A Touch of Zen (1971)

Original title

俠女

Directed by

King Hu

Genre

fantasy film, wuxia, martial arts film

Country

Hong Kong, Taiwan

Runtime

3h 20m

Rated

NR

Rating

7.6 of 10 from 226 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A mute painter in a small Ming dynasty town gets drawn into a web of intrigue involving a mysterious woman and corrupt eunuchs. The story blends martial arts action with ghost story elements and Zen Buddhist philosophy.

epiccontemplativeatmosphericspiritualslow-burnvisually strikingmeditativegraceful

What happens

A Touch of Zen (俠女) is a two-part wuxia film written, co-edited and directed by King Hu, originally released in 1970 and 1971. The film is set in the Ming dynasty under the dominance of eunuchs and explores a variety of themes including the transcendence of dichotomies, Zen Buddhism, feminