Gary Daniels, he of the Caucasian persuasion, is the fightin’ feline here.
In White Tiger, Daniels plays doting a husband, father, and DEA agent Mike Ryan, a man with two first names and two fists of steel who sees his partner gunned down in a blaze of glory when a sting operation goes south.
The culprit? Designer drug manufacturers who’ve set up operation inside the hull of some rusted out cargo ship, with the incomparably scenic city of Vancouver providing a surprisingly capable urban blight backdrop.
The drug kingpin is Chow, played by none other than Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Showdown in Little Tokyo, Mortal Kombat), a Japanese American cast in the role of an elusive Chinese underworld figure.
And like other films of its type, Matt Ryan has to manoeuvre his way through cultural differences and get some intel on Chow, which as luck would have it, can be found in the form of a beautiful woman, named Jade. Because of course that’s her name.
Hold onto your hats folks: apparently high-ranking members of underground criminal syndicates don’t take kindly to people, especially rogue Gweilo cops sticking their noses where they don’t belong.
Luckily for all concerned, Chow sics his goons on Matt Ryan. And he’s a man with deep pockets too, as he’s got a LOT of ’em, and hence, lots of fight scenes result.
The steely Brit, Daniels is dynamite, doling out a number of top-tier beatings and making something watchable out of what could have been, “Shite Tiger.”
***1/2 (out of 5)
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