China, 15th century — Imperial eunuch Cao defeats General Yu, his political opponent, and sends his men in search of the general's escaped family, who are heading for the Dragon Inn. There, four valiant warriors are waiting to help them.

Unlike his colleagues working in the wuxia genre (films about wandering warriors), King Hu was less interested in the fantasy component and relied not on slow motion or animation to stage the fight scenes, but on the skills of the actors and rhythmic movements borrowed from Chinese opera. The key tool was masterful editing, which freely moved his characters around the space and set a breathtaking rhythm — all against the backdrop of Taiwan's picturesque mountain landscapes.

The director's attention to color and detail reveals his former career as a set designer — that's how he started out in Hong Kong at the legendary Shaw Brothers studio. Gradually moving into directing, he returned to Taiwan with Dragon Inn, which became a big box office hit and later a world cinema classic, influencing followers of the genre and major directors working in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino in The Hateful Eight and Ang Lee in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). This colorful and incredibly beautiful film by Taiwanese classic King Hu is a precursor to the later Hong Kong noir action films that took over video stores around the world in the 1990s.

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Media partner of the film program: ‘98mag