Year of the Dragon (1985)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1985
	Director: Michael Cimino (The Deer Hunter)
	Actors: Mickey Rourke (Angel Heart, Sin City 1-2, Iron Man 2, The Expendables), John Lone (Rush Hour 2), Ariane Koizumi
	Country: USA, F
	Genre: Polar
	Conditions of visioning: 28.06.2015, DVD, 11" computer screen
Synopsis: Stankey White (Rourke) is put in charge of cleaning up Chinatown from young gangs, but he will go beyond that and confront the well-established triads.
Review: A very complex story based on a novel by Robert Daley and adapted for the big screen by Oliver Stone (Platoon). What I appreciated in this movie are the setting in the 80's New York and Chinatown in particular (or at least a well-rendered version of it) and the depth of the characters that are not as superficial as they can usually be in Hollywood movies. What I disliked is the editing when sometimes too elliptic (while the rest of the times it is excellent), the quite unrealistic romance story with the journalist (vs. the realistic one with his wife) and the acting of the until-then fashion model portraying her (Koizumi), also contrasting with the natural acting of everybody else. It is thus a movie of contrasts. Being used to seeing Mickey Rourke in recent big productions, I was pleased to see him as actor in the period when he was the good-looking bad-ass (well, he still is in a different style). The story is often dark and pessimistic and I know that the movie was neither a commercial nor critical success, but I liked its raw style of "Film Noir".
Rating: 7 /10