There are times at which I find it very difficult to reconcile the mix of CGI and martial arts. Take the opening of Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, for instance. A marvelous CGI 3D shoreline approach in which we weave through mastworks in a row of ships bringing us to a sea-front fortress. Some screen nonsense about warring factions later and it’s fight time. Oh boy. The HCIC is about to execute some traitors when logs burst through the canopy above him, followed by the legendary Zhao (Jet Li). Now this is where the difficult reconciliation part takes place: head Chinese dude just sort of views the passing logs in nonplussed fashion and I can’t quite tell 
whether his look says, “I don’t see the thing that is being created around me” or “hmmmm, logs usually don’t fall from the sky …”
This, unfortunately, represented the scene of greatest clarity in the film. Damn, I wish I’d paid better attention to that nonsense about warring factions. But I’m not sure it would help.
As six distinct groups of kickass, flying kung fu style, converge on a godforsaken desert B & B constructed merely for the sake of having somewhere to have asses properly kicked, I was properly confused. Oh, I could keep the groups straight enough; I just didn’t know why there was so much getting in the way of the kung fu. Look, stop being in disguise already and get to business.
And all the fu fighters take such umbrage. Has none of you ever just said, “hey man, let it go” ? No, I suppose not. It’s why Dragon Gate type films exist in the first place. The film never mentions a year, which is a shame because by odd chance, I have no in-depth knowledge of Chinese history before the 20th century. Hence, I’ve no idea if this tale is fictitious or exaggerated legend. All I know is that when the fighting wasn’t happening there isn’t much here to celebrate.
My tiger wants to crouch/my dragon wants to hide
Being rude in medieval China/is just plain suicide
Political passion sets the scene/Who holds the secret key?
Just get to the random swordplay/that’s all we want to see
Rated R, 122 Minutes
D: Hark Tsui
W: Hark Tsui
Genre: Fictional historic kung fu
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Those breathlessly waiting to straighten tigers and find dragons.
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: The bewildered
