Dragon Gate INN (Hong Kong, 1992)
Reviewed by Simon Booth and Justin Decloux- April 24th  2003

Simon Booth Mini-Review:

Similar to Swordsman II, but less blue and more desert, basically. It's about an inn near the border in the desert, where a bunch of rebels and nasty officials end up together, with much plotting and espionage going on between them. Maggie Cheung plays the sassy inn keeper caught up in the middle.

It's an excellent film - one of the best of the 90's wuxia films. The action choreography is some of Ching Siu-Tung's best, and it's all filmed very stylishly. Sets, locations and costumes are all great. The script is good too (containing lots of King Hu intrigue and character politics). There is no question that you should buy it!

Justin’s long review:

Slipping through the fine lines of political symbolism and exploitation is a hard task to master. While writer/director/producer extraordinaire Tsui Hark has done it before. Dragonn INN can’t seem to decide which subject it wants to stay focused on. Which in the end gives the viewer a overly confident message of what really lies behind the film’s tale.

 But is this a bad thing?

You can dig down into the gut of any film and always come up empty. The messages always change from one person to the next. Unless you one day capture Hark and torture him until you discover “exactly” what he meant to in “this certain scene” . The viewers will never pin-point exactly why the characters were created in the context of the story …Except to be entertained.

 Bridget Lin and Maggie Cheung, are the main stars here, each of them having roles which seemingly defined their career. With Bridget being the cold man/woman she always plays, and Maggie being a more iron-heart type hooker (As if this will surprise anyone.) Tony Leung (Tall Tony) also comes into play, as does Donnie Yen. Yen once again proves he a master of the blade. But fans will be disappointed with him only participating in one fight…But what a fight!

Chin-Sin-Tung proves once again that he’s a master when it comes to flying swordsmen/women. Every scene is brilliantly filmed (Kudos must also go to Raymond Lee) but the action scenes are what really gets the pulse racing. Each of them intricately choreographed with the classic defiance of gravity and specialty weapons included. The action never overshadows the story, but only adds to it when the time calls for it.

This is a definitely must have for any HK film enthusiasts.  Every thing is tweaked here to its breaking point, and as long as you set your mind off it’ll be a fun ride through it all.

DVD:

 Nice presentation by Tai-Seng overall. The picture was as nice as your going to get it, with the sound thankfully being presented in it’s original form with the added extra of a dub track. (TAKE THAT MIRAMAX!) The audio-commentary track by Rick Meyers was quite enjoyable, even if it was from a third-party (Someone who didn’t participate in the making of the film.) At a retail of 15.95 US this is a steal!