Bullet Points: The Paper Tigers
Getting old is an inevitably for all of us, in fact I believe Steve Harwell said it best when he said, “The years start coming and they don’t stop coming”. Truer words were never spoken.
2020’s The Paper Tigers tackles the subject of three former martial arts prodigies growing old, a scenario rife with comedic possibilities and one that is easily relatable to anyone approaching or north of 40…
- Camcorder: The opening credits are backdropped by camcorder footage of the three main characters when they were teenagers training in the martial arts under Sifu Cheung (Roger Yuan, Blindsided: The Game). In addition to their training, we also get to see Danny, Hing and Jim (known collectively as The Three Tigers) getting into some martial arts mischief along the way, often at the expense of the douchey Carter, who trained at a rival dojo. I loved the attention to detail here with the font utilized for the opening credits being your standard camcorder font of the time.
- Present Day: The Three Tigers of Sifu Cheung ain’t what they used to be as the movie pick things up in the present day… Danny (Alain Uy) is divorced and is getting outshined by his ex-wife in terms of parenting their son, he’s also a workaholic who puts his insurance job above his other obligations. To put it mildly, Danny has lost his way… Hing (Ron Yuan, Street Crimes) has packed on the pounds and has a bum knee after a workplace accident… Jim (Mykel Shannon Jenkins, Undisputed III: Redemption) is still in great shape, but has all but forgotten his kung fu training with Sifu Cheung and is now a BJJ trainer… The once inseparable trio have not kept in touch with one another for decades and even worse, they all turned their backs on Sifu Cheung.
- Unhappy Reunion: Hing tracks down Danny to deliver the bad news that Sifu Cheung had passed away. At the funeral, three self trained teenage martial arts punks who worked at the same restaurant as Sifu Cheung make a mockery of the proceedings. Danny and Hing are tipped off by the still douchey Carter that Sifu Cheung didn’t just have a heart attack and he believes there was an altercation that led to Cheung going into cardiac arrest, and he believes the funeral crasher may have had something to do with it. So Danny, Hing and Jim track down the punks and it is a healthy dose of reality for our now middle-aged tigers as they are shown up by the younger generation. But after talking to the punks, the Tigers find out they admired Sifu Cheung, even though he refused to train them, and were not responsible for his death.
- Here Come the Tigers: Carter’s lead was of no use to the Tigers and was payback for all the times they humiliated him back in the day, fortunately Carter’s teacher, Sifu Wong (Raymond Ma, Street Corner Justice) is more helpful… telling the Tigers that he heard Sifu Cheung took in another student after his falling out with them and that student eventually went rogue and became a professional killer… vowing to avenge the death of their teacher, the Tigers are now on the hunt for a killer and they barely survived their battle with some teenagers! What could possibly go wrong?!?!
As I watched The Paper Tigers I couldn’t help but think that this movie may not have been made if not for the success of Cobra Kai, which brought the story of The Karate Kid 30 years into the future.
The Paper Tigers didn’t have the lineage of an 80’s film franchise to build off of, but the tone of this film is similar in many ways to the popular Netflix series as it isn’t just a kung fu movie, the movie also has heart and humor. Much of the movie’s focus is on the interaction between the old friends as the reminisce about the good ol’ days and commiserate about growing old. The relationship between Danny and his young son is also a key storyline element. With that said, if you are fan of Cobra Kai, you will get a kick of The Paper Tigers.
You may also get a kick out of these Bonus Bullet Points…
- Familiar Face: Yuji Okumoto (The Karate Kid Part II and Nemesis) has a small part as a restaurant owner in The Paper Tigers. Okumoto also is credited as a producer of the film.
- Favorite Exchange: “Do you have anal blindness?” – Booker… “Ummm, no.” – Hing… “Then why can’t your ass see I am working here.” – Booker
- If You Ever: …wanted to see a guy flip his wig (literally) in a fight, then The Paper Tigers is the movie for you.
- Double Duty: The Paper Tigers is the first feature film directed by Tran Quoc Bao. Tran Quoc Bao also wrote The Paper Tigers.
- Coming Soon: The Paper Tigers will be available on VOD and select theaters on May 7th courtesy of Well Go USA.
