New Dragon Gate Inn Details

Not a good rental :

As a fan of martial arts and the remastered HKL series , i was looking forward to this , my first selection from this new (for me) club...Sadly , the film was pretty poor , i didnt even finish watching it .

The start dragged on without a 'good' intro/fightscene to pull you in and introduce characters well , the sound quality showed no signs of remastering with limited subtitle options. Not recomended im afraid .

[Highly rated reviewer]

New Dragon Gate Inn

A highly entertaining, if pretty silly, remake of King Hu's 1966 film. The plot is a tad confusing but let me try. Maggie Cheung (sigh) owns the Dragon Gate inn, in the middle of the desert. For some reason both bandits (led by Tony Leung Ka Fai and Brigitte Lin) and government agents who are hunting them end up there. There's lots of fighting. At the end Donnie Yen shows up (as a eunuch, of course) and the big final fight ensues. So, yes, it's all a bit mystifying and it's certainly not for newcomers to the wuxia genre but there's plenty to recommend here. Maggie Cheung's performance is infectious, she overplays the comedy to the hilt but the sillier she is the more fun her performance (and, I know I say this whenever I review one of her films but, she's SO beautiful that just watching her is a joy). Brigitte Lin is also teriffic in a much more steely and more action oriented part and Donnie Yen, sadly not in the film enough, shows up and struts his stuff impeccably. As far as the fighting goes it's all well worth watching but there's a couple of sequences that really stand out. First a fight between Lin and (a heavily doubled) Cheung in which Lin, having just had a bath, strips Cheung of her clothing one item at a time as they fight. Niether is ever exposed but it's hugely sexy as well as being a solid fight. The final fight is also magnificent with some stunning shots of the cast fighting in what is almost a sandstorm and some awe inspiring physicality from Donnie Yen. It ends in a touch so ludicrous that it's laugh out loud funny but that's the tone of the movie and doesn't hurt a great sequence. Sadly there's not quite enough action as the tension at the inn seldom boils over and another downside is that Tony Leung Ka Fai is rather bland (perhaps if he and Donnie Yen had traded roles there'd have been a better film here). At the end of the day, as is the case with most wuxia films, if you like the genre you'll find things to enjoy here and if you don't, well, you aren't reading this are you?