Liebe im Zeichen des Drachen was made from a novel by an author called Konsalik. He is quite famous and successful in Germany but his novels are not exactly intellectual. Not quite like Mills & Boons (or whatever the American equivalent is), but almost. There is always an adventurous story, a good-looking or at least noble hero and a nice love story, and the villains would be Chinese triads! In other words: all the stereotypes are there. I like the film, because it is a fair film version of this kind of adventure story and has no pretensions of being anything else. There are wonderful pictures from China, although a bit travel-brochure-like, good acting and Jürgen looks, as if he feels very well in this movie, he certainly looks well!
But I can imagine that it improves this film quite a bit, if you don't understand every word of the dialog!
Hey, it's a good flick! I can't believe it. And Jürgen is such a sweetie in it (noodles dribbling down his face, notwithstanding). I have to watch it again.
Loved it myself. You have to love the Jürgen element here: starring role as a good guy (thank you); he's onscreen almost every minute and you got your action, your romance, your intrigue... and then - you know - any time he's getting into fights, yelling at people, riding on boats, being rained on and talking people into putting bullets in their heads, I'm happy. Doubly happy when there's a scene in which he's sitting in front of a giant aquarium and has fish swimming back and forth behind him. Nice touch.
But the movie itself was a superior entry in this genre, IMHO. Having coma'd my way through THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS may have warped my perspective, but I don't think so. I get bored when the plot is just an excuse to do a lot of shooting and car-crashing (I'm sorry... have we NOT SEEN THIS BEFORE?!). LIEBE IM SCHATTEN DES DRACHEN isn't a shoot-'em-up, car-crashing kinda story. There are no filler scenes in it - and it's the easiest thing in the world to stick with it from start to finish. Good action drama, and will be high on my list of favorite rewatches.