Danny (Alain Uy), Hing (Ron Yuan), and Jim (Mykel Shannon Jenkins) were once the best of friends. They spent all their time under the tutelage of Sifu Cheung (Roger Yuan), learning the art of Kung-Fu. The trio were his dedicated disciples, but eventually they grew apart. Now washed-up and middle-aged, they are bought back together after they hear the news of their Sifu’s death. After attending the funeral, they discover that their Sifu was murdered by a rival fighter, a fighter whom has mastered the deadly ‘poison fingers’ move. The threesome now must work together to uncover the truth of what happened whilst at the same time mending the broken bridges between them.
The Paper Tigers faithfully sticks to the typical martial arts story structure of underdogs overthrowing the shackles of their lives through martial arts. Writer and director Tran Quoc Bao does however, play around with the conventions of the players. Usually our protagonists are young and reckless kids and teens, in The Paper Tigers they are men whom have boring day jobs, and are fathers. They aren’t starting their training for the first time, they’ve already been through years of training, but have let themselves go and haven’t practised for years. In many ways, The Paper Tigers could be viewed as a ‘what happens after the end’ of classics such as The Karate Kid and 3 Ninjas. It’s an interesting stance to take, and one that those that grew up with the aforementioned films will find a kindred spirit with as it transports them back to the days of their youth. This is mirrored in the film as the three friends begin to reconnect and reminisce about the good times they had together.
Before we meet the grown-ups, the viewer is introduced to the characters when they were just boys, via the wonders of a VHS camcorder. This montage of home videos show the progression of Danny, Hing, and Jim, from small boys to young men. Tran Quoc Bao uses this approach effectively to tell us everything we need to know about the characters. The scenes are all filled with fun, laughs, and typical childish games, but they work well at connecting the audience to them. By the time the film starts, you’ll have likely already picked a favourite of the three and can’t wait to get to know them further. It’s such a clever technique employed as it negates the need for much exposition when we meet them as men. We already know who they were and so don’t need to spend that much more time dwelling on that.
Tonally, The Paper Tigers lies somewhere between comedy and drama, making it a perfectly easy watch. The drama aspect obviously comes from the soul-searching journeys that group go on, as well as the investigation and build-up to the anticipated climatic fight. Threaded within the framework is the humour; most instances are drawn from their age. There’s a great sequence early on where they track down three ideal suspects for their Sifu’s demise – a new teenage trio of fighters. Here, forgetting their age, or the fact that it’s been a couple of decades between fighting, the trio are full of a false sense of bravado, which makes it all the more humorous when the youngsters run rings around them. People of a certain age will sympathise with their plight as they pull muscles and feel twinges as they try, and fail, to teach the kids a lesson. Further humour stems from one of the clans former rivals, whom has spent his life devoted to his Sifu and remained firmly fixated in that rivalry.
The fight sequences are well shot and pay respect to the martial art that inspired the project. There are also some nice little homages to some well-known films within the genre that devoted fans will delight in. The Paper Tigers offers plenty of opportunity for the fights as well, meaning that those with a shot attention span will never have long to wait until the next challenge of battle.
A film packed full of heart, honour, and friendship, along with plenty of morality for any younger viewers to pick up on, The Paper Tigers captures the essence of all those golden martial arts film of the eighties and nineties.
The Paper Tigers was reviewed at Fantasia 2020. The Paper Tigers is released on Digital on 20th September 2021. Watch it at ALTITUDE.FILM.
The Paper Tigers
Summary
A film that demonstrates the key teachings of Kung-Fu, The Paper Tigers is a warm and generously entertaining throwback to the fighting films of yesteryear.
