937 Dragon Inn

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swo17
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937 Dragon Inn

#1 Post by swo17 » Mon Apr 16, 2018 5:11 pm

Dragon Inn

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The art of martial-arts filmmaking took a leap into bold new territory with this action-packed tale of Ming-dynasty intrigue. After having the emperor's minister of defense executed, a power-grabbing eunuch sends assassins to trail the victim's children to a remote point on the northern Chinese border. But that bloodthirsty mission is confounded by a mysterious group of fighters who arrive on the scene, intent on delivering justice and defending the innocent. The first film King Hu made after moving to Taiwan from Hong Kong in search of more creative freedom, Dragon Inn combines rhythmic editing, meticulous choreography, and gorgeous widescreen compositions with a refinement that was new to the wuxia genre. Its blockbuster success breathed new life into a classic formula and established Hu as one of Chinese cinema's most audacious innovators.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, supervised by cinematographer Hua Hui-ying, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New interview with actor Shangkuan Ling-fung
• Interview from 2016 with actor Shih Chun
• Scene analysis by author and New York Asian Film Festival cofounder Grady Hendrix
• Newsreel footage of the film's 1967 premiere in Taipei, Taiwan
• Trailer
• New English subtitle translation
• PLUS: An essay by critic Andrew Chan

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Big Ben
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Re: 937 Dragon Inn

#2 Post by Big Ben » Mon Apr 16, 2018 6:32 pm

My only connection with this film is really seeing bits and pieces of it it in Tsai Ming Liang's Goodbye, Dragon Inn which I adored. I imagine this is similar to A Touch of Zen but significantly more manageable in terms of running time? It sounds like a siege film from what I'm reading but I'm unsure how accurate that really is.

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knives
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Re: 937 Dragon Inn

#3 Post by knives » Mon Apr 16, 2018 6:36 pm

It's a lot less plainly philosophical working as a much more traditional action film. It still has a lot of the brains (and politics) that makes Hu's films special, but aside from Come Drink with Me it is probably the most mainstream film of his I've seen.

Werewolf by Night

Re: 937 Dragon Inn

#4 Post by Werewolf by Night » Mon Apr 16, 2018 7:02 pm

I’m a little sad that this was not delayed in order to be paired with Goodbye Dragon Inn. That film desperately needs rescue.

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whaleallright
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Re: 937 Dragon Inn

#5 Post by whaleallright » Tue Apr 17, 2018 12:28 am

Among other things this movie has one of the best endings ever.

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dda1996a
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Re: 937 Dragon Inn

#6 Post by dda1996a » Tue Apr 17, 2018 2:28 am

It's not as amazing as Touch of Zen but it is possibly the most fun wuxia film I've seen after Zen. I'm still rather happy with my MoC Hu triple pack

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movielocke
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Re: 937 Dragon Inn

#7 Post by movielocke » Wed May 30, 2018 1:53 am

I watched this over. The weekend since it’s leaving FilmStruck on June 1. Although I watched touch of zen twice, I just wasn’t able to like it all that much, so I was surprised at how different dragon inn is, it is immediately propulsive and extremely well paced throughout, although we don’t know the characters as well in this film, i found myself more engaged by them. And yes the final death before the “the end” title card is amazing.

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domino harvey
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Re: 937 Dragon Inn

#8 Post by domino harvey » Sat Dec 01, 2018 3:42 pm

This is my third King Hu film after A Touch of Zen and Come Drink With Me and while I enjoyed those, I think this film is easily the most successful of the three. I appreciated its breathless forward momentum and effective action movie construction. I'm not sure this offers much deeper or more impressive than pure entertainment, but that's still more than a lot of other films can say. I also thought Grady Hendrix's scene analysis was a very thorough and convincing close reading of technique, and I knew I was in good hands when I realized he'd chosen the same scene I would have singled out as the film's best!

