The Iron Dragon Strikes Back

Released in Hong Kong as The Gold Connection, this is an interesting Noir about three friends discovering a gold crate during a diving. The gold belong to a Triad gang... Effectively directed by HK Horror helmer Kuei Chi Hung, the movie is a surprisingly good entry for Bruce Li/Ho Tsung Tao who plays a martial art films coreographer. The always good Hon Kwok Choi plays the imprudent hero's friend who leads the Triad to find out who took the gold. The great Ko Fei is the Triad assassin and he has an incredible fight against Bruce Li that ends with a terrific neck-crushing kick that I saw just in this and in The Expendables (the kick Jet Li uses to kill Gary Daniels), so I wonder if that Expendables moment is stolen from this Hong Kong movie. All in all an involving Martial Arts Noir with a very pessimistic ending. HK legend Walter Cho Tat Wah has a cameo as a Wuxiapian (Swordplay) actor on the set where Bruce Li works as coreographer. Don't be fooled by the idiotic english title Iron Dragon strikes back: no Iron Dragon here, just a top-notch action thriller with a fine camerawork, dazzling action and a bitter mediation about friendship and about the consequences of living in a dark society where the myth of easy money leads to death.