The
1980s were glory days for Queens, especially 1986, unless you were working in
virtual slavery to pay off the human trafficker who brought you into the
borough illegally. Sonny and his adopted brother Steven will be two of the ostensibly
lucky ones who are recruited by the Green Dragon street gang, but their life expectancy
will be limited. Survival of the fittest comes with a code of silence in Andrew
Lau & Andrew Loo’s Revenge of the
Green Dragons (trailer
here), which
opens tomorrow in New York.
Nobody
has to tell Sonny life is not fair. When his mother died during the harsh
passage over, the traffickers forced Steven’s mother to take him in. They never
warmed to each other, but the boys became fast friends and sworn brothers. For
years, they were relentlessly bullied, until a Green Dragon leader intercedes.
Soon they are rising through the ranks, especially the even-keeled Sonny.
There
are many Asian gangs in 1980s Queens, but the Green Dragons are the most
sophisticated and badassedest. Paul Wong, their benefactor, represents the
Dragons in the board room, but in the backroom, they are led by Snakehead (who is
presented like she is Fu Manchu’s daughter). Wong has engineered a grand scheme
that will give them a stranglehold on the Queens Heroin trade, but Steven jeopardizes
the established order when he kills a white guy by mistake.
Sadly,
Andrew Lau does not replicate the magic of Infernal
Affairs in Queens. There is a fair amount of violence, but the film is
caught betwixt and between an issue-driven immigration morality tale and a
gangster thriller. Frankly, it is spectacularly tone-deaf, constantly
interrupting the action with loaded video snippets of Presidents Reagan and
Bush I. It is not just heavy-handed. It also confuses the narrative thread by
cutting away to a Reagan speech on immigration during the early 1990s.
The
FBI agent Michael Bloom is another case in point. Presumably, he represents the
racist Federal government, constantly issuing dire warnings about the Asian
mobs, but since he is played by Ray Liotta with his usual energy and attitude,
he comes to be an audience favorite, since he at least relieves the boredom.
Indeed, even though the film wears its immigration heart on its sleeve, it is
hard to envision many viewers walking out of a screening convinced we need a “pathway
to citizenship” after watching the Green Dragons racketeering, raping, and
murdering with abandon.
It
is a shame Green Dragons wastes a
likable lead like Justin Chon. Some will know him from the Twilight franchise, but AAIFF patrons will recognize him from festival
fare like Innocent Blood and the
excellent short Jin. He develops some
finely wrought chemistry with Shuya Chang’s Tina, the daughter of a former HK
celebrity now beholden to Wong’s patronage. Unfortunately, the film cuts them
off just as they are getting started. It also completely wastes Eugenia Yuan
(Cheng Pei-pei’s daughter) as Snakehead.
