television material. He made the original Trudeau miniseries and again, on Dragon Boys, he's very inventive. Famous for insisting on a particular "beat" to a production, Ciccoritti is a dab hand at keeping a pulsating rhythm going strong.
This miniseries is only to be taken seriously as a thriller. Yes, it has a state-of-Canada aspect, but it's about the action, not the solemnity that others might impose on it.
posted by wontonguru @ 12:33 PM
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