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Question about the Chinese title of DRUG TIGER

PostPosted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 1:39 am
by Brian Thibodeau
I'm wondering if anyone can tell me if this film is somehow related to - or a remake of - an older film.

http://www.hkmdb.com/db/movies/view.mhtml?id=9447

Whenever I see a "year" before the Chinese characters in the title of a movie, I'm left wondering if its in reference to something that has gone before. In this case, it's "93" followed by the four characters for Gai Tau Ba Wong. Are these shared by some older film or series that this film basically updates? Any thoughts? There're probably other titles like this, but this one just came to mind for no apparent reason...

PostPosted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 7:05 pm
by calros
街頭霸王 is the chinese title for "Street Fighter" movie/videogame.

PostPosted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 9:40 pm
by Brian Thibodeau
:shock:


:shock: :shock:


OK, then. Having seen the film, I know there's no direct connection, and the character dynamics certainly don't match anything from the game, so should I assume those characters, while used for both the game and this film, are simply Chinese for any kind of street brawler/hooligan type person?

Of course, that still may not explain the "93" at the beginning of the title, or, for that matter, the fact that a film featuring no one dealing in or fighting drugs is called DRUG TIGER.

Anyway I entered those Chinese characters you provided into the search box on the Chinese side of this site, and came back with TWO films, this one and the Aaron Kwok starrer GANGS '92, which came out, obviously, the previous year. I suspect this pair may fall into that "sequel-but-not-a-sequel" category I brought up a long time ago regarding films like the SAINT OF GAMBLERS "trilogy," the FRUIT IS RIPE "series" and so on, situations where the title of a previous high-profile picture is appropriated for use on a lesser project later on, perhaps in the hopes audience recognition might sell a few tickets to an otherwise dreary show. Haven't seen GANGS '92 yet (and it hasn't been reviewed here yet), but it's in my to-watch pile, so maybe there are similar themes between the two that might make it all make sense.

EDIT: finally found a synopsis for GANGS 92 over at Yesasia and it appears to be pretty much what the title suggests: a movie about streetgangs with plenty of the expected street-level fight scenes, which makes me think that Chinese title does simply refer to gang types rather than directly to the video game (although that connection couldn't have hurt, either).
http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/pid-1001814004