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knives
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Re: 937 Dragon Inn

#9 Post by knives » Sat Dec 01, 2018 11:26 pm

I'm curious, then, what you'll think of Rain in the Mountains a.k.a. A Touch of Zen 2 which has a lot of the same propulsive entertainment of this film with an actual deep storyline that deals with politics (as here which is a tad deeper than you're giving credit for) and especially religion in a fascinating way.

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whaleallright
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Re: 937 Dragon Inn

#10 Post by whaleallright » Sun Dec 02, 2018 1:06 am

movielocke wrote:
Wed May 30, 2018 1:53 am
And yes the final death before the “the end” title card is amazing.
It's so strange and unexpected and memorable the way that Hu stages it in extreme long shot and then moves quickly on to the brief coda. It somehow has more impact than had he cut (pun not intended) in closer and lingered over the final blow (the way that Chang Cheh sometimes does in his wuxia). In a way it reminds me of the equally abrupt and memorable curtain line to Renoir's The Golden Coach.

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Mr Sausage
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Dragon Inn (King Hu, 1967)

#11 Post by Mr Sausage » Mon Dec 27, 2021 8:33 am

DISCUSSION ENDS MONDAY, January 10th

Members have a two week period in which to discuss the film before it's moved to its dedicated thread in The Criterion Collection subforum. Please read the Rules and Procedures.

This thread is not spoiler free. This is a discussion thread; you should expect plot points of the individual films under discussion to be discussed openly. See: spoiler rules.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

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Mr Sausage
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Re: Dragon Inn (King Hu, 1967)

#12 Post by Mr Sausage » Mon Dec 27, 2021 8:34 am

How do you guys feel this compares to its remakes, New Dragon Gate Inn and The Flying Swords of Dragon Inn? Are they all worthwhile, or can the other two helps us triangulate exactly what makes this one special?

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knives
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Re: Dragon Inn (King Hu, 1967)

#13 Post by knives » Mon Dec 27, 2021 10:42 am

Flying Swords isn’t really a remake. It’s a pseudo sequel to the remake, but really a stand alone thing that’s just using the Dragon Inn name.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Dragon Inn (King Hu, 1967)

#14 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Dec 27, 2021 2:34 pm

I haven’t seen the remake, but the main reason this is my favorite Hu is how meticulously constructed the first act is- Hu’s command over its deliberate pacing and keen attention to so many intersecting variables with measured detail is unparalleled in his other work. It’s simply one of the most pleasurable and exciting drawn-out multi-layered setpieces I’ve seen, and a worthy precursor to The Hateful Eight’s narrative bulk of a similarly-sewn chamber mystery thriller. I can’t imagine any remake emulates Hu’s skills in concocting this feeling with such expertise in technique.

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feihong
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Re: Dragon Inn (King Hu, 1967)

#15 Post by feihong » Mon Dec 27, 2021 7:20 pm

The 1992 Dragon Inn is a fantastic movie in its' own right. Wisely, they add a whole lot more elements to the story to keep it fresh––especially Maggie Cheung's feisty inkeeper, who is sort of the point-of-view character for the later movie. Directed by Raymond Leung, it feels almost indistinguishable from one of producer Tsui Hark's own films as a director, and it's easy to imagine his heavy hand on the tiller of the remake. In that same era Tsui was frequently directing scenes himself and ordering very specific re-shoots and generally terrorizing the directors he produced for––including, ironically, King Hu, who Tsui prepared the movie Swordsman for and then ended up shooting lots of it himself instead.

Flying Swords begins in a very similar way to the 1992 remake, with the masked rebels attacking the powerful eunuch. But then Flying Swords departs completely at the end of that scene (the hero kills the eunuch, instead of rescuing a deposed general's children), and never looks back. That film felt exhausting to watch, while I normally feel Tsui Hark films are bracing to see (including the films he made right around that same time, like Detective Dee and The Taking of Tiger Mountain). I remember a treasure hunt being jimmied into the ending half-hour of the movie. Very overdone. It's easy to imagine, because of the era, that Tsui might have intended for Jet Li to headline the 1992 remake of Dragon Inn. But that was right when their partnership came apart, and so Tony Leung Kar-Fai takes that role. He does very well, I think, and offers the kind of stalwart figure a King Hu film might have in it––something Jet Li does not do in Flying Swords. Jet's character here is kind of furious and violent, whereas Tony's character in the 1992 film is clever and resolute.

