Flying Swords of Dragon Gate (2011)

March 1, 2016

The best way to sum up this movie is Tsui Hark, Jet Li, Gordon Liu, and Zhou Xun.  Do I really need to say anything else? For those of you in the USA you can watch it on HULU if you can stomach the horrible English Dubbing.  Why do they still do that? Dubbed movies are horrible, the script is always off and the emotion is really never right.

Tsui Hark has a thing about remaking his own movies,Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983) & Legend of Zu (2001) and now Flying Swords of Dragon Gate which is a remake of Dragon Gate Inn (1966) and New Dragon Gate Inn (1992). Dragon Gate Inn was directed by the legendary King Hu and New Dragon Gate Inn was directed by Tsui Hark (a great film by the way). However The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate takes place (according to Wikipedia) three years after New Dragon Gate Inn.

I really enjoy Zhou Xun as an actress.  She continues to impress me with each film and TV series she does.  My first exposure to her was The Legend of the Condor Heroes (2003) where she played the lead actress as Huang Rong. She has been awarded and nominated for Best Actress over twenty times.  Jet Li is also impressive as an actor.  I especially enjoyed his performance in Unleashed (2005) and Fearless (2006).

I really enjoyed The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate.  It has everything that I love about Wuxia movies.  This is one movie you should try and watch.

Jet Li (Once Upon a Time in China series, Martial Arts of Shaolin, Hero) as Zhao Huai’an

Zhou Xun (The Legend of the Condor Heroes, The Banquet, Painted Skin, True Legend) as Ling Yanqiu

Chen Kun (Painted Skin, Mulan, Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon) as Yu Huatian and Wind Blade

Li Yuchun (Bodyguards and Assassins, The Guillotines) as Gu Shaotang

Gwei Lun-mei as Zhang Xiao Wen/Tribal princess

Louis Fan (Ip Man, Ip Man 2, The Legend is Born – Ip Man, The Bride with White Hair TV Series) as Ma Jinliang

Mavis Fan as Su Huirong

 

Li Yuan as Kuo Zheng

Gordon Liu (Dirty Ho, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Kill Bill) as Wan Yulou

Zhang Xinyu (The Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils 2013 TV series, The Romance of the Condor Heroes TV series) as Royal Consort Wan

Li Bing-Yuan (An Empress and the Warriors, Painted Skin: The Resurrection) as Ling Guozhou

The Bedrock Blog review

Love HK Film review

The Guardian review