[Kung-Fu Scholar]

King Hu's seminal sixties wuxipian DRAGON GATE INN is being reviewed on the Kung-Fu Cinema website here http://www.kungfucinema.com/. I myself wrote a piece on it many years ago on Brian Naas's View from the Brooklyn Bridge to be found here along two others texts; http://www.brns.com/pages4/fantsy66.html. Not so much a review but an essay on the historical context and the subtexts to been found in the movie. For example DRAGON GATE INN was in part meant to be King Hu's own responce to the James Bond movie craze.


A decade ago I actually saw the movie on a giant screen at a Taiwan film retrospective. Being my first sixties wuxipian I was initially dissappointed by it's quaintness but given time and further viewing I was conquered by it'S sheer cinematic beauty and intelligence. DRAGON GATE INN GATE is to me the very best wuxipian of the sixties perhaps even ever. I ranked it even over King Hu's masterpiece TOUCH OF ZEN which I consider to be basically a more artsy retelling of DRAGON GATE INN story. It's a shame that the movie is only available on a DVD edition of dubbious origin. Try to imagine the same treatment given to Kurosawa's SEVEN SAMURAI or Leone ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST.

So many of King Hu's movie still so hard to find, unvaillable or even lost. For such a great filmmaker that's quite a shame. Still at least DRAGON GATE INN is to be found somewhere. Let's just hope that Fortune star is going to edit soon both FATE OF LEE KHAN and even perhaps THE VALLIANT ONES.

[ah_thomas]

Thanks for the links !
This is really a great film from King hu, as seminal/influential as a Touch of Zen or Come Drink with me.

Ce message a été modifié par ah_thomas le Dimanche 05 Avril 2009 14h44