HEART OF DRAGON (1985) **

Jackie Chan stars as Ted, a hotshot cop who spends most of his off-duty time caring for his childlike brother Dodo (Sammo Hung), who has special needs.  Keeping tabs on his brother is so exhausting that it makes Ted want to run away and join the Navy, so he doesn’t have to put up with Dodo’s shenanigans.  However, when Dodo is kidnapped by criminals, the dutiful Ted runs to his rescue.

Even though Jackie Chan is the star of Heart of Dragon, most of the screen time is devoted to Hung hanging around with a group of kids who act like an Asian version of The Little Rascals.  Their misadventures (going to a restaurant without being able to pay, coercing Hung into posing as a kid’s father when he gets in trouble at school, etc.) are OK, but it really comes at the expense of the action.  

Speaking of action, most of the Kung Fu stuff is limited to the beginning and end of the film.  Jackie gets a bombastic Ramboesque opening sequence that turns out to be nothing more than a training mission.  There’s also a good car vs. motorcycles chase scene that feels like something out of a Police Story sequel.  The finale, set in a building under construction, is more violent than your typical Chan movie, and involves him slicing people with machetes, stabbing them with crowbars, and shooting them in cold blood.  These events are rather shocking, and lack the carefree fun of his stunt-heavy best work.

Still, Jackie and Sammo are quite good together.  Easily the best scene in the movie is when Chan finds Hung’s tutor belittling him for his condition.  Even though many of the scenes of the brothers squabbling are unnecessarily maudlin, this moment when he stands up for his brother strikes the right dramatic balance that the rest of the film fails to achieve.  

Then, there’s the overlong and bizarre denouement featuring Chan going to prison for acting above the law.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before in an action movie, and with good reason too.  It just sucks the life out of the film and makes the last ten minutes a chore to get through. 

AKA:  First Mission.  AKA:  Heart of the Dragon.  AKA:  Powerman 3.