☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Dragon
Inn (1967) – K. Hu
King Hu’s films from the late ‘60s/early
‘70s, including Come Drink with Me, A Touch of Zen, and Dragon Inn, are really
among the finest martial arts films I’ve seen.
Here in Dragon Inn, the magnificent vistas that provide a backdrop for
the action lend the film an epic quality that brings it close to the Western in
tone. Of course, no one fought with
swords or wore such brightly colored costumes in the Old West, so things are
much more over the top here. Admittedly,
there is a cast of thousands and it might be difficult to keep track of who is
who but the plot is straightforward: the
bad guys led by the Emperor’s Eunuch are out to kill a disgraced/executed
general’s kids but the kids are protected by a ragtag band of good guys. If you can hold onto this strand of plot,
then it is all leaping, fighting, poisoned wine, daggers thrown from a
distance, flaming arrows, flying on wires for a quick scratch to the face, and
then the final four-on-one battle which ends with a head lopped off. Marvelous.
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