winner55
One of the most beautiful of Hong Kong's 'New wave' sword-fight films, "Dragon Inn" has virtually nothing wrong to be said for it. A dark Romantic tragedy over-layered with a romantic comedy almost as dark, and filled with living breathing characters brilliantly portrayed by an excellent cast; still, the film's primary asset is its breathtaking imagery and carefully subdued (given the material) editing. You never have any doubt as to where your eye should light, nor are you ever disappointed.After viewing any narrative film, we have the right to ask ourselves, "did I go any interesting places here? did I meet any interesting people? did I see anything I could not have seen otherwise?" The answers for this film are: "yes, yes, and again yes" Although this is not a 'magic kung fu' film, yet there is magic in virtually every frame. It takes us to another world and introduces us to interesting people, and then, when the end comes, it simply says 'adieu' and the film closes and we are home again - but far better informed on the nature of the world, and of the human heart, than we would be other wise.True cinema magic, and certainly one of the best of its kind - perhaps one of the best of any kind.
BA_Harrison
Cao, a power-hungry eunuch, is attempting to create his own evil regime beyond the gaze of the Emporor. When Minister of Defence Yang threatens to reveal Cao's plans, he is executed; his two children are spared so that they can be used as bait to lure Yang's allies into a trap.A band of brave rebels manage to rescue the children, and ride out to The Dragon Gate Inn, a refuge in the desert which is run by brigands. Here they plan their next move, aware that Cao and his followers are hot on their trail...Having seen some clips of this film on TV and been impressed with the sheer craziness of what I had witnessed, I laid down my hard earned cash for what I hoped would be a prime slice of mad Wuxia action; with Donnie Yen, Maggie Cheung and Brigitte Lin all starring in this Tsui Hark produced epic, I figured this was going to be something special. But an hour in and I was starting to wonder if I had got the wrong film.Fight fans will be sorely disappointed since the martial arts scenes are so poorly edited that they become confusing and once the characters reach the inn there is next to no action for quite a while; in the meantime we get to watch some rubbish about visitors to the inn being turned into pork buns (a la The Untold Story) and Maggie Cheung unsuccessfully tries it on with Tony Leung.The crazy action eventually kicks in when Cao's army arrive at the inn. There is a brief fight in the inn which results in a nice bit where someone gets crushed between two mill stones and a gratuitously gory battle in the desert in which everyone gets injured or killed. If the whole affair had been as deliriously barmy as the final 20 minutes then Dragon Gate Inn would have been a classic rather than just another average kung-fu movie.
Dan Starkey
Even as Hong Kong wuxia movies go, this one is wild, replete with a Hotel California in the middle of the northern Chinese desert, a marauding crew of arrow wielding horsemen, the evil eunuch from Butterfly and Sword, a lovable midget barbarian, the beautiful Maggie Cheung, and the gender bending immortal Brigitte Lin. Maggie Cheung carries the movie with hilarious style. Donnie Yen sweeps into the end of the movie looking like Priscilla Queen of the Desert. The final battle scene culminates in a sudden surprise so ludicrous that I laughed out loud, even though I was alone. The film's only disappointment is the wooden love interest Tony Leung (KF, not the much better CW) - why would Maggie fall for such a stiff? Dragon Inn is simply a fun film, and comparing it to the pretentious and boring Crouching Tiger, as other reviewers do, does it a disservice.
kurtisroth
DRAGON INN exibits the same great production values of every Tsui Hark film. It's a good movie all around, with some truly enjoyable performances by a stellar cast.What both makes and breaks it is the shaky balance between the bulk of the film and its climax. The first 95% is rock solid. The last 5% goes off the deep end, in a crazy, supernatural gorefest fight between Donnie Yen and the varied protagonists. Film school diehards will want their money back. HK film fanatics will sit there in astonishment for a few moments -- then start laughing and cheering. It's truly insane, and I love it.My only knock: not enough Donnie Yen.But there are other films for that.
AD
