Tiger Cage Trilogy Blu-ray Review

I picked up the Tiger Cage trilogy on Blu-ray a few months back, but this past weekend I finally got to sit down and watch them all. If you haven’t seen the movies before then best to read no further as I do discuss some pretty major spoilers. So, let’s take a look at the Tiger Cage Trilogy and see how it looks on Blu-ray.

 

Tiger Cage (1988)

Plot: A team of cops get brutally exposed to violence after raiding a drug operation and discovering a link between few members of the police force and an American crime syndicate dealing with drug trafficking.

All the artwork makes it look as if Donnie Yen is the main star of the first Tiger Cage, but he’s actually a supporting character who shockingly gets killed off 45 minutes into the movie. I remember the first time I watched the film it was such a shock and to this day remains an unexpected twist. He still gets some moments to shine especially his fight with Michael Woods, who also shows up in the second movie.

The main protagonist of Tiger Cage is Jacky Cheung as Insp. Fan Shun-Yu; he discovers his colleague Uncle Tai (Man-Tat Ng) is actually corrupt and deals drugs on the side. The conspiracy goes even deeper but I won’t spoil anymore of the story.

Fan Shun-Yu is kind of a dick towards his girlfriend Amy and we’re never really given a reason as to why, but as she doesn’t live to see the end credits then I guess it doesn’t matter.

Some of the subtitle translations are hilarious and make no sense like “if we resort to vengeance, we are no better than rascals”… what?

Aside from that, Tiger Cage is classic 80’s Hong Kong Action Cinema at its best with some amazing fight scenes where I’m pretty sure everyone involved was injured or killed. Donnie Yen’s fight with Michael Woods is probably my favourite fight scene, but the opening 15 minutes is pure action chaos with chases, fights and shoot-outs making this a fast paced dose of adrenaline.

Overall, Tiger Cage may not be a Donnie Yen film, but he still gets some moments to shine and the action is so crazy that this makes for a rapid-fire 90 minute actionfest.

Tiger Cage II (1990)

Plot: An ex-cop and divorce lawyer team up with a gangster to clear their names after getting involved in a dirty money scheme led by a vicious money launderer, who plans to expand his business and wipe out anyone who stands in his way.

Tiger Cage II is a completely separate movie from the first movie with Donnie Yen returning as a totally different character; they probably could have just called this something else as it has nothing to do with the events of the original movie.

Anyway, Yen really gets to showcase his martial arts skills in this entry; the highlight here is the climactic swordfight between Yen and John Salvitti who plays one of the henchmen. The action we get is expertly done which shouldn’t come as a surprise when these movies are helmed by the legendary Yuen Woo Ping. Even though Donnie Yen is the lead this time around I think I prefer the first movie as the action sequence at the beginning was jaw dropping stuff, but it’s not really until the second half of this film that things get really going. Yen’s character Yau for the most part is actually a bit of a bully towards Mandy (Rosamund Kwan) who is also quite shrill and annoying at first. At one point Yau punches her in the face and knocks her out which hasn’t aged well.

The main villain in this film is Waise Chow, played by Robin Shou who is certainly effectively nasty however, I find it hard to hate him due to his excellent posture. Cynthia Khan also shows up as Inspector Yeung with Michael Woods also returning as another henchman. Including this movie he and Yen have battled each other on screen 5 times in Tiger Cage (1988), In the Line of Duty 4 (1988), Crystal Hunt (1991) and Cheetah on Fire (1992).

Like the first movie, the fight scenes have amazing energy to them and Yen truly is one of the all-time great on-screen fighters.

The music feels clearly influenced by Beverly Hills Cop and even has quite a memorable theme tune.

Overall, Tiger Cage II has some annoying character moments, but it’s elevated by some of the best on screen fight scenes you’ll ever see especially the sword fight between Donnie Yen and John Salvitti.

Tiger Cage III (1991)

Plot: Two detectives chase down leads in a case that might bring down the biggest gang boss in the city.

The third and final entry of the Tiger Cage series doesn’t have Donnie Yen in any capacity, but it does have the ever-charismatic Michael Wong who I’ve always been a big fan of.  The lead character is arguably Suki (Sharla Cheung) as well as her man James (Kwok Leung Cheung).

John has never trusted Suki and sees her as only really out for herself, but James is besotted with her. The story gets a little convoluted, so I’ll not go into it here, but James ends up getting badly burned trying to rescue Suki from corrupt businessman Lee Siu-Pong (Kam-Kong Wong). Thinking that James is dead Suki stays with Lee and makes a name for herself while manipulating those around her.

Tiger Cage 3 may lack Donnie Yen however, it still has some impressive fights and action set-pieces with one of the highlights being a group of henchmen coming after James on jet skis.

Of the three movies this is probably my least favourite as I don’t really find the characters especially appealing or interesting aside from maybe Suki.

After watching all of the movies I have to say I’m disappointed at the lack of any tigers in cages; what misleading titles…

Overall, Tiger Cage 3 has some frenetic action and entertaining fight scenes but the absence of Donnie Yen is felt as the new characters just aren’t that exciting.

 

 

Special Features:

Disc 1 – Tiger Cage:

• 2K Restoration by Fortune Star
• Two Cuts of the Film: The Cantonese Cut and the English Cut
• Audio (Cantonese Cut): Cantonese Mono DTS-HD Master Audio with a New English Subtitle Translation
• Audio Commentary with David West, Critic and Author Of Chasing Dragons: An Introduction to the Martial Arts Film (English Cut)
• An Apex Predator: An Interview with Actor Vincent Lyn
• A Tiger’s Tale: An Interview with Frank Djeng of the New York Asian Film Festival
• Original Theatrical Trailer
• English Trailer
• Additional Shot from the Taiwanese Cut
• Audio (English Cut): English Dub Mono DTS-HD Master Audio

Disc 2 – Tiger Cage II:

• 2K Restoration by Fortune Star
• Two Cuts of the Film: The Cantonese Cut and the Malaysian Cut
• Audio: Cantonese Mono DTS-HD Master Audio with a New English Subtitle Translation, English Dub Mono DTS-HD Master Audio
• Audio Commentary with David West, Critic and Author of Chasing Dragons: An Introduction to the Martial Arts Film (Cantonese Cut)
• Clawing A Living: An Interview with Action Choreographer Bill Lui
• Hunting High and Low: An Interview with Academic and Author Victor Fan
• Original Theatrical Trailer

Disc 3 – Tiger Cage III:

• 2K Restoration by Fortune Star
• Audio: Cantonese Mono DTS-HD Master Audio with a New English Subtitle Translation, English Dub Mono DTS-HD Master Audio
• Audio Commentary with David West, Critic and Author of Chasing Dragons: An Introduction to The Martial Arts Film
• A New Wave of Violence: An Interview with Film Critic James Mudge
• Inventing an Icon: Film Critic Ricky Baker Discuss the Emergence of the “Heroic Bloodshed” Term
• Original Theatrical Trailer
• English Trailer
• English Credits

All three Tiger Cage movies have impressive action scenes and are well worth checking out; the special features should keep you entertained for a few hours and the movies have all been well remastered. If you’re a fan of Donnie Yen and old-school action then this is well wroth adding to your collection.