Dragon Inn

The great trailblazing film of the modern wuxia (swordplay) genre, Dragon Inn laid the foundation for Hong Kong films from Tsui Hark to Johnnie To. A powerful eunuch, menacing assassins, and three mysterious protectors converge at a remote frontier inn. The eunuch, who had the Ming dynasty emperor’s minister of defence executed, is determined to kill his children as well. But the family has powerful, mysterious allies, whose close-to-supernatural martial arts skills emerge subtly and meticulously as they are called upon to uphold righteous principles against skillful foes.

Precisely choreographed action ignites with King Hu’s lightning-quick editing — some shots are barely a few frames long — and gorgeously designed widescreen compositions. King Hu emerges with this box-office blockbuster as the foremost synthesizer of traditional arts and contemporary cinematic action: his formula: classical Chinese art + Peking opera pacing + experimental Hong Kong kinetic energy defined a triumphant and vastly influential new genre of cinema.

Shelly Kraicer

Director

King Hu (Hu Jinquan, 1932–1997) was born in Beijing and moved to Hong Kong at the age of 17. Before directing, he was a set designer and actor. In 1966, he reinvented the wuxia genre with Come Drink With Me, and became the preeminent director of wuxia-art films in Hong Kong and Taiwan with classics like A Touch of Zen (1971).

This film is part of