Flying Swords of Dragon Gate

Hong Kong genre chameleon Tsui Hark’s last film, the delightful ‘Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame’, went straight to DVD in the UK, so it’s a pleasure to see him back in our cinemas – even if this pumped-up reimagining of his 1992 wuxia thriller ‘New Dragon Gate Inn’ is a slightly less playful effort. Still, the big screen is the rightful place for what amounts to a lavishly mounted series of airborne sword fights – each one more spectacular (and silly) than the last – bound to a rather convoluted treasure hunt led by an untaxed Jet Li. It’s the first Chinese-language film to jump on the 3D bandwagon, and Tsui, with some help from ‘Avatar’ effects whiz Chuck Comisky, handles the gimmick with aplomb: the opening shot, vertiginously soaring over the vast shipyards of Ming-dynasty China, is as giddy a marvel as anything in the movies this year.