Dragon Inn (1967)

Most of the film unfolds in a remote inn where loyalists, a eunuch's agents and wandering swordsmen sit down to eat while sizing one another up. The pleasure is the tension before the blades come out, built from glances, doorways and suspicious cups of wine. King Hu made it in Taiwan for the Union Film Company, and it broke box-office records in Taiwan, Korea and the Philippines. Its Ming dynasty setting, treacherous eunuch and secret police became a template copied for decades, including two remakes. Watch it before New Dragon Gate Inn and the comparison shows exactly how Hong Kong sped the genre up.