Year of the Dragon (1985)



D. Michael Cimino



Oliver Stone, co-screenwriter

This much-forgotten cop-thriller gangster film was Michael Cimino's first film after the disastrous Heaven's Gate (1980). It was criticized for alleged racism toward the Chinese-American community in its story of angry Vietnam vet and Captain Stanley White (Mickey Rourke), a racist police officer who pledged to "clean up" the violence in mid-80s New York's Chinatown. With the aid of an exotic Asian-American reporter Tracy Tzu (Ariane in mostly gratuitous nude scenes), White staged a relentless, lawless anti-crime crusade against the community and its powerful Asian Mafia (Triad) leader Joey Tai (John Lone), who was responsible for the murder, corruption, extortion and drug dealing.

Based loosely on Robert Daley's novel of the same name, Chinese-Americans protested the racial stereotyping, xenophobism ("chinks" and "slant-eyed" and "yellow niggers" were terms used in the film) and sexism before the film opened. Protesters from a coalition of organizations picketed various premieres around the country. Some groups worried that moviegoers would get the notion that Chinatown was unsafe - and feared an economic downturn in the community.

Numerous objections of political uncorrectness led the studio to add the following disclaimer to the beginning of the film: "This film does not intend to demean or to ignore the many positive features of Asian Americans and specifically Chinese American communities. Any similarity between the depiction in this film and any association, organization, individual or Chinatown that exists in real life is accidental."