Flying Swords of Dragon Gate (Tsui Hark)

[Stay Puft]

FLYING SWORDS OF DRAGON GATE
Director: Tsui Hark

IMDb page

[Rowland]

Better than Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Whatever?

[Stay Puft]

Well, I enjoyed it more than Detective Dee, but it still has some of the same problems. Not a great film, at times not even a good one, but it has some qualities to recommend it, particularly in IMAX 3D.

Film starts out strong enough with a Gordon Liu cameo and some gorgeous photography and a pretty good setpiece on a boat. Some of the visuals here are impressively grand, big screen movie-making. Tsui Hark in IMAX 3D is everything I could have imagined and hoped for, at least when the film is on. But when the characters finally get to Dragon Gate, things become much more uneven. The setting is small, the plot kicks into overdrive with an endless array of characters and dialogue and exposition, and Tsui Hark's camerawork is suddenly a lot less inspired. There are still brilliant moments scattered throughout - I enjoyed the brief action scene in the tunnels under Dragon Gate, for example - but so much of the film just suddenly stops taking advantage of the format. There are large stretches of film here that just feel utterly perfunctory, and gain nothing from either a big screen or 3D technology. Somewhat disappointing, which leaves me of two minds, and this extends to the convoluted narrative and the aesthetics as well (for example, Tsui Hark's continued over-reliance on CGI at this stage in his career, not quite as clumsy as Detective Dee but still awful at times, and the film would have been much better off if he had toned it down and found more creative ways to depict some of the action).

Anyways, very mixed here, but going with a yay for now as there's some good entertainment throughout and the film really is quite stunning at times in IMAX 3D. Equal parts breathtaking and frustrating, I suppose.

[D_Davis]

Better than Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Whatever?

I don't think so, but I think Detective Dee is one of Tsui's best films. Top 10 for sure. The made for 3D stuff bothered me in this one; like usual, I found it distracting.

[Stay Puft]

Hmmm, well... I watched a bit of this again to see how it would play on the small screen, and... not well. The boat setpiece I mentioned in my last post just fell flat, the absence of the impressive IMAX scope leaving me with little else besides the awful(ly distracting) CGI. That part where they're slicing the rope up while swordfighting... goodness, why? Terrible. Big screen movie experiences really do make stuff like this better, I suppose. It's still an impressive production at times, particularly in the earlier sequences, but going from the big screen to the small screen ends up rendering much of it like one of those cheap, gaudy wuxia television serials (which is how Detective Dee played for me even on the big screen). I guess I can't really recommend this, generally speaking, but I won't change my vote as it does reflect my honest reaction to the film's IMAX 3D presentation, which I did enjoy.

Oh, and I didn't find Tsui's use of 3D in any way distracting. I thought it was pretty good, actually. Good depth of framing (loved the establishing shots of the palaces, the frames within frames as characters watch others hidden from a distance, using the natural environment as framing devices, etc.), and the only gimmicky stuff that I can think of (the flying blades, the framing of the wooden logs smashing through the building at the beginning) just seems like typical Tsui style. I don't see how that's any different than, for example, the camera flying towards the bamboo as it impales the dude in Knock Off. The only difference is that Tsui didn't shoot Knock Off in 3D (but imagine if he did, haha).

[Rowland]

Between Detective Dee and this, it seems that I have very little use for neo-Tsui.

[D_Davis]

Between Detective Dee and this, it seems that I have very little use for neo-Tsui.

What do you think of Time and Tide?

[Rowland]

What do you think of Time and Tide?

I wasn't a big fan at the time, but I still liked it more than these films, and look back upon it even more fondly because of them. After doing a video search to jog my memory, I discovered this scene from Time and Tide that, watching anew, I frankly like better than anything from his latest efforts.

And by the way, you should add your votes to this thread.

[Li Lili]

So disappointed!!! Best not to compare to the original fikm, King Hu's film (1966) and New Dragon Inn made in the 90s (produced by Tsui Hark), even if I keep comparing, but seriously it's so disappointing.