Quentin Tarantino at the Burbank International Film Festival GalaImage by INSTARimages.com
By
Nicholas Raymond
Published 19 minutes ago
Nicholas Raymond is an author and journalist based out of Alabama, where he proudly roots for the Alabama Crimson Tide football team. A graduate of the University of Montevallo, he has a degree in mass communication with a concentration in journalism.
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A lesser-known film from the early 1970s - Blood of the Dragon - has earned significant praise from Quentin Tarantino. Released in 1971, Blood of the Dragon is an old-school martial arts movie that starred Jimmy Wang Yu, one of the genre's leading actors during that era.
Blood of the Dragon fits into a category of martial arts films where there's gratuitous violence. Of course, violence is at the heart of the martial arts genre, but for a great many of the heroes in this particular medium, simply defeating an opponent isn't enough. Some would rather kill those that oppose them, allowing for some bloody and truly grisly action sequences.
Multiple martial arts movies - including Quentin Tarantino's own foray into the genre via Kill Bill and Kill Bill Vol. 2 - are often characterized by their liberal use of gore and blood. Also among that list are the Ong Bak movies, The Raid: Redemption, and Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky. But in Tarantino's mind, the one that represents that side of the genre better than any other is Blood of the Dragon.
According To Quentin Tarantino, Blood Of The Dragon Is The Best Of The Ultra-Violent Martial Arts Movies
A period piece set in historical China, Blood of the Dragon stars Jimmy Wang Yu as White Dragon, a mysterious drifter and unmatched swordfighter who saves a woman and a young boy, who had been tasked with delivering an important message. White Dragon promises to help him, setting up an intense battle with an army of Mongolian invaders.
During an appearance on the Pure Cinema Podcast in 2020 in which he discussed his appreciation for old-school kung fu movies, Quentin Tarantino shared his thoughts on Blood of the Dragon, describing it as "the most violent" of the films of its kind. The director elaborated, saying it's "in the, if not 'the' top of the most violent of the martial arts movies."
Tarantino also had kind words for the movie's director, Kao Pao-shu, and the first female filmmaker to helm martial arts movies. Commenting on her work on Blood of the Dragon, Tarantino said it was "pretty f****** great" that a female director was responsible for one of the violent kung fu movies ever made.
Tarantino's view of Blood of the Dragon seems to be shaped largely by the final battle, which takes up a substantial portion of the film. He described the last hour of the film as "a blast." During a large-scale battle in the movie's final act, Jimmy Wang Yu's character uses his spear to essentially massacre the enemy's forces, stabbing and slicing through them one by one.
White Dragon kills a whopping number of people in the battle, and does so in an unforgiving, brutal fashion. For one particular kill, White Dragon stabs and cuts his opponent multiple times, more than what was actually necessary to bring him down. It's moments like these that separate Blood of the Dragon from the pack in terms of its focus on violence.
Blood Of The Dragon Didn't Directly Impact Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Movies, But Jimmy Wang Yu's Work Definitely Did
Given Tarantino's fondness for Blood of the Dragon and his own propensity for incorporating extreme violence in his films, it's not surprising that the question of if Blood of the Dragon had an influence on Kill Bill was addressed. There are absolutely similarities, but Taratino explained on the podcast that Wang Yu's film didn't actually have a direct impact on his approach to Kill Bill.
However, Tarantino did say that Blood of the Dragon was part of a "collective" of films he was thinking about during the making of Kill Bill. That makes sense, considering that Quentin Tarantino is known to be a fan of dozens of old-school kung fu movies; Blood of the Dragon is just one of them.
Rather look at Blood of the Dragon specifically, Tarantino drew on his wealth of knowledge of the genre when putting together the plan for both Kill Bill and Kill Bill Vol. 2. However, there are some films with stated influences on Tarantino's two martial arts epics, such as The Chinese Boxer, the first true kung fu movie.
Like Blood of the Dragon, The Chinese Boxer was a Jimmy Wang Yu movie. But whereas Blood of the Dragon was directed by Kao Pao-shu, The Chinese Boxer was also directed and written by its star, meaning he had a much heavier hand on this film, which inspired one of Kill Bill's best action sequences.
Interestingly, Wang Yu was the leading actor in several kung fu movies that are favorites of Tarantino; in addition to Blood of the Dragon and The Chinese Boxer, there's also A Man Called Tiger, The One-Armed Swordsman, The One-Armed Boxer, Master of the Flying Guillotine, and Beach of the War Gods.
Jimmy Wang Yu's involvement in movies like Blood of the Dragon and The Chinese Boxer goes to show that whether he was the director of the film or simply the star, the actor was pumping out top-the-line martial arts movies that continue to be popular today.
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