Bullet Points: American Dragons

Despite having a filmography filled with some classic action movies, I believe a scant few if any would name Michael Biehn as their favorite action star. A big reason for this is the projects that Biehn seems to gravitate towards.

Movies like The Abyss, The Rock and Tombstone feature ensemble casts with a great deal of star power. And while Biehn always delivers and more than holds his own, it is tough for any actor to really stand out from the crowd when so much talent is involved.

Then there are movies like The Terminator, Navy SEALS and Aliens, where Biehn is the Scottie Pippen to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s, Charlie Sheen’s and Sigourney Weaver’s Michael Jordan. Biehn and his characters are a necessary ingredient to those movies but he is not the star.

When Biehn would get the chance to be the star of a movie they were in what many would classify as B movies. Movies like Dead Man Can’t Dance, Timebomb and the subject of this review, American Dragons.

• The Premise: Michael Biehn plays an undercover detective named Tony Luca. After his cover is blown during a sting operation, Luca is reassigned to the homicide division to investigate a murder in Little Tokyo. Since the murder in Little Tokyo closely resembled a murder committed in Korea six years earlier (the killer left a distinctive calling card at both crime scenes), a detective from Seoul, South Korea is brought in to help with the investigation. So Detective Luca from New York City is partnered with Inspector Kim (Joong-Hoon Park) from Seoul to catch the killer… a killer we eventually learn Kim knows all too well. And if the Red Heat like premise with cops from different parts of the world forced to work together wasn’t enough, there is a war brewing between the Mafia and the Yakuza to up the danger factor.

• The Villains: In a movie that features both the Mafia and the Yakuza, there are plenty of bad guys to go around, but I wanted to focus on two of the featured villains in American Dragons. First is Rocco a hit man for the mob that Biehn’s Tony is trying to take down as the movie begins. Rocco is played by Don Stark, who you may remember as the police detective in Ring of Steel, but who you probably most associate with the character Bob Pincioti on That 70’s Show. If I were to rank Stark’s villainy against other movie villains who also appeared on That 70’s Show, I’d rank Stark’s Rocco a distant second behind Kurtwood Smith’s Clarence Boddicker but way ahead of Topher Grace’s Venom. If I were ranking Stark’s Rocco among villains at a bowling alley, he would be #1 with a bullet. I should point out that Rocco is not just a hit man for the mob, but a hit man with his own agenda, making him all the more dangerous… The other villain of note is the Yakuza assassin known simply as Shadow. Shadow is played by action genre veteran Byron Mann, who you may remember as Ryu in Street Fighter or his more recent work in the Arrow TV series. Shadow is known as “the deadliest assassin whoever lived” and the character lives up to that reputation.

• The Heroes: Not surprisingly Detective Luca and Inspector Kim don’t hit it off immediately. Tony Luca, like many a maverick cop before him, prefers to work alone. Luca never wanted to be reassigned in the first place and the clash of both cultures and police techniques creates a great deal of tension between our two heroes. But in the world of movies, there is no problem too big that a montage can’t fix. A  trip to the boxing gym that Luca frequents when he wants to blow off some steam opens the door for a classic action movie training montage between our international police duo. After that on single training montage, Luca and Kim become fast friends, they even go out and get drunk together. With our cops now on the same page, they are ready to take down Rocco and Shadow!

As you can probably tell by this review, originality was not the strong suit of American Dragons. But Michael Biehn’s performance was the undeniable strong suit of the film. Biehn was the star player in American Dragons. Maybe Biehn wasn’t at Michael Jordan level in this one, but he damn sure was at Derek Anderson level. So if Biehn was Derek Anderson, that made Joong-Hoon Park Biehn’s Ha Seung-jin. And that last line was courtesy of the most Portland Trail Blazers research I’ve ever done in my entire life. But make no mistake about it, if you are a Michael Biehn fan, American Dragons is worth watching.

As you can probably tell, this review is winding down and that means I am going to follow in American Dragons footsteps and say screw originality and share some Bonus Bullet Points…

• AKA: American Dragons was released on video in the United States as Double Edge… Rumor has it that the movie was released as Black Rain 2 in Argentina, a sequel to the 1989 Michael Douglas film, Black Rain.
• Familiar Face: If you are going to make an action movie that features the Yakuza, it is never a bad idea to include Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa in the cast. Tagawa has played similar roles in countless movies including The Perfect Weapon and White Tiger.
• Say What?: If you are an action fan and you’ve watched an Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean-Claude Van Damme or Jackie Chan film (and how can you call yourself an action fan if you haven’t), you are used to the English language being butchered by an action star not born in the United States. But I am here to tell you that Joong-Hoon Park took the butchering to a different level.
• Homage: Before they become bosom buddies, Luca and Kim have a back alley brawl that I can’t help but think was inspired by the famous Roddy Piper/Keith David fight in They Live.
• American Dragons 2: A sequel is teased at the end of the movie with Luca telling Kim “Next time I’m coming to Korea”. As I wrap up this review nearly 20 years after American Dragons was released, there has still not been a next time.