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Review : Dragon Inn DVD
I am sitting in a Cantonese eatery in Seattle's International District waiting for my order of hot garlic noodle soup and spring rolls. It is only fitting that I type out my review of Dragon Inn on Tai Seng DVD.
Dragon Inn is a 1992 remake of a 1967 Hong Kong film set in the northern desert of China during some old Ming dynasty. It is in my opinion the best Wire Fu movie in my DVD library. It can be described as a Kung Fu western ( or an Eastern if you will ) with heavy thinly concealed political overtones. This movie can be viewed as one big political allegory to the reservations and concerns that the Hong Kong Chinese people have about the 1997 hand over of the territory of Hong Kong from the British to the mainland communist Chinese government.
This movie stars Tony Leung Ka Fai as the rebel leader and our hero and Brigitte Lin as the female warrior monk in male drag who is the romantic interest of our hero. Maggie Cheung is the slutty, greedy, evil and likable owner of the Dragon Inn deep in the Northern Desert near Mongolia. The real bad guy is Donnie Yen as the all-powerful cruel super-human head eunuch that secretly controls the Chinese government. Now the mythology is that since the eunuchs have no genitals it gives them super human powers. Don't ask me why.
If you are cool you might remember Donnie Yen from Iron Monkey and Bridgette Lin from Bride With White Hair and Deadful Melody. There is also a guest role by Elvis Tsui from Sex and Zen and most good Wire-Fu movies.
Our heroes have to smuggle two children of a slain opposition leader out of the country and they have to get through the Dragon Gate Inn to get to the border. The inn is most of the setting of the flick hence the title of the movie dumb ass. The eunuchs send an envoy undercover to stop them and both of them check in the Dragon Gate Inn during a savage wind storm. They both know who the other group is but they are bound by social situation and tact from fighting directly. Saving face is more important than saving their asses for most of the movie. But don't get me wrong there is some absolutely wonderful choreographed fight scenes. The dialog is witty and is smarter than any episode of Friends.
The political allegory in this movie is as follows. The eunuchs represent the Communist government, the heroes represent the British government and the children represent the Hong Kong people. The opportunist Inn keeper represents the greedy Hong Kong capitalist Chinese and the cannibal chef of the Dragon Inn is the director of the movie.
My own personal theory is that the dimwitted border guard captain played by Elvis Tsui represents the America and the West who does not have a clue what is really going on in the Hong Kong take over. The director Raymond Lee has made a number of political commentary as allegory in his past films. You get to learn a bit about the politics of the 90's Hong Kong and see some kick ass lightning fast action in the same flick. There is another great expert commentary on this DVD and this is the disc that made me fall in love with Tai Seng DVD releases. There is an English and Cantonese track with the optional expert commentary.
The look of the movie is gritty and dusty and the lighting and cinematography really stand out. It is all about the timing and speed over raw strength. This looks a lot better than a typical Hong Kong action movie. All of the fighters look like the ultimate bad asses.
There is a really memorable fight that takes place as the fighters run down a hill ( trust me is is cool ). This was also one of the first Hong Kong action movies that used computer animation special effects. There are some digitally created arrows and thrown blades that really wowed the audiences back in 1992.
My one and only complaint about this movie is that there is less Donnie Yen in the movie than expected. You sort of feel cheated by the small screen time to this really big Hong Kong action star.
Once Donnie Yen finally shows up at the Dragon Inn at the end of the movie we get treated to one of the most bloody and funky final fight. It is not as weird a Riki-Oh but you defiantly are reminded of it. Every fight in the movie has to be better than the previous and it crescendos into one damn cool fight between three of our heroes and Donnie Yen the super eunuch.
Dragon Inn is really accessible to a western audience ( I found it at Wal-mart of all places ) and it is a very smart sexy movie. It really shows you how much better it is to be a film buff in Hong Kong than the typical Hollywood crap that we are subjected to.
Jake at July 11, 2003 
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Comments
oooh! now this one looks very good!! (though i'd probably have to hide my face during the oh-so-bloody-end, eh?)
Posted by: Lilly at July 11, 2003 7:10 AM
WOW! Hong Kong cinema for the thinking man! Where do you find these movies anyway? I need some of your connections. I have always liked Hong Kong cinema but i dont really enjoy the stuff that takes place in the ancient past. What i really like is the action movies set in this time period or in the 70s or 80s. Do you have any suggestions?
Posted by: pete at July 11, 2003 9:13 AM
Nice! Never heard of this one.
Didn't know you were a Fu-head. A few of my all time favorites (wierd-fu, and wired-fu) are 'Kung Fu Colt Master' (sic), 'Miracle Fighters', 'Dreadnaught', and 'Buddhist Fist'. Dreadnaught and Buddhist Fist are more classic kung fu (ie: not much wire work), but absolutely top notch choreography.
Pete - as far as 'modern day' Hong Kong cinema, I'm a big fan of anything with Takeshi Kaneshiro in it. Check out: Chung King Express, and Fallen Angels (one of my all time favorite movies). These aren't really 'action - kung fu' movies but excellent HK Cinema. Downtown Torpedoes is another one to check out, it's an all out action flic. Before I became a student again, I used to order from bluelaser.com. They're really nice people, I used to just call them up to order stuff and they would always make cool recommendations.
Posted by: ZYirAH at July 11, 2003 10:11 AM
hey thanks for the info. I will definitely check out those titles.
Posted by: pete at July 11, 2003 10:30 AM
Another one to add to my "list of gets" :)
Posted by: wuji at July 11, 2003 10:46 AM
why aren't you at work jake? it is friday. hmmm??
Posted by: Anna at July 11, 2003 6:03 PM
I did go to work today but I left at 5:15 girl
Posted by: Jake at July 11, 2003 7:17 PM
Oh I wrote this Thursday night but did not get around to posting it until after midnight so technically it was posted on Friday
Posted by: Jake at July 11, 2003 7:19 PM
hi.............i really like this movie and i like those two actress,maggie cheung and brigitte lin...........they are my favorite actress of all.my name is ipi,i come from tonga it's locate on the pacific,and i really like their movie call"the dragon chronicles the maidens of heaven mountains"
thank you...........cheers ipi
Posted by: ipi at March 6, 2006 12:09 AM
