| While a competent remake of King Hu's classic (reviewed above), overall, Raymond Lee's attempt at bringing Dragon Inn to a new generation is only in parts inspired. Co-lensed by Arthur Wong, this Tsui Hark production looks lovely but Lee has trouble generating the tension he obviously is trying to emulate from Hu's film. Therefore, sadly, a chunk of the running time drags, despite crazy elements such as cannibalism, and also registers less than exciting on the action scale. There's plenty of it but I feel that there's less technique and more quick cut editing rather than an acceptable combination of both (although a confrontation between Brigitte Lin and Maggie Cheung involving clothes is highly memorable). Not all is redeemed but by the time we get to the final 30 minutes, action directors Ching Siu-Tung, Yuen Bun and Cheung Yiu-Sing seriously amps the creativity and Dragon Inn therefore finishes on a very strong note. In particular the action finale in the desert is a gory and wildly imaginative set piece.
Out of the main actors, the attractive trio of Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung Kar-Fai and Brigitte Lin, the two latter especially brings compelling and understated emotional interplay to their characters but in reality, a movie with huge character depth this is not. As with the original, the plot is rather straightforward and it has to be said, King Hu's film, in my mind, was cooler. Both have merits on their own in different ways though, the finale in particular in regards to this remake. The film also stars Elvis Tsui, Lawrence Ng, Lau Shun and Donnie Yen as the eunuch Yin.
A final note, the pace issue may be due to this 105 minute edit that has been most widely seen on home video. The film ran 15 minutes shorter in cinemas though and according to the book ''The Cinema Of Tsui Hark'' by Lisa Norton, the cinema edit is the filmmakers preferred version. The reason for the extended length may be due to Mei Ah wanting to fit the movie onto 2 laserdiscs way back when it debuted on that format. Reportedly, only the Taiwanese VHS offered the cinema edit but to the best of my knowledge, that version is rather hard to find nowadays. Thanks to John Charles of Hong Kong Digital for the information. |
Quick Takes:
