Lung Wai (Ronald Cheng) is a rich, spoilt brat with nothing to do
with his time. However, he does like helping people and has a righteous
streak about him, and spends his existence with his two equally rich
friends, Ng (Sam Lee) and Gold (Cheung Tat Ming), buying expensive
cars and clothes.
When Lung's father Lung
Dai Sheung (Law Kar Ying) declares that he is to retire and hand
over the family business to his son, Lung Wai balks at the idea
and tells his father he would rather enlist in the police force.
This gives elder Lung an idea - if younger Lung graduates from the
police force with credentials, he would then give his entire fortune
to him, otherwise he would give it away to charity. A trick to force
his son into becoming a better man.
Ng and Gold's fathers join in the fun as well,
forcing their sons to enlist. At first, the three rich layabouts
find it difficult adapting to life in the police academy, but if
they can't leave by themselves, they decide to get the police force
to expel them instead. Cue plenty of mishaps as the three dream
up ideas of getting them expelled. But even their tutor Officer
Tang (Tang Chi Fung) can't expel them because police commissioner
Ting (Eric Tsang) is an old friend of Lung Dai Sheung and had promised
he would look after younger Lung.
Lung and his friends despair, but when Lung encounters
a young pretty recruit called Man-ching (Stephy Tang) he falls head
over heals in love. To gain her love and trust, he decides to graduate
alongside with her. Lung and his friends, along with Man-ching are
all transferred to another section headed by Madame Fong (Miriam
Yeung), and during these exercises each of them get a chance to
experience all the police duties such as surveillance, police tactical
unit, civil crowd control, traffic duty etc.
The rest of the movie follows Lung Wai's attempts
at trying to court Man-ching, but unfortunately for him, her father
is Commissioner Ting, who has a disliking for the rich kid. When
Man-ching is kidnapped, Lung gets the chance to prove what a hero
he truly is.
Dragon Loaded 2003 is your typical Hong Kong comedy
film. In that it is full of topical gags, references to other films,
and has loads of cameos. It may not make sense in some cases, and
some of the jokes are quite thin, but you cannot fault it for being
sincere and enjoyable. Most of the film is focused on Lung Wai and
his friends going through police training, and this is where most
of the jokes are based.
However, the film lacks substance and the plot
is wafer thin, and practically nothing really happens until the
final part. It's almost like a sit-com with a bit of action thrown
in as an afterthought. That's not to say the scenes aren't funny,
but that's pretty it for the film as a whole. There's also a few
spoofs on PTU, Bad Boys 2, Matrix, Bruce Lee and Jet Li.
There's memorable cameos from Vincent Kuk (who
directed, wrote and produced Dragon Loaded), Jacky Cheung, Miriam
Yeung, Mai Suet, and an absolutely superb role for Tang Chi Fung,
who is a veteran TVB actor. Ronald Cheng gives a great performance,
and his friends are capable as his funny sidekicks. Stephy Tang
(of Cookies fame) who plays Man-ching doesn't get to do a lot in
the film, but funnily she reminds me a bit of a young Moon Lee.
Anyway, Dragon Loaded may not suit Western audiences
because most of the jokes are topical, and the scene gags aren't
enough to warrant buying the film. There's not much else going for
it, but if you do get a chance to rent it or borrow it, do so. |
