Tsui Hark's films aren't famous for their coherence, but Flying Swords of Dragon Gate is such a wantonly incomprehensible experience that it occasionally feels like an epic piece of outsider art.
Flying Swords of Dragon Gate(龍門飛甲)
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
China · 2011
Rated R · 2h 5m
Director Tsui Hark
Starring Jet Li, Zhou Xun, Chen Kun, Gwei Lun-mei
Genre Action, Adventure
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Set three years after Dragon Inn, innkeeper Jade has disappeared, and a new inn has risen from the ashes - one staffed by marauders masquerading as law-abiding citizens. The new owners hope to unearth the fabled lost city buried in the desert, which is only revealed by a gigantic storm every 60 years.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Slant Magazine by Andrew Schenker
Tsui Hark's film is the veteran director's chance to let his imagination run riot in the context of a high-budget, 3D IMAX production.
Silly, distracting, and undeniably entertaining.
New York Daily News by Joe Neumaier
Despite the presence of Jet Li, only the last half-hour of this chatty epic truly flies.
Austin Chronicle by Marc Savlov
Flying Swords of Dragon Gate isn't as much fun as the director's previous film – the wondrous "Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame."
The New York Times by Mike Hale
Surprisingly old-fashioned. It seems to be having an argument with itself: the dazzling but often antiseptic immersiveness of the viewing experience is countered by storytelling suffused with nostalgia for a simpler, messier, livelier period in Chinese film.
Los Angeles Times by Robert Abele
A chunky spectacle, to be sure – overstuffed with plot and characters - but at times, it's an insanely entertaining one.
The story has been brought to the screen twice before (once by Tsui), but this version is the first in IMAX 3-D, which is the main reason to see it.
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