Dragon Inn (1967)

I watched this film at a university club for foreign students in 1970, more-or-less by accident. I was awestruck, and the people who saw it with me discussed it for days after. Decades later, when I joined a group to see the acclaimed new film, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," I confounded my friends by muttering "Seen that," "Old hat," and "I thought this film was supposed to be ground-breaking?" at intervals throughout. I'd kill to have a DVD of the 1966 film. It was a great introduction to Chinese martial arts movies and their conventions (e.g., the traditional inn-wrecking scene). The humor of the scene where all these tough, hard-bitten warriors suddenly hold an impromptu psychoanalytical intervention for their most introverted member still makes me grin. If you get a chance, see it!

This is the original of the 1992 remake of the same title(with a NEW) and 2nd of the "INN" trilogy by King Hu after Come Drink With Me. It was a major hit all over Chinese areas in South East Asia and discovered Shang Kuan Ling Feng(note the mistake by a previous comment)as the 2nd most popular Sword woman(the 1st was Cheng Pei Pei, and later 3rd Hsu Feng(Hsia Nu aka A Touch of Zen). All these 3 females stars are made popular by him and they are also the 3 most popular swords women in Chinese Cinema.If there is any complaint by any viewer, it's the pace that many may find it a bit slow but isn't most highly regarded movies slow ?? The finale scene is the most climatic in a Chinese action that critc compared this film to "Rio Bravo" and "The Wild Bunch".Beware of some mistakes in the original English subtitles mentioned by the director himself.You can watch some scenes of it if you go to the movie Bu San(2003) aka Goodbye, Dragon Inn(here in IMDb and watch the trailer) which paid tribute to this movie.The 90's remake is nothing better except for an additional character well acted by Maggie Cheung.

I saw this during its initial run under the title "Dragon Inn."This is no ordinary swordplay movie. It is a visual treat of ancient Chinese costumes and weaponry. The traditional Chinese instruments used for the background music added an otherwordly flavor. I left the theatre wondering if the movie was truly historical. The head of the Yu clan has been condemned to death by the evil prime minister who has usurped imperial power. A palace eunuch who managed to claw his way to power, he is also reputed to be China's greatest swordsman. He plots to eliminate the entire Yu family but is opposed by a master swordsman and swordswoman.A memorable scene that has nothing to do with fighting is the dinner at Dragon Inn which introduced me to the Mongolian Fire Pot (shabu-shabu) style of eating. To the uninitiated, there is a fire pot in the middle of the table decked out with all sorts of raw food which you put into the boiling water of the firepot and eat them as they are cooked. The cooking water is sipped as soup.I took my little sister to see it and from then on she got hooked on Chinese swordplay movies. She began reading up on ancient China and in college she majored in history and archaeology -- all because I took her to see Dragon Inn. I am gratified to learn recently that the female supporting actress Feng Hsu moved on to become a producer-director herself with a number of critically acclaimed films to her credit. I look forward to seeing them soon.

A must see swordplay film, probably the best of its kind ever made. The director, King Hu, is the master of tension and suspense and holds the viewer's attention throughout. I cannot rate this fim highly enough. If only it were more readily available.