"The Paper Tigers" Rule

Having not yet seen "Shang-Chi" or "Snake Eyes," I can't say for sure that "The Paper Tigers" is the best martial arts film of the year, but I can't imagine how it wouldn't be. This is a low budget indie action comedy, helmed by newcomer Tran Quoc Bao. It got a limited theatrical release and most people have seen it via VOD rentals. I had not heard of a single one of the featured actors before their appearances here, but now I adore them all.


Danny (Alain Uy), Hing (Ron Yuan), and Jim (Mykel Shannon Jenkins) were once The Three Tigers, a trio of young, promising martial artists under the tutelage of their beloved Sifu Cheung (Roger Yuan). Now they're middle aged, Danny and Hing are woefully out of shape, and no one's lives have turned out well. At Sifu Cheung's funeral, they learn that their master may have been murdered, and set out on a quest to avenge him and regain their honor. This proves to be an uphill battle, especially for Danny, a divorced father who is kind of a jerk to everyone, even his own son, Ed (Joziah Lagonoy). Getting Danny back in shape requires mental and spiritual renewal as much as it does physical training.


But more importantly, the movie is wonderfully funny. Every single time these guys square off against a new enemy, they end up injured or humiliated in some way. Just the sight of these schlubby suburbanites trying to posture like Bruce Lee wannabes is a riot. There's constant sending up of common kung-fu movie tropes, and some great buddy comedy banter. Also, the film embraces the inherent silliness of these martial artists fighting for status and honor, while also being normal American guys with jobs and obligations. I love the moments of absurdity, like Danny turning himself into a human paddleball as a training exercise, or a fight being delayed because of a childcare emergency.


Though the film doesn't put too fine a point on it, there's a lot of exploration of the Asian-American experience here. Two of the three leads are Asian-American, and the third is African-American. The one major Caucasian character is the Three Tigers' lifelong rival Carter (Matthew Page), who is one of those unfortunate souls who is way too committed to living an authentic kung-fu lifestyle and being more Chinese than the Chinese characters. There's a running gag where he keeps delivering flowery aphorisms in Chinese that Danny and Hing don't understand, because they don't speak Chinese as well as the white guy.


You can tell how much affection and nostalgia the filmmakers have for the martial arts genre. When the film needs to play it straight in the last act, as the trio confront a truly dangerous enemy, Wing (Yuji Okumoto), it has no problem delivering all the tension and thrills it needs to. The action is consistently good, especially the rendering of various special skills and physical ailments. There are some truly impressive feats of martial arts on display here, but I appreciate that the bulk of the fighting is kept more realistic and painful than we see in most films like this.


This is one of those films that could only have been properly made independently, because it features minority leads, because it's more interested in the culture of Kung-fu than the spectacle, and because it has a low tech charm to it that would have been ruined by a glossy Hollywood production. And it has the freedom to both skewer and occasionally indulge in all the old tropes of the kung-fu genre, acknowledging the complicated relationship that Asian-Americans have had with these movies.



In short, this is a rare treat and a great introduction to all the talent involved. More, please!

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