There seem to be a few plot holes (people keep pausing in their fighting to talk), but that may be a matter of the standards of the Taiwanese cinema as opposed to my more western ideas. King Hu's martial arts movie has nasty villains, loner heroes, magnificent wide-screen Eastmancolor images (restored in 2013) and all sorts of crazy fight sequences in a dazzling array. As they move, however, an assortment of skilled swordsmen (and one swordswoman) show up at the Inn. The Eunuchs in charge and the bad boys of the Eastern Gate intend to kill them at the Dragon Inn on the border. A minister has been executed and his two younger children sent into exile. The 90's remake is nothing better except for an additional character well acted by Maggie Cheung. You can watch some scenes of it if you go to the movie Bu San(2003) aka Goodbye, Dragon Inn(here in IMDb and watch the trailer) which paid tribute to this movie. Beware of some mistakes in the original English subtitles mentioned by the director himself. If there is any complaint by any viewer, it's the pace that many may find it a bit slow but isn't most highly regarded movies slow ? The finale scene is the most climatic in a Chinese action that critc compared this film to "Rio Bravo" and "The Wild Bunch". All these 3 females stars are made popular by him and they are also the 3 most popular swords women in Chinese Cinema. It was a major hit all over Chinese areas in South East Asia and discovered Shang Kuan Ling Feng(note the mistake by a previous comment)as the 2nd most popular Sword woman(the 1st was Cheng Pei Pei, and later 3rd Hsu Feng(Hsia Nu aka A Touch of Zen). This is the original of the 1992 remake of the same title(with a NEW) and 2nd of the "INN" trilogy by King Hu after Come Drink With Me.
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