Mark Reviews Movies: THE PAPER TIGERS

Follow on Facebook | Follow on Twitter | Become a Patron

Review by Mark Dujsik | May 6, 2021

The plot of The Paper Tigers is pretty much formula on a few levels. The circumstances of a mysterious death must be solved. Some underdogs compete against assorted people to prove their worth. There's a big, climactic fight between a good guy, looking for justice, and a bad guy, who could and will kill our hero without a second thought.

This doesn't matter. The heart of writer/director Tran Quoc Bao's debut feature is what matters.

Here's the story of three men, who were once promising kids and teenagers, trying to reconcile with the fact that their bodies, minds, and hearts aren't what they used to be. The plot is mostly about solving a murder by way of following clues and various martial arts fights, but the story is about regret over broken promises, lost dreams, and the realization that, just because a man who was once skilled in kung fu knows the right way to kick, it doesn't mean his body is going to be capable of performing the move. In fact, it's probably going to really, really hurt.

Tran's film is a comedy, yes, in that it laughs at how ridiculous these guys' ambitions are, relative to what their bodies and their long hiatus from training will actually allow them to do. It's a warm brand of comedy, though, in that it doesn't laugh at the characters themselves, who have decades of pain and angst and disillusionment driving them away from what they could have been. We almost have to laugh, if only because the protagonists' plight is a bit too relatable, fully comprehensible, and completely inevitable.

We mostly laugh, though, because Tran has crafted a smart story, filled with as much character humor as physical comedy, and his cast is so likeable in these roles. The tale begins decades ago, as three kids, learning kung fu under the tutelage of Sifu Cheung (Roger Yuan), grow up to become teenagers in home movies showing their training, fights, and final moment of real promise in the Chinese martial art.

In the present day, star pupil Danny (Alain Uy) sells insurance, is divorced, and is trying to balance his job and split custody of his young son (played by Joziah Lagonoy). The balance isn't working, and his ex (played by Jae Suh Park) is reaching the end of her patience. Hing (Ron Yuan) had a workplace accident years ago that left him with a persistent knee injury. He's put on some weight and a toupee to cover the absence of hair on his head. Only Jim (Mykel Shannon Jenkins) has kept up with martial arts, but he has abandoned the kung fu of his teacher for Brazilian jiu-jitsu, teaching up-and-coming fighters for mixed martial arts competitions.

The three old friends re-unite—but not with particular willingness—after their teacher is found dead in the alleyway outside the restaurant he owned. The official report is that it was heart attack, but Hing, who learned healing techniques from Cheung, suspects something else. From Carter (Matthew Page), a kung fu student (whom Danny repeatedly defeated in their youth) from another clan who has become a teacher himself, the three learn of rumors that Cheung had a secret pupil—one who may have learned the master's "poison fingers" technique, which replicates a heart attack in its target.

This premise is mostly an excuse for a series of fights. The fights themselves, though, aren't redundant or extraneous, because Tran uses them for humor, for little character moments, and to observe how much—or how little—our protagonists' have improved after starting in the ways of kung fu again.

The three grudging friends, now united in a shared cause, take on three, much younger kung fu "orphans," who might know something about their teacher's death, and Carter, who has become much stronger than his teenage self. Eventually, they're forced to confront Zhen Fan (Ken Quitugua, who oversaw the film's fights), an assassin whose existence stands directly against Cheung's teachings about helping the weak.

Right away, Tran displays a meticulous sense of staging and shooting these fights, ensuring that each of the characters has his own method, keeping the camera at a distance (so that we can appreciate the actors' skills), and pacing each piece of combat in a way that lets us understand its ebbs and flows. Each of the main characters gets an arc of various degrees of significance through these fights.

Danny, who's soundly defeated by his younger counterpart, has to re-discover the sense of calm that used to come when he was practicing. Hing must learn the hard way that he isn't the fighter he used to be, meaning there are battles his mind believes he can win but his body can't accomplish. Tran's screenplay doesn't have much for Jim to do (Since his form is completely different than the others, he's mostly proving it's suitable in a kung fu fight), although there's bad blood between him and Danny, who forfeited a match that caused both of them to slide away from kung fu.

It's a fine, surprisingly touching story, heightened by those dynamic action scenes and by these performances. Uy makes a solid, world-weary hero with mundanely ordinary doubts and flaws, just trying to be good and always coming up short. Yuan's Hing is mostly comic relief, but there's a fierce determination beneath the gags at his expense. Like his character, Jenkins doesn't have much to do, although he never feels like a third wheel, and Page is amusing as the quick-tempered upstart who's convinced he's a master.

Ultimately, The Paper Tigers is much more than its formulaic trappings. It's equally heartfelt and exciting and, above all else, sincere in regards to its characters.

Back to Home

Buy Related Products