Dragon Inn (Cinematic Siblings)

Dragon Inn

Long Men Ke Zhan Taïwan 1967 | King Hu | vostEN | 111' | digital | Cast : Polly Ling-Feng Shang-Kuan, Chun Shih ► New restoration

In 1457, a group of wandering swordsmen converge at the Dragon Gate Inn, a remote public house near the northern Chinese border where the imperial secret police lie in wait. As tensions rise, the travellers reveal their hidden allegiances. A fierce battle of strategy and swordplay ensues, turning the inn into a battleground for justice and survival.

« A genre classic that has been often-imitated and directly remade twice, Dragon Inn is to the martial arts genre what Stagecoach is to the Western. Hu evokes an entire world in his awe-inspiring wide-angle camerawork and graceful, still-unpredictable action scenes. Now modern viewers can enjoy Dragon Inn. in a new restoration that makes Hu’s classic look appropriately majestic. » (RogerEbert.com)

« Like most action filmmakers, Hu gets little credit for his direction of actors. But in each of his films he finds in his cast’s idiosyncratic expressions, their artful containment and deployment of energy, a beautiful counterpoint to his own stylistic flourishes – a mortal dimension to ground his metaphysical flights. » (Criterion Collection)

Org.: Cinémathèque.