Excessive, Yes, But Cimino`s `Dragon` Shows His Vision  August
16, 1985|By Gene Siskel.  It`s impossible for anyone connected
in any way with the film industry to look at Michael Cimino`s
``Year of the Dragon`` without comparing it with his last two
films, both of which made big splashes in the movie world.  In
1978, Cimino created the impassioned, controversial, Oscar-
winning Vietnam drama ``The Deer Hunter.`` Two years later he
produced the wildly overwrought, much scorned and hideously
self-indulgent western ``Heaven`s Gate.``  Polemics were traded
in magazine and newspaper articles about politics, racism and
the factuality of ``The Deer Hunter.`` A book was written about
the utter failure of ``Heaven`s Gate.`` Controversy has followed
Cimino for years; he doesn`t seem to be able to do anything in a
small way.  His latest film, the Chinatown police drama ``Year
of the Dragon,`` turns out to be a similarly out-sized project,
full of delights and embarrassments. And it, too, will be much
talked about, becaus