FLYING SWORDS OF DRAGON GATE (龙门飞甲)

 Today's weather - sunny

There was a 1992 movie "新龙门客栈" directed by Tsui Hark and starring Lin Ching Hsia, Maggie Cheung, Donnie Yen and so on. This 2011 version is also directed by the same famous director of wuxia movies.


Starring a new cast comprising Jet Li, Zhou Xun, Chen Kun, Mavis Fan, Gui Lun Mei, it tells a tale  set in the Ming Dynasty, where the corrupted East and West Chambers' imperial eunuchs and a group of self-righteous heroes pit against each other, culminating in the battle at the famous Dragon Gate Inn in the desert.


I have always love Zhou Xun and Chen Kun's movies and I was pleasantly surprised to find the latter playing dual roles - one as the cold, crafty and sinister chief eunuch of the East Chamber who was bent of exterminating the rebels and separately as a mischievous treasure hunter who ganged up with other hunters to attempt to steal the imperial treasure buried in a palace that would only be exposed once in every sixty years in the desert for just a matter of hours. However, the excellent acting by Maggie Cheung as the mistress of the Dragon Gate Inn was the best and most unforgettable portrayal thus far and could not be surpassed even by the talented Zhou Xun.


The movie started off well and showed the mark of Tsui Hark although there was a lot of CGI effects this time round compared to the earlier movies. It also reminded me initially of the other famous wuxia movie "东方不败" which I so loved. However, the last scene involving the battle in the eye of the sandstorm was a bit absurd to me. Nevertheless, it is still one of the better wuxia movies of late even though it is not the best.

WUXIA

This movie starring Donnie Yen and Takeshi Kaneshiro is not the typical run of the mill martial arts movie.


Donnie plays a repentant murderer who went into hiding for almost a decade to evade his master villain. In the process, he concealed his identity, martial skills, married a village girl and faded into peaceful oblivion from the outside world. his existence came to light only after two notorious bandits tried to rob and kill some villagers and he saved them by effortlessly killing off the highly skilled bandits, yet making it appear as if he was lucky and did it by chance. 


The official investigator Takeshi went through all the clues, CSI style, which he deduced pointed towards Donnie. The star of the movie is clearly Donnie but I feel Takeshi's more controlled and subdued acting as the bespectacled righteous investigator, who believes in true justice and ruined his own marriage in the process, is much more impressive.