I bought this on VHS in a double feature with "Terminal Rush", I wasn't particularly interested in Terminal Rush but I remembered seeing a trailer of White Tiger about 8 years ago now, and it looked like something which would be relatively entertaining. Having finally sat down and watched it last night, it maybe wasn't worth waiting 8 years for, but it's not bad, not bad at all.
First the negatives. The plot is the most derivative and beaten to death you can get. "He killed my partner now I'm going to get revenge" is probably the most overused of all except for maybe the infamous "terrorists take innocent civilians hostage" Die Hard rip off scenario. In White Tiger, the partner isn't just Mike Ryan's DEA partner but he's his best friend in life, and the criminal mastermind who shot him is a vicious drug lord who's invented a new designer drug which could replace heroin. So now Mike is going to get revenge on drug lord Victor Chow (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa). In short, he meets up with Jade (Julia Nickson Soul) who eventually leads him to Victor Chow.
So with such a thin plot, why did I enjoy this movie so much? Firstly, Gary Daniels makes a likeable action hero and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Rising Sun, Showdown In Little Tokyo) makes a superb villain. But what I found really makes this movie were the action sequences. This has to be one of the slickest looking and most professional looking straight to video flicks of the 90's. There is absolutely nothing to indicate that this was done on a low budget, with production values that look equal to any A-list big studio production of the time and even many today. The action scenes are superbly handled, the fight choreography is flawless, the director puts the scenery of the mountainous locations to excellent use, and the action is all driven along very well by the music. There is a lot of use of slow motion, but this time it actually works, and the director knows when and where to use it and the sounds accompanying the broken glass and explosions are equally satisfying. The movie has a much more "modern" feel than the more simplistic 80's style action of Gary Daniels movies with PM Entertainment such as "Rage" and "Deadly Target".
The opening shootout at the docks and the fiery climax on the ship are the highlights, and there's several impressive scenes in between and it's all put together relatively well, and the movie moves at a comfortable pace.
Overall, I highly recommend this movie if you like this sort of thing. Putting the lack of plot aside, there's few things I can fault in White Tiger. It has everything you should want from action movie, and is excellent entertainment to pass 90 minutes.
Rating: 08/10
