New Dragon Gate Inn on DVD (1992)

A customer from UK , leamington Spa , 01/04/2005

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 .

  2 out of 2 people found this review helpful

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A customer from Yorkshire , 17/04/2005

This film isnt the best of martial art films that we have seen, however it does have a few original and novel Ideas added, but then every martial art film Ive seen does have something different that makes it stand out from the last. One thing that jumped into our minds was SWEENY TODD the Barber! The film reached its height near to the end in the desert, however thats not to say that the whole film was rubbish. It was still entertaining. The Inn Keeper or Madame was an irritating pest of a woman that was man mad & had an unballanced charater that was motivated by money. Towards the end she had a change of heart which was unpredictable and added a good twist to the story. No doubt that type of woman will start her old habits again in later life.

There are some decent scenes and some standard fight scenes & also humour. Watch out for the skinned legless armless man, he was a very angry person.

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful

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SAI81 from Tonbridge [Highly rated reviewer] , 15/04/2006

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?

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful

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Mauler from The depths of Hell , 20/07/2004

A movie where plenty of different characters are holed up in one place (that being the inn) and an average amount of action. It has a western feel (to me at least) and is entertaining throughout. The leads put in good performances and there is a air of tension and mystery running through the film. Events during the stylish final fight in the desert almost had me in stitches (more for the surprise of what I was seeing than the effects) but if you don't mind a relatively slow pace with plenty of character interaction then you may like this film. Reminds me of Jabba's palace with a sexy female owner instead of a slimy piece of worm-ridden filth!

  1 out of 2 people found this review helpful

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SAI81 from Tonbridge [Highly rated reviewer] , 15/04/2006

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?

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful

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Mauler from The depths of Hell , 20/07/2004

A movie where plenty of different characters are holed up in one place (that being the inn) and an average amount of action. It has a western feel (to me at least) and is entertaining throughout. The leads put in good performances and there is a air of tension and mystery running through the film. Events during the stylish final fight in the desert almost had me in stitches (more for the surprise of what I was seeing than the effects) but if you don't mind a relatively slow pace with plenty of character interaction then you may like this film. Reminds me of Jabba's palace with a sexy female owner instead of a slimy piece of worm-ridden filth!

  1 out of 2 people found this review helpful

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