Fridae

Of those directors that came of age in the Hong Kong New Wave, Tsui Hark is perhaps the most divisive of them in terms of his audience and his cinematic batting average. For every major hit he has had, there is almost an equally spectacular miss that will nonetheless find its followers. Tsui remains more adept at colourful period and wuxia films than he is the Noir-tinged actioners of Johnnie To or the realistic fightfests of Benny Chan and Wilson Yip.  

Flying Swords of Dragon Gate finds him reimagining King Hu's classic Dragon Inn, which he had previously reimagined with Maggie Cheung and Donnie Yen, with an all-star cast led by Jet Li. Set during the Ming Dynasty, like its predecessors it again revolves around the intrigues of the Eastern and Western Bureaus, two massive eunuch-dominated secret service organisations that competed for control of the court and the oppression of righteous whistle-blowing officials.

Jet Li is Zhou Huai-An, a retainer of a wrongfully murdered whistle-blower who seeks revenge for his master alongside his two partners. This bad-ass trio have so far hunted down and killed many highly-skilled Eastern Bureau eunuchs in broad daylight, which has made the Eastern Bureau fearful. Enter Western bureau chief Yu Huatian (Chen Kun), whose martial arts abilities are matched only by his ruthlessness and his connections where despite his occupational disability, an Imperial concubine has taken a shine to him. His minions kill Zhou's partners while Zhou barely survives, heading for a shady inn in the desert known only as Dragon Gate. There he will meet a former lover, a group of treasure seekers, a con-man, and even an ancient lost city, as the Western Bureau's forces close in.

As his first 3D film, Tsui does not seek to disappoint in terms of mise en scene. Set in a  vibrant colourised depiction of ancient China, Tsui treats us to shots that make the full use of 3D's capabilities to deliver heart-pounding spectacle. Bird's-eye view shots sweeping over magnificent fleets in full sail, duelists' bandannas fluttering in the wind, palaces of towering spires and mighty turrets, razor-sharp wire, and a sword fight in the eye of a tornado itself are just some of the sights offered viewers.

Yet Tsui's Achilles heel persists when it comes to sloppy characterisation. Jet Li's Zhou remains a heroic cipher throughout, who seems to serve as nothing more than a mouthpiece for plot points Tsui wants to make. "There's the sound of men's hearts consumed by greed and gold!" he says as hears the howl of a desert windstorm. There is no reason why he says that other than the fact he's supposed to be the hero. The other characters don't fare much better than most genre archetypes.

As a fantasist and a dreamer it seems Tsui desires little for the dirt under the fingernails he went for in one of his strongest films, the undeserved flop Seven Swords. One leaves the cinema with  tons of pretty pictures and nice fight sequences but with little memory of the story or characters. Tsui Hark is in top form all right, with a film with nearly all of his strengths, and the majority of his weaknesses.