Kung Fu Classic - Dragon Gate Inn (1967)

The second film in director King Hu's trilogy, which began with "Come Drink With Me" and ended with "A Touch Of Zen". The first eunuch of the emperor has managed to have a major opponent condemned to death and his family banned from the empire. In order to avoid a revenge of his victims, the eunuch sends his secret police to assassinate the deportees. The ambush is to be carried out at the inn of the Dragon Gate, an isolated place close to the border. The original plan of the secret agents is upset as several unexpected travelers - who prove to be master fencers - arrive at the inn. Very soon, and till the end of the last reel, secret agents, the escort of the deportees, mysterious travelers of all kinds, the personal guard of eunuch, the soldiers protecting the frontier, and the eunuch himself engage in ceaseless treacherous manoeuvres, frantic pursuits, and especially acrobatic sword fights in he good old tradition of the Chinese cinema. Product Description

A good movie with not-so-good DVD quality

While living in the Far East, I first saw this movie, Dragon Gate Inn, at a movie theatre in 1967. When I found out that this DVD was available from Amazon, I bought it and enjoyed watching it again after more than 40 years, partly because of my nostalgia for those days in the 1960s. The storyline, taking place during the 15th century in the Ming Dynasty, is as follows. In an attempt to gain control of the country, a power-hungry First Eunuch, Zhao Shao Qin, executes his political enemies, including his main political rival Yu Qian, the Defense Minister, and expels Yu's three children from the country. Zhao plans to kill Yu's children at the Dragon Gate Inn, located near the border, by sending his team of assassins. Zhao's plot fails when swordsmen Xiao Shao Zi (played by Shih Chun), Chu Huei (played by Shankuan Lingfeng) and her brother, and two defectors from Zhao's assassin team defeat the assassins under the direction of the innkeeper Wu Ming, a former lieutenant of Yu's. Eventually Zhao himself, a very high-level swordsman, battles the heroes (Xiao, Chu, etc.), and is killed. The movie is filled with many beautifully-choreographed sword-fighting sequences.

Although not as well-made as King Hu's previous masterpiece, Come Drink with Me (Great Drunken Hero), this film is, in my opinion, perhaps one of the best wuxia films made in the 1960s. The picture quality of this DVD, however, is rather poor: All the files (15 chapters) of this DVD are less than 4 GB. A few minutes of the movie (in Chapter 12) are difficult to view because the DVD player (or computer) skips it. It appears that a small company has produced this DVD based on a Japanese version (the menu is in Japanese), with the addition of English subtitles. However, I liked the subtitles, displayed below the movie screen, which are easy to see in clear and straightforward translations. One interesting observation is that the title of this film in Chinese characters is written backwards on the side of the DVD case. (The title is written correctly on the front cover of the case, reading right to left.)

I'll give 4.5 stars for the film and 1.5 stars for the quality of the DVD. Therefore, I give this DVD a 3-star overall rating.

October 20, 2008

Classic, action-packed, hugely influential for later flicks.

Before Jackie Chan, before Bruce Lee, long before kung-fu action flicks left Hong Kong and went international, this movie paved the way and inspired hundreds of imitations. Hard to find, worth the search. Has almost zero "special effects" and offers great story, very tight cinematography, wonderful acting, accurate historical settings. If you need to catch flying arrows before they strike you in the head, study this movie carefully. Makes nice old-school companion to the modern masterpiece "Kung Fu Hustle." January 4, 2007

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