Year of the Dragon is a 1985 American crime thriller film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino, and starring Mickey Rourke, John Lone, and Ariane Koizumi.
The film follows a tough New York City police captain (Rourke) battling a ruthless Chinese-American Triad boss (Lone).
Cimino's first film after the box office failure of Heaven's Gate (1980), Year of the Dragon is a New York crime drama and an exploration of gangs, the illegal drug trade, ethnicity, racism, and stereotypes.
Together, they end the uneasy truce that has existed between the Triads and the police precinct, even as they conduct a personal war between themselves and the Italian Mob and Thai gangsters who have traditionally been involved in their heroin supply chain.
The married captain also becomes romantically involved with Tracy Tzu, a television reporter, who comes under brutal attack from the criminals, as does White's long-suffering wife.
Michael Cimino was approached many times to direct an adaptation of Robert Daley's novel, but consistently turned the opportunity down.
When he finally agreed, Cimino realized he was unable to write and direct in the time allotted; The producers already had an approximate start date for the film.
John Lone, who had won a 1981 Obie Award for his role in David Henry Hwang's FOB, was a relative unknown when he was cast to play Joey Tai.
[13] As several scenes were shot in Southeast Asia, several Hong Kong and Taiwanese actors were cast in supporting roles.
These included Shaw Brothers veteran Fan Mei-sheng, and Tsai Ming-liang regular Chen Chao-jung.
Year of the Dragon was the film debut of top model-turned-actress Ariane Koizumi (credited under the mononym 'Ariane'), whose performance was widely-criticized.
[14][15][16] As with Streets of Fire, most of the film was shot not on location but on soundstages, after meticulous research of various locales which could be passed off as Chinatown and/or East Asia.
In one scene, Joey Tai and his lawyer walk through a Chinese textile mill, past a guard-rail and into a shoddy apartment building to meet up with two of his assassins.
According to Cimino, the final line of White was supposed to be "Well, I guess if you fight a war long enough, you end up marrying the enemy".
Vincent Canby wrote for The New York Times: "Year of the Dragon is light years away from being a classic, but then it makes no pretense at being anything more than what it is — an elaborately produced gangster film that isn't boring for a minute, composed of excesses in behavior, language and visual effects that, eventually, exert their own hypnotic effect.
"[20] Janet Maslin, in contrast, also writing for The New York Times, deplored a lack of "feeling, reason and narrative continuity", under which the actors fared "particularly badly", especially Ariane Koizumi whose role in the movie was "ineffectual".
[21] Rex Reed of the New York Post gave Dragon one of his most ecstatic reviews: "Exciting, explosive, daring and adventurous stuff."
Leonard Maltin gave the film two and a half stars, calling it a "Highly charged, arresting melodrama ... but nearly drowns in a sea of excess and self-importance.
"[22] Pauline Kael of The New Yorker dismissed the film as "hysterical, rabble rousing pulp, the kind that goes over well with subliterate audiences.
Any similarity between the depiction in this film and any association, organization, individual or Chinatown that exists in real life is accidental.
[31][a 1]In her negative review, Pauline Kael added, "Year of the Dragon isn't much more xenophobic than The Deer Hunter was, but it's a lot flabbier; the scenes have no tautness, no definition, and so you're more likely to be conscious of the bigotry.
[36] Melanie Chisholm from the Spice Girls is shown in the music video for their 1997 single "Too Much" singing in a Chinatown, dressed in a red cheongsam; this scene is based upon the film.