Tsui Hark’s gorgeously shot FLYING SWORDS OF DRAGON GATE is first IMAX 3D wuxia film
FLYING SWORDS OF DRAGON GATE (Tsui Hark, 2011)
AMC Loews 34th St.
312 West 34th St. between Eighth & Ninth Aves.
Opens Friday, August 31
www.flyingswords.com
In the breathtaking Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, the first wuxia film shot in IMAX 3D, legendary Hong Kong director Tsui Hark revisits the story told in the 1992 film New Dragon Gate Inn, which he wrote and produced and was a remake of King Hu’s 1967 Taiwanese film Dragon Gate Inn. As in his 2005 epic, Seven Swords, Hark chooses style over substance, but there are more than enough stunning visuals here to override the convoluted plot. As East battles West for supremacy among eunuch-led security forces, Zhou Huai’an (Jet Li) stands (or, more correctly, flies) in the middle, fighting corruption on both sides to restore honesty and integrity to the realm. But things get complicated when Yu Huatian (Chen Kun) orders the execution of pregnant maid Jin Xiangyu (Mavis Fan), Zhou encounters a woman (Zhou Xun) impersonating him, Yu seems to have a double in Wind Blade (also played by Chen Kun), a raucous band of Tartars led by the amazing Zhang Xiao Wen (Gwei Lun-mei) party hard, an ominous sandstorm approaches, swords break off into individual killing blades, buried treasure awaits, and — well, other stuff happens, but it all takes a backseat to the dazzling images, with Tsui (Peking Opera Blues, Once Upon a Time in China, Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame), action choreographer Yuen Bun (Election, Sparrow), and supervising stereographer Chuck Comisky (Avatar, Final Destination) making full use of 3D technology, crafting virtually every shot with something that pokes out at the audience, usually sharp swords. Even the subtitles seem to exist in their own dimension. (Word of warning: It’s probably best to sit farther back in the theater in order to read the translations without their getting in the way of all the cool things happening on the big screen.) Nominated for eight Asian Film Awards, Flying Swords of Dragon Gate is quite a spectacle, even if much of it makes little sense.