Dragon Tiger Gate (2006)
Dragon Tiger Gate is a 2006 Hong Kong martial arts action film directed by Wilson Yip and featuring fight choreography by Donnie Yen, who also stars in the film. The film is based on the manhua Oriental Heroes, which bears the same Chinese title as the film. The film’s release in all English-speaking territories is handled by The Weinstein Company. A punching bag constructed for the film, measuring about 8 feet (2.4 m) high, 5 feet (1.5 m) wide and weighing about 400 pounds, was certified as the world’s largest by Guinness World Records.
Plot.
Dragon Tiger Gate is an academy established by two powerful martial artists. It aims to train students in martial arts in order to uphold justice and combat the threat of the Triad. It is also a haven for children who had been orphaned by the Triad. While Luocha Cult is a Pan-Asia heretic cult/drug trafficking organization led by the dictating might of its cult leader: Shibumi the Jashin of Frame Cloud. Shibumi, who is the only master of the legendary Yijin Jing and has many fearsome Kung Fu masters at his disposal, controls the entire Asia-Pacific Underground Drug market with Hong Kong as his base of operations. The story begins with the two sons of Fu Hu Wong, one of the founders of the academy, who were each born to different mothers. The older is named Dragon and the younger is named Tiger. When the boys were young, Dragon’s mother left the academy and gave Dragon half of a Jade amulet pendant and told him that his half-brother, Tiger, has the other half.
When Dragon’s mother was killed in a fire, Dragon was taken under the care of the Triad boss, Ma Kun, and he grew up to become his bodyguard. Ma Kun’s gang is a subject of the evil Luocha Cult, which supervises Hong Kong’s Drug dealing on its behalf. Tiger was raised by his elder uncle, Master Xian Lung Wong, after his parents’ disappearance.
Several years later, Tiger and his friends are dining in a restaurant and encounter Ma Kun and his men, who are receiving the Luocha Plaque. A symbol of authority within the Luocha Cult indicates that the holder is second only to the cult’s leader, Shibumi. Ma Kun and the leader of the White Lions Gang were arguing over the plaque when Tiger accidentally interrupts the meeting. One of Tiger’s friends makes off with the plaque while Tiger starts a fight with the gangsters. Just then, Dragon appears and fights Tiger, whom he does not recognize to be his half-brother. Ma Kun calls for Dragon to pull back.
Later that night, Dragon confronts Tiger and his friends at a Japanese restaurant to take back the plaque. Tiger and his friends have been drugged by Scaly, one of Ma Kun’s lackeys, who also wanted to retrieve the plaque to prove to his boss that he is the better man. Scaly and his followers fight Dragon over possession of the plaque. Turbo Shek, another eater at the restaurant, is aroused by the commotion and he joins the fight on Dragon’s side. Dragon and Turbo defeat Scaly and his men and Dragon takes back the plaque from Tiger. Just then, Tiger discovers that Dragon has the other half of the jade amulet pendant and realizes that Dragon is his half-brother.
Turbo follows Tiger back to Dragon Tiger Gate, wanting to be enrolled into the academy to improve his martial arts skills. He is refused by the current leader of the academy, Master Wong, for his arrogance. Dismayed, Turbo waits outside the academy and promises not to leave unless he is accepted as a student.