Flying Swords of Dragon Gate
Stars
Jet Li, Xun Zhou, Kun Chen
Director
Hark Tsui
In civil war ravaged China during the Ming Dynasty, a legendary warrior fights for justice against the warriors who terrorise the land.
A infamous inn, known as the Dragon Inn, is the location of a great prophecy, and all the forces of good and evil are destined to converge there for the ultimate battle.
Martial Arts Styles Used
Kung Fu
Weapons Used
Chinese Broadsword, Throwing Knives, Chinese Spear, Metal Ring
Jet Li headlines a very strong cast, including Xun Zhou (who is one of the many stars in Cloud Atlas), and in turn we get a host of strong and likeable characters.
The story line itself is strong enough, and although is not great and a little bit bumpy / hard to follow, it does enough to get you to each of the fight sequences (the reason many of us watch films of this nature, and the reason many of them are made). The fight sequences are on the whole smartly executed, except for one bugbear.
Unfortunately though you can't help but be disappointed with the CGI in this film. Both the amount of CGI used (too much) and the quality of CGI displayed (not great) do take your concentration away from some of the scenes. With the fight scenes in particular, it is disheartening to see someone with Jet Li's movie pedigree using CGI.
The film was released in 3D, and maybe the CGI would look better in on a 3D screen, but on DVD it just doesn't quite work.
On the whole this is a watchable film, with a strong cast, but you can't help but feel it would be better without the CGI fight sequences, or maybe just in 3D glasses.
Author: The Bear Martial Arts Team
