Review:
"The Paper Tigers"
Release Date: May 7, 2021
Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 108 minutes Unfairly or not, writer/director Quoc Bao Tran’s The Paper Tigers is Cobra Kai reimagined as a murder mystery. Imagine if The Karate Kid’s Mr. Miyagi died under mysterious circumstances and an adult Daniel LaRusso not only set out to find his murderer but was willing to fight them to the death. Instead of one karate kid, though, The Paper Tigersoffers three former kung fu disciples out to avenge their master’s murder while also waging war against middle-age malaise. As kids, Danny, Hing, and Jim were the best of the best, taking on and beating all challengers, despite their master Sifu Cheung (Roger Yuan) preaching against fighting for the sake of fighting. This eventually led to a failing out between the master and his disciples. Several decades later and estranged friends Danny (Helstrom’s Alain Uy), Hing (Mulan’s Ron Yuan), and Jim (The Rich & the Ruthless’ Mykel Shannon Jenkins) must set aside their differences when Sifu Cheung dies at the hand of an unknown assailant. While the investigation by Danny, Hing, and Jim results in many marital arts brawls, Tran wisely taps into the Karate Kid formula by placing a strong emphasis on character over hook punches and roundhouse kicks. Tran shows great affection for the three friends divided by time and circumstance and then reunited in grieve and regret. He allows them as much time as they need to bend their broken relationship and come together as a group to face a formidable opponent. Uy, Yuan, and Jenkins display an immediate familiarity with each other that makes it easy to fully invest in their quest for justice for their slain surrogate father and to rekindle their damaged friendship in the process. Tran places much of his focus on Uy’s Danny, formerly the undisputed leader of the Paper Tigers, now an absent father who struggles to put his master’s teachings into daily practice. Uy fills Danny with such swirling conflict that he is often fighting himself as much as he does those that stand between him and the truth. Yuan not only serves as The Paper Tigers’ comic relief as the out-of-shape, permanent injured, yet still lethal Hing but constantly and effectively borrows his master’s voice. “Your kung fu means nothing without your word,” Hing cautions Danny and Jim. It is advice Danny later heeds, and results in the dispensing of wise words to his son (and all kids, to be truthful) about the appropriate time to raise your fists. Jenkins finds the hurtfulness Jim feels at being abandoned by Danny after a pivotal moment in their youth, and this informs how the three work together and bond after decades apart. Tran skillfully builds the action around the Paper Tigers, generating much humor from his three heroes not just being out of fighting shape but battling the aches, pains, and limitations that come with age. This is never more evident than when the Paper Tigers must face their younger but unruly mirror images. There’s also a funny running joke involving Matthew Page’s Carter, a lifelong rival who is to the Paper Tigers what Johnny Lawrence is to Daniel LaRusso. When the rust is shaken off, Tran gets serious and raises the stakes with each ensuing confrontation. That said, Tran keeps The Paper Tigers so grounded in its intent that the tightly choreographed showdown remains intensely personal. Tran learned under Corey Yuen, the influential Hong Kong director of Michelle Yeoh-Cynthia Rothrock’s Yes, Madam, Jean-Claude Van Damme’s No Retreat, No Surrender, and Jackie Chan’s Dragons Forever. The Paper Tigers is such an endearing triumph, one that maintains a strong balance between warmhearted humor and martial arts spectacle, that it makes you yearn for Tran to immediately collaborate with Jackie Chan on one of his trademark action comedies. Robert Sims Aired: May 6 2021. Web sites: http://pov-films.com/thepapertigers/ https://www.wellgousa.com/films/the-paper-tigers |
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