During a tulmultious time in China's history, it is the eunuchs (court adivsors) who held the most power. A group known as the "East Corridor" led by the vicious Tsao ($$ID=Donnie Yen$$) begins killing high-ranking officials in order to make a bid for the emperor's throne. To bring out one of the top officials, Chow Wai-On ($$ID=Tony Leung Kar Fai$$), Tsao kills another official and uses his two orphaned children as bait. Chow realizes saving the children is a trap, and so sends a group of mercenaries led by his lover Yau Mo-Yan ($$ID=Brigette Lin$$). The mercenaries rescue the children and attempt to make their getaway through the desert, but inclement weather forces them to stay at the Dragon Inn, a crossroads for thieves at the edge of civilization run by the wily Jade King ($$ID=Maggie Cheung$$). Soon, the weather isolates both the mercenaries and Tsao's troops at the Inn, and it is only a matter of time before the two groups clash. Dragon Inn -- a loose remake of $$ID=King Hu$$'s classic Dragon Gate Inn -- is just a great movie from beginning to end. It is one of those rare films where not one single scene, or even a single moment, seems wasted. Every scene, every line brings the story forward, fills in information about the characters and interests the viewer. A lot of recent movies could take a few lessons from this film on the importance of scriptwriting and editing. At around 100 minutes, it is one of the shorter wuxia films I have seen, but it is undeniably one of the most powerful. From the first sequence where Tsao is testing new weapons on a group of unlucky prisoners to the final clash in the desert between Tsao, Chow, Yau, Jade King and a cannibalistic chef (did I forget to mention him? Yes, there's also quite a bit of horror and gore in this movie as well), Dragon Inn not only attracts the viewer's attention, it commands it. Everything is intergrated seamlessly here; the cinematography, editing and musical score making the techincal side solid as a rock, and an all-star cast delivering great performances along with some stunning action sequences courtesy of $$ID=Ching Siu Tung$$ and Yuen Bun (probably two of the most under-rated personalities in the Hong Kong film industry) filling in things nicely on the other side of the (filmic) coin. So why doesn't Dragon Inn warrant a perfect 10? Unfortunately, it is a case of your intrepid reviewer's weak understanding of Cantonese. The subtitles on most video versions are horrible -- the VCD I watched was no exception -- and there was many times I was reconsitiuting the subtitles into something legible in my head rather than concentrating on the movie proper. Perhaps over time, I will raise the rating and it will join that upper echelon -- it certainly has the goods to do so. At any rate, if you consider yourself a martial arts/swordsplay fan and haven't seen this movie, do so now. It's better than a lot of recent over-hyped films and is well worth your time. Review Courtesy of Neil Koch |
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