Bafici
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In the midst of the Ming Dynasty, Yu Qian is murdered by Cao, the Emperor’s Eunuch. Yu’s sons are sentenced to exile, but as they approach the Empire’s west border, Cao sends two of his best agents from the secret police to murder them.
After the enormous success of Come Drink with Me (1966) –shown at one of the first editions of Bafici–, filmmaker King Hu decided to cut the chains that bound him Hong Kong’s Shaw Brother’s studio and start an independent career in the neighboring island of Taiwan. The prodigal son of that reckless resolution was called Dragon Inn, and became an instant classic of traditional martial arts cinema (which connoisseurs refer to as wuxia pian). Taking up some ideas from the previous film, and after an open-sky prologue, Hu places heroes, villains and the indecisive in a remote inn near the border and settles the suspense and the action over a thick layer of formal beauty with more than one reference to westerns. Some even call King Hu’s first masterpiece “the Rio Bravo of the East.” DB
D, G: King Hu F: Hua Hui-ying E: Chen Hung-min DA: Chow Chi-leung S: Chang Hua M: Chow Lan-ping P: L.S. Chang, Yang Shih-ching PE: Sha Yung-fong CP: Union Film Company Ltd. I: Shang-guan Ling-feng, Shih Chun, Bai Ying
Taiwan Film Institute. Howard Yang T +886 223 922 008 E howardaustin0911@mail.tfi.org.tw W tfi.org.tw
