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Green Dragon

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Green Dragon (2002)

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Reviews Counted:28

Fresh:17

Rotten:11

Average Rating:5.9/10

Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for some disturbing situations, nudity and language

Runtime: 1 hr 53 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:May 1, 2002 Limited

Synopsis: GREEN DRAGON takes place during the close of the Vietnam War, at Camp Pendleton, a US military base in California that was a temporary home to thousands of South Vietnamese refugees. Patrick Swayze... GREEN DRAGON takes place during the close of the Vietnam War, at Camp Pendleton, a US military base in California that was a temporary home to thousands of South Vietnamese refugees. Patrick Swayze plays the concerned commander who befriends English-speaking refugee Tai Tran (Don Duong) and hires him as camp manager. His little nephew Minh (Trung Nguyen) and niece Anh (Jennifer Tran) are anxiously awaiting the arrival of their mother, who was left behind during the evacuation. Fortunately, Minh finds a friend in the camp cook (Forest Whitaker), and together they paint a colorful mural on the kitchen wall. Meanwhile, another refugee, Duc (Billinjer Tran), tries hard to embrace the American way of life, but finds heartbreak when he discovers his lost love (Kathleen Luong) is also at the camp, now the second wife of another man. Time passes and everyone listens to the fall of Saigon over the radio while waiting to be assimilated, like it or not, into their strange new homeland. Directed by Timothy Linh Bui, this is a stately, mournful series of vignettes that brings healing attention to an aspect of the Vietnam War some may have forgotten. [More]

Starring: Don Duong, Patrick Swayze, Forest Whitaker, Kieu Chinh

Starring: Don Duong, Patrick Swayze, Forest Whitaker, Kieu Chinh, Hiep Thi Le, Kathleen Luong, Billinjer Tran

Director: Timothy Linh Bui

Director: Timothy Linh Bui
Screenwriter: Timothy Linh Bui, Tony Bui
Producer: Tony Bui, Tajamika Paxton, Elie Samaha, Andrew Stevens
Composer: Michael Danna, Jeff Danna
Studio: Silver Nitrate Films

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Sep 10, 2002

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Reviews for Green Dragon

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1 - 20 (sorted by comments)
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Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
12/06/05
Film Threat

Often moving and explores the discomfort inherent in the contacts between the American 'hosts' and their 'guests.'

comment Comment
05/02/02
Andy Klein
Andy Klein
New Times

An honest, sensitive story from a Vietnamese point of view.

Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | comment Comment
07/26/02
Bruce Westbrook
Bruce Westbrook
Houston Chronicle
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

One of the best films of Swayze's Career....Not to be missed

comment Comment
03/23/05
Clint Morris
Clint Morris
Moviehole

The somber pacing and lack of dramatic fireworks make Green Dragon seem more like medicine than entertainment.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
06/15/02
Daniel Eagan
Daniel Eagan
Film Journal International

Drives for the same kind of bittersweet, conciliatory tone that Three Seasons achieved but loses its way in rhetorical excess and blatant sentimentality.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
07/18/02
Dave Kehr
Dave Kehr
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
05/20/08
David Rooney
David Rooney
Variety

A gushy episode of "M*A*S*H" only this time from an Asian perspective.

Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
05/15/02
Ed Gonzalez
Ed Gonzalez
Slant Magazine

Revisiting the painful aftermath of Vietnam from the perspective of American-bound refugees, Timothy's film is an honorable if not great companion piece to his brother Tony's Three Seasons; both films played at the Sundance Festival dramatic competition

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
12/26/06
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

Green Dragon falls prey to some threadbare Hollywood conventions, but otherwise maintains a high level of maturity and emotion as it examines the lives of Vietnamese refugees entering America in 1975.

Full Review Source: EricDSnider.com | comment Comment
04/20/01
Eric D. Snider
Eric D. Snider
EricDSnider.com

Plays as hollow catharsis, with lots of tears but very little in the way of insights.

Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | comment Comment
07/19/02
Ernest Hardy
Ernest Hardy
L.A. Weekly

An inspiring and heart-affecting film about the desperate attempts of Vietnamese refugees living in U.S. relocation camps to keep their hopes alive in 1975.

Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | comment Comment
07/20/02
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

Just when the movie seems confident enough to handle subtlety, it dives into soapy bathos.

Full Review Source: Newsday | comment Comment
07/19/02
Gene Seymour
Gene Seymour
Newsday
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Begins like a docu-drama but builds its multi-character story with a flourish.

Full Review Source: Compuserve | comment Comment
06/03/02
Harvey S. Karten
Harvey S. Karten
Compuserve

A conventional but heartwarming tale.

Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment Comment
02/20/02
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
ReelViews
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Earnest, unsubtle and Hollywood-predictable, Green Dragon is still a deeply moving effort to put a human face on the travail of thousands of Vietnamese.

Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News | comment Comment
07/25/02
Jane Sumner
Jane Sumner
Dallas Morning News
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A deeply felt and vividly detailed story about newcomers in a strange new world.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Examiner | comment Comment
07/09/02
Joe Leydon
Joe Leydon
San Francisco Examiner

Flawed but worthy look at life in U.S. relocation camps.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
07/19/02
Ken Fox
Ken Fox
TV Guide's Movie Guide

A gracious, eloquent film that by its end offers a ray of hope to the refugees able to look ahead and resist living in a past forever lost.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
05/01/02
Kevin Thomas
Kevin Thomas
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The film's bathos often overwhelms what could have been a more multifaceted look at this interesting time and place.

Full Review Source: Oregonian | comment Comment
08/02/02
Kim Morgan
Kim Morgan
Oregonian
 
 
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