Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Kinley This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Michael A. Martinez Mickey Rourke ignites the screen with his flamboyant portrayal of a vigorous-but-veteran, emotionally scarred, determined, charismatic, bigoted, and intensely arrogant police captain Stanley White. Anchoring him with similar intensity we get John Lone as his ruthless Chinese underworld rising boss antagonist and Raymond J. Barry as his cynical superior. Sure things get a little weighed down with the subplot of White's relationship with his particularly shrewish wife falling apart while he dives head-first into an affair with cold fish reporter Arianne, but YEAR OF THE DRAGON never loses its intensity and unpredictability.I love the little side touches like how the deeply profane and immoral Rourke brings in two easily offended nuns as translators, plus how one of his superiors taunts and stares at him like an angry playground bully while his closest underlings consist of a sloppy middle-aged loafer and a barely competent academy flunky as his undercover informant. At times the proceedings become fairly humorous, especially given Rourke's very random reactions. Sometimes he comes off as a noble hero and sometimes like a total racist sociopath but a more human, well-rounded character than, say, William Petersen's equivalent character in the very similar film TO LIVE AND DIE IN LA from the same year. That said, YEAR OF THE DRAGON never loses its seriousness despite a couple out-of-place and over-the-top musical cues. Cimino artfully handles the plentiful action scenes especially one involving Rourke vs. two hoodlums. He also displays a lot of his same penchant for spectacle with the drug-buying scenes in The Golden Triangle, which I'd wager accounted for half the budget as it features a corrupt general leading a very large and heavily armed private army.I find the film fits comfortably as a tonal bridge between the gritty NYC crime films of the 70's (FRENCH CONNECTION, TAXI DRIVER, etc.) and the glossier 90's (KING OF NEW YORK, GOODFELLAS, etc.). In some ways, the dark, uncompromising atmosphere and misanthropic cruelty remind me more of KIDS or THE CROW. Certainly (and very unfortunately) overlooked, YEAR OF THE DRAGON remains a masterpiece of its time and a window into the equally brilliant and warped mind its writer of Oliver Stone just prior to the start of his directorial career.

videorama-759-859391 I'm quite dumbfounded at the user rating. This is a great film, not perfect but great. It's one of those electrifying films from the eighties, I'm eternally grateful at having the privilege of having seeing up on the big screen, where as Rourke's character, Stanley White, says, the streets are gonna run red with blood, or words to that effect. If watching Rourke's performance here, and other films around that 1986-1990 time, looking back, you can see just what a remarkable actor this guy was, but not so now. This film was back in the day, when he had a much lighter and polite voice. He's top form here as an unstoppable ex Vietnam cop, determined to take a silky smooth talking kingpin (the excellent John Lone) down. At first we think Lone is one of the good guys, where soon he becomes Rourke's worst enemy. You want so much for Rourke to take this guy. On one side I loved Rourke's character, his mettle and determination, but on the other side, I found him detestable, his pushiness and arrogance, and being a thankless fu..er. Also he's a pig when it comes to treating women, which kind of stayed with him as he went onto to do that weird out sex flick, 9 and a half weeks. There are some shockingly violent moments, some in the starting of the flick, where life doesn't mean anything to these Asian badasses. Rourke's wife getting killed was an explosive and impactful moment, I'll never forget, and there was some others. You'll never guess how Lone buys it, that too has dramatic affect. Also the films is a little educational as in regards to the Triads. Arianne adds beauty as a relentless Asian reporter, not half bad in the role. When she confronts Rourke, after taking a raping, Rourke's reaction is comical. He's the one true anti-vermin, cop who's gonna make a difference, and it's admirable. This is compulsive viewing all the way, with some tough violent moments, but this is one of those films that comes along every so ofter that leaves a lasting impression, as does Rourke's performance, staying true to the end, his character one tenacious son of a bi.ch.

Leofwine_draca Quite a few of these east-meets-west thrillers have been made over the years, from the good (the likes of THE YAKUZA and RISING SUN) to the bad (Ridley Scott's ridiculously over-stylised BLACK RAIN). YEAR OF THE DRAGON is a particularly unknown one, despite being a lengthy, sometimes epic-feeling production starring one of the decade's hottest stars, written by Oliver Stone, and directed by THE GODFATHER's Michael Cimino.It turns out to be a strong and eventful movie, one that's expertly directed and packed with sudden outbursts of gritty violence that really shock the senses. Despite his dodgily-coloured hair, Mickey Rourke gives a career-best turn as the detective attempting to clean up Chinatown. What ensues is never less than gripping, highly watchable and completely entertaining.The Asian cast members give solid performances, from the criminally underrated John Lone as the bad guy to the virtually unknown Ariane as the love interest. Stone's tough dialogue zings with malice and intrigue, and there are relatively low levels of contrivance and coincidence; the characters come first in this movie, and it's all the better for it. I loved every minute of it.

tomarx7 When I watched this movie the first time, I did get offended by the stereotyping and the white man dominating the Asian theme of so much mainstream movies. But besides all that, now that I watch it a couple of decades later... I grew up in the Boston area too, like a previous reviewer, and spent a good amount of time in the 80's at the college parties and the nightclubs in the area, and so did my cousins. There was definitely a lot of this kind of stuff happening, in fact I sometimes look back at those days and wonder how we survived them. Only one of my cousins got jumped a couple of times by Asian gangs in the course of his college years. One time by Korean gangsters in a Korean club in N.Y.C. Another time at the Palace in August 1988, a local gang jumped him because he tried to intervene, when one of them threw a drink at my back on the dancefloor. Luckily a girl he had dated also happened to be connected to the group and she stopped the melee.Unfortunately the stereotyping was based on true archetypes, and there definitely was plenty of this stuff happening. The sad thing is now Boston's Chinatown is not nearly as busy as it used to be, because of the continuing expansion of the Asians into the surburban areas, there is now less and less reasons to have a Chinatown in a lot of places.This movie is basically a snapshot of a time that is thankfully gone and hopefully in the near future, we won't need Chinatowns at all anymore...