Written:    
John Woo
Ni Kuan
Directed:    
John Woo 
Executive producer: 

Cast:
 Hu Chin ... Hung 
Tien Ni ... Yeh Feng 
Yu Yang ... Chien 
Liu Chiang ... Fan John Woo (Cameo)
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(1973/75)
 

John Woo's directorial debut was an independently produced martial arts movie. It was made in 1973 under the original name Farewell My Buddy.  Unfortunately it was banned for being too violent. But people at Golden Harvest, Raymond Chow one of them, saw the film and liked it. Golden Harvest bought it, re-edited, rescored and released it couple years later in 1975. Golden harvest also offered Woo a three year contract. According to International Film Guide 1999 original Woo's version was released in Taiwan in April 1974 as Guoke yu shuang yan (Farewell My Buddy).

The Young Dragons was initieted because Woo had a friend, Ronald Lui, who had made a little money and wanted to invest it in the film business. Woo and a second friend, Wang Kai-yi, set up a production company and shot the movie indepentdently in 1973, under the title Farewell Buddy.

 Woo: The original version was kind of kung fu film, but with a sentimental story. It was a low-budget film, and the cast had some good actors but no big names.

John Woo's directional debut. Movie was banned in Hong Kong for it´s extreme violence and therefore shelved for 2 years before being recut, rescored and released by Golden Harvest.

At that time, early seventies, sensors were very tough in Hong Kong. They claimed Woo dangerous because he gave the bad guys in the film weapons. That was something what was done never before. Censors were afraid that young people would learn about it. But after all people at Golden Harvest (Raymond Chow, Leonard Ho and Andrew Morgan) liked The Young Dragons, so Woo was signed for three years. Also he re-shoot some action scenes of YD that it could pass sensors. According to International Film Guide 1999 original version was released in Taiwan in April 1974 as Guoke yu shuang yan (Farewell My Buddy).

Film also was one particular scene what censors were particurlarly concerned about. As John Woo tells in interview for Asian Pop Cinema book in this scene was a character who 'wears a glove with nails on it, and when he punches someone the nails go into the skin'. So the reason to get banned was that young people would try and copy that. Also Woo said that he heard later censors were just looking for a bribe.

Jackie Chan worked as action choreographer on this one. Woo says that Jackie Chan was feeling down at that time because he wanted to be an actor but nobody give hin a change. Later Jackie and John worked together in Hand of Death, cheaply filmed traditional kungfu film made in Korea.

As a generic kung fu movie of its period, the Young Dragons is impressive. The starting point is a blood rivalry between gangs of arms smugglers during the Sino-Japanese war - roughly the period of Bruce Lee's The Chinese Connection - and the implacable brutalit of the situation and surprising slow motion passages, makes this recognizably a Woo movie. Woo's camera was already restless, and the stunt co-ordinator kept the fighters moving, giving the martial arts slug fests some fluidity and a sense of real force behind the blows. Credited here as Chen Yuan-long, the fight choreographer would, in a few more years, evolve into Jackie Chan, Hong Kong's top star of the '70s.