In some form or fashion, without even realizing it, I have been a fan of martial arts films for most of my life. Yes, we all loved “The Karate Kid,” but the franchise was such an instant success and has remained relevant even to this day with “Cobra Kai.” The purists tend to be offended when others try to step inside of their inner circle, so to speak. If I may digress, it was not just “The Karate Kid” movies that swept America by storm in its day. A few short years after the original film, there was the first “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” movie, as well, and although it was not as universally (and positively) accepted by the critics, it was applauded by most fans of the animated series it was based on. Let me see. What else?…
Well, I remember a more serious and dramatic martial arts film, which I believe was trying to cash in on the crest of popularity in the sport at the time. It was called “Best of the Best.” I watched it many times over and still go back to it every so often, in spite of its mixed reception. Does anyone else remember “Sidekicks” or “3 Ninjas?” How about some more obscure examples, such as “The Magic Kid” and “Showdown?” Yes, most of these were poorly received by most viewers, but the point is that the competitive sport of martial arts has never really lost its shine since the onset of its popularity, way back in the early 1970s (in the United States).
It was no less than a month ago that I happily watched the reboot of “Mortal Kombat.” Now, I find myself digging in to a much more light-hearted experience in “The Paper Tigers,” which was largely filmed in the region of Seattle, Washington, an apparent tribute to the legendary status of Bruce Lee, himself. Before I proceed any further, I would like to point out that if anyone who views this movie is not personally committed to the sport, itself, it is more-than-likely that you will not fully appreciate the craft of this particular film. I was once trained in the sport, myself, but I have been out of the game for quite some time now and I would be lying if I said that I were still as invested as I used to be…
“The Paper Tigers” consist of three men: Alain Uy as Danny, Ron Yuan (“Mulan”) as Hing and Mykel Shannon Jenkins (“Teleios”) as Jim. Much in the vein of 2004’s “Four Brothers,” they are reunited, after some time apart, by a tragedy that deeply impacts all of them in a very similar kind of way. The key difference is that these men have all led pretty harmless lives, which is not a bad thing, by the way. The story felt a little bit disjointed during that first segment, but begins to gain its focus once the real action begins. In order to gather information connected to their unified loss, they must succeed in a series of one-on-one, hand-to-hand sparring sessions, but without the benefit of pads and headgear. As expected, they come through when it matters the most, but come up short early. In other words, there is nothing surprising about the patters of the story, itself. However, the interaction and progress of the characters, themselves, are what really count. This means that even though this is an action movie, of sorts, it is more character-driven than it is plot-driven.
I would say that “The Paper Tigers” is more comedic than your basic martial arts title, too. I do not mean to draw any comparisons to “Kung Pow! Enter the Fist,” as that was a lot more zany and over-the-top (and not nearly as effective, either). This entry was more charming and less goofy and I am pleased by that.
The fight scenes may seem repetitive, in terms of how they are used in the story, but each match brings something new to the table when you focus on how they are executed from a presentation aspect. There was no major effort to look stylish or fancy, but the choreography is strong enough on its own that it did not need anything very fancy. True practitioners of the sport ought to enjoy that, in all honesty.
Is there anything about this film that really stands out? In my view, no, but there was almost nothing that bothered or annoyed me, either. Do I think that the editing and overall execution of the story could have been better? I would say, “yes,” but how far should any of us set our expectations in the first place? After all, this is Tran Quoc Bao’s feature movie, directorial debut. For that, it is a fairly impressive project.
If I can be frank, I did not think that this was as strong as the previous martial arts film that I saw, though I have to concede that these are two, very different kinds of martial arts movies. In fact, I would put them just about as far apart on the sub-genre spectrum as possible. Objectively-speaking, I enjoyed “The Paper Tigers,” but not as much as I enjoyed the new “Mortal Kombat,” but the critic scoring, up to this point, tells a pretty different opinion. Oh well! Watch them both and you will probably like them both enough to consider watching them again one day. I cannot complain about that, in any year.
Director: Tran Quoc Bao
Screenwriter: Bao
Starring: Alain Uy, Ron Yuan, Mykel Shannon Jenkins, Jae Suh Park as Caryn, Roger Yuan as Sifu Cheung, Yuji Okumoto as Wing, Yoshi Sudarso as Teen Danny and Ken Quitugua as Zhen Fan
Production: Beimo Films and Persistence of Vision Films
Distributor: Well Go USA Entertainment
Release: August 2020 (Fantasia) and May 7th, 2021 (United States)
