Dragon Inn

(The original title as New Dragon Gate Inn.)

      In 1457, during the 8 year of Emperor Jing Tai, the Eunuchs controlled both the government and the power of two agencies. The officer lead by Tsou Siu-yan has tortured many people (including the father of a family we’re focusing on) to death with arrows and wood crushing onto his limbs and the emperor sends his troops to aim for the father’s bloodline and family to banish or to death. The family (the mother named Mo-yan, and her two kids) ran away separately with hired guards from the troops. The family recovered to the Dark, Dreaded, Dragon Inn, where they won’t find anything but scum and villainy there. The Dragon Inn is run by Jade, with her guards, and her family members such as Dao as their chef. The family met their uncle Chow (as friend, not actual relative), as Tsou stays in the Dragon Inn unaware on the father’s family are at the same Inn. What follows is ways for the family to escape the Inn from the troops, including Chow getting a deal to escape as long he marries Jade. The climax has Chow, Jade, and Mo-yan fighting the Tsou in the desert to the death.  

I would have thought the film would be a family survival film starring the kids, at least which would be the case if the poster on the DVD has their Mo-yan, Chow, and Jade on it, but Mo-yan (the character in the foreground of the poster) not even the star of the film nor Mo-yan does much in the film aside from being defensive, silent, and drank a full barrel of wine, and Chow came in half way from the film as he spend most the screen time being charming and marrying and defensive to Tsou and Jade. The kids are just there, and just there to be saved, as they should be, yet don’t make an impact. The star of the film is more on Jade than anyone else. That’s Maggie Cheung, who’s more entertaining than her later film, In the Mood for Love. She’s shady, sneaky, hyper, and is controlled when she’s in business. The villain (Tsou) is devious, and his skills does show why he’s a threat with his sword play and heat sneaky arrow (on loan from Robin Hood: Men in Tights, which the film did a similar shadow scene with Chow and Jade), but he’s not as scary as Jade’s brother, Dao. Dao is a scary chef that reminds me of Sweeny Todd, in that some of the food he made is made from dead unwanted guests, except for a goat he cut from whole to pieces, even to what he does to Tsou.

The action scenes are too fast, too close, and isn’t well focus until the climax. Some of the people’s clothing in the fast scenes are too close that we can’t tell whose fighting. It’s very similar to the climax of Tsui Hark’s (the producer, who would later be the director of this film as Flying Swords of Dragon Gate) other work, Double Team. Jean Claude Van Dam confronts with Mickey Rourke in a coliseum filled with landmines with a ferocious tiger circling the field, because Jean is rescuing his newborn son. It’s basically a film where the action isn’t focus until the climax where it’s done in an over-the-top action. 

If the film was a POV of the two kids, the film would be stronger and scarier of an idea of an army off to kill you in your short young life. The idea is best compared with Land Before Time and Dinosaur (2000), one with young characters surviving in scary world, the other with older characters surviving in a dull world. If you wanted a see a film with sword fighting and chaos, this is the film for you.  If you want to see more control and better visuals, the original Dragon Gate has more control with older kids than this version are aged around 10 years, as the 2011 remake of Flying Swords of Dragon Gate has both control and visuals with the focus on the wives than kids. However, watching the original or remake will cost you a Jade.