A casting issue in the original film is the way Shangquan Lingfeng replaces Cheng Pei Pei as the lead swordswoman in Dragon Inn. I had always heard this was because Shaw Bros. would not loan Cheng Pei Pei out to work on the movie, and I can't help wondering if the part Shangquan Lingfeng plays wasn't significantly downplayed in the final film as a result. Shangquan Lingfeng is peppy in the film, and good in the fight scenes, but I can't help imagining Cheng Pei Pei giving the part a lot more gravitas, like in the scene where she and her brother arrive at the inn. Cheng Pei Pei had a more natural sense of mystery about her, and an insistent presence. Shangquan Lingfeng, by comparison, sort of melts into the ensemble, with Chun Shih taking the more extravagant heroic role as a result.

As far as the opening act setting up the conflict to come, I think the 1992 remake does quite well, though in a different way. There's a kind of streamlined way King Hu builds up complication, leading to the inn, and Raymond Leung and Tsui Hark copy that template pretty precisely, adding a lot of quirky touches to the proceedings, like Maggie the innkeeper and her cannibal cook. The only thing we don't see in the remake is the killing of the soldiers at the local outpost, which is a fantastic scene in the original film, showcasing Hu's quick-cutting in an intense way. Honestly, therewillbeblues, you might want to take a look at the remake. There's an HD blu ray of it drifting around on ebay. The whole thing is in more limited HD on Youtube, as well. It is a very 90s movie, but it has a lot of grit and cleverness to it. I used to read that Maggie Cheung's innkeeper character was inspired by the tricky lady innkeeper in Hu's following film, Anger. It's a reasonable assumption, though Chin Hu plays her innkeeper in Anger with a similar sense of mirth as she brings to The Fate of Lee Khan (she's the waitress in the red dress in that movie), whereas Maggie is a whole lot more, well, "90s Maggie" in her approach––hoydenish, scrappy, angry, seductive, in turns. There's a lot added there.

Another thing that strikes me about Dragon Inn are the ideas Hu carries over from his previous film, Come Drink with Me. The hostage situation in the inn, the female knight in disguise, and––this one interests me most––the figure of authority driven to selfish ends by the amassing of power. Both films present this powerful and corrupted figure. There is the abbot in Come Drink with Me, running the criminal operations behind the scenes. He's presented as the most allegedly powerful figure in the film––unaware that his drunkard student has surpassed him. In Dragon Inn we have the eunuch, presented again as more powerful than any individual fighter in the picture––though suffering from asthma which acts like an achilles' heel. There are a lot of power-mad eunuchs on display in Chinese drama as a whole, but I think the thread that interests King Hu is that this is a character in a position of authority, abusing said authority for their own ends.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Dragon Inn (King Hu, 1967)

#16 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Dec 27, 2021 7:25 pm

Alright, you've convinced me to seek out the '92 remake, which my lib conveniently has on DVD

Orlac
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Re: Dragon Inn (King Hu, 1967)

#17 Post by Orlac » Mon Dec 27, 2021 7:56 pm

The '92 remake is deliriously over-the-top, seemingly in an attempt to eclipse the original with sound, fury and gore.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Dragon Inn (King Hu, 1967)

#18 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Dec 31, 2021 3:48 am

I gave the remake a shot, and absolutely loathed it. I'm sure the shoddy DVD presentation didn't help illuminate any strengths that may have been present, but the entire Inn setpiece felt claustrophobically drenched in a swampy muck of inaction, all creative blocking and suspenseful interplay that breathed in the original was swallowed up in disorganized, muted chaos, and in trimming the structure it lost all momentum and interest in the development of narrative or dynamics. I'm sure it's not objectively bad for those who enjoy hyperactive wuxia pics, but even there, this felt like an inert, banal soup of a picture. I may need to rewatch the original as a palette cleanser.

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