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RATING:   
Perhaps it's like the slow waltz – you need a little patience to appreciate the beauty of every single movement and detail. But for the likes of us, who prefer our movies to foxtrot a little faster with a richer storyline, 'Dance of the Dragon' is a tango between hair-tugging boredom and frustrated sighs of impatience.
Volcano High star Jang Hyuk takes on the role of Tae, a Korean country boy who dreams big of becoming a professional ballroom dancer. Despite his father's objections and efforts to engage him in more 'macho' hobbies, Tae packs up and leaves Korea for Singapore to realise his dreams.
His dance teacher is a famous ex-dance champion Emi Lim (Fann Wong), forced into early retirement by a weak ankle.
Without a female partner, Tae sometimes partners Emi, and the two soon develop feelings for each other. This of course, does not sit well at all with Emi's boyfriend, a former martial arts champion named Cheng (Jason Scott Lee), who challenges Tae to a typical male-hormones charged duel where the winner takes home the prize – Emi, to be specific.
Even with a showdown the movie drags along until the finale - the big dance contest. Apart from Fann looking scorching hot in a sparkly scarlet dress, little else jumps out here and it really doesn't take an expert to figure out that the lead characters are unable to pull off ballroom grooves.
To the movie's credit, effort has gone into the cinematography, with every scene magnified down to the very last detail. But there's only so much time one can spend looking at the pretty colours, and these prolonged scenes do nothing for the movie’s plot.
Despite a cast of top-notch Asian stars, the movie isn’t lifted. While Korean heart-throb Jang Hyuk undeniably brightens up the screen, he manages approximately two facial expressions in the entire show.
As for MediaCorp sweetheart Fann Wong, who has adapted well playing everything from a gangster to a man trapped in a woman’s body, being a dancer clearly falls short of her physical ability.
Jason Scott Lee’s acting is the best out of the three leads, not surprising though, since the martial arts expert from Hollywood is playing the role of... martial arts expert!
What's particularly exasperating about this movie which is supposedly about dancing, and had dance experts from Shawn and Gladys Danceworld as consultants, is the fact there were very few dancing sequences. As for the rare scenes, the dancing was brief and jerky with the extras putting on a better performance than the lead characters.
Dance of the Dragons is for die-hard fans of the main stars and for those who want to fly the flag for Singapore, even at the movies. Apart from great music and beautiful shots, the show doesn't focus enough on a storyline and is a test of patience.
Best seen with lots of popcorns and chips.
- CNA/yb
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