User Reviews

JAWS OF THE DRAGON is an ultra-cheap kung fu flick, shot in South Korea and featuring a South Korean supporting cast. The film was directed by and stars former star James Nam. It's a movie that strives to have a gritty edge, depicting gang violence and retribution, but the whole thing feels rather amateurish and is let down by some very poor action sequences which just doesn't deliver the necessary good for the action fan. Listen out for the Bond theme being constantly ripped-off throughout.

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

*Plot and ending analyzed*

Jaws of the Dragon (1974)

Well, if you have no idea what is exactly happening in this movie in the first 20 minutes, don't feel bad. You are not alone. There are a bunch of 1970s guys that all look like a 1970s Bruce Lee. And they fight each other. And I mean constantly. Then a crime boss beats up or shoots some of his own henchmen because they failed him. There is also mention of heroin.

The scenes are very dark at times, so you have no clue to who is fighting with whom. Add to that a poorly lit disco where another fight occurs, over a woman. Apparently because she danced with an old friend (the hitman enforcer) and the thugs got jealous. Okay. The cameraman also zooms in and out trying to be cool and hip, but you only get dizzy.

Then the hitman enforcer is called by his boss to whack a woman. The boss asks him what he is doing, and the hitman enforcer tells him that he is reading. Actually he was in bed with the woman from the disco. Is that supposed to be funny? (?) For the record, I did not laugh. But I had to think about it for awhile. And he visits the heavily guarded property and hangs some sentry guard with a rope by putting it around his neck then jumping down from the tree. (?) He climbs the building and uses a ridiculous miniature bow and arrow to "assassinate" the woman who is taking a bath. He takes a photograph of her for "proof". Ostensibly, the hitman enforcer has no qualms about icing a woman. Nice guy. No morals. I probably won't be rooting for him in the movie. Or anybody for that matter. Why am I watching it?

Then right out of left field there appears an Asian female folk-singer at some club singing the most ear-wrenching songs ever. And they accompany flashbacks of people running in a grassy field.

And you can guess how the next excessively tedious one hour and eleven minutes go on and on. Then you can also guess how many guys get their teeth knocked out, or how many pounds of heroin are exchanged. Or how many women are insulted. Or how many of your brain cells have died from watching this movie.

And then you begin to wonder if it would not have been a better idea to have started reading the abridged book, "The History of the Insect World" instead of watching this movie.

Good luck.