Top 10 Chinese films in 2011
- By Zhang Rui
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E-mail China.org.cn, January 23, 2012
9. Flying Swords of the Dragon Gate
3D IMAX Kung Fu movie "Flying Swords of the Dragon Gate" by Hong Kong film wizard Tsui Hark, is the bold and groundbreaking sequel to the 1992 Hong Kong wuxia classic "New Dragon Gate Inn" which blew "Kung Fu Panda" out of the water.
For this sequel, Tsui Hark chose to re-imagine the plot instead of simply remaking the old classic. Tsui himself worked on the script, along with directing and producing the film to ensure originality. Tsui Hark has always been a guru of wuxia, a broad genre of Chinese fiction about the adventures of martial arts heroes.
Tsui Hark this time enlists Kung Fu superstar Jet Li along with an all-star supporting cast. Though there are some flat performances and clichéd plot lines, the film redeems itself as a visual spectacle.
The film's 3-D IMAX visual effects, which were co-produced by nine top international visual effects companies, truly shine. Actually Chuck Comisky, the visual-effects supervisor for James Cameron's "Avatar", teams up with Tsui Hark as the film's 3-D special effects director. The quality of the 3-D effects, which are further enhanced by IMAX, is, in some parts, even equal to those in "Avatar". The creation of a duel inside a cyclone challenges the wildest imagination of any previous martial arts film.
Although "Flying Swords of the Dragon Gate" may not be Tsui Hark's best work, from a technical standpoint it raises the bar for Chinese filmmakers and could be a watershed for the Chinese film industry.
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