Saw Dragon Inn (thanks, Basil!) It was a ridiculous martial-arts movie. Set in feudal china, the children of an executed political dissident are being smuggled to safety by his friends. They hole up in the Dragon Gate Inn (or Dragon Inn, depending on translation, apparently) where they are delayed for a period by weather, then by elaborate games of pretend played with scouting troops hunting for them, then by the army coming to kill them. There is also a scheming mistress of the inn whose allegiance swaps at a dizzying rate. The whole thing is really an excuse for awesome fight scenes. The fights never reach the eye-popping spectacle of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (et al) but what it lacks in beauty it makes up for in quantity. No one walks, only jumps and twirls are allowed. No one has a conversation, only talking during battles. My favorite scene in the film was when our heroes, the inn staff, and the scouts are in a three-way standoff one night. The mistress comes out of her room to find secret fights breaking out around every corner. Does no one sleep? Hilarious.
A deeply goofy movie. Possibly the goofiness is accidental, but I think not. It feels like a comedy-action where the comedy is mostly lost in translation.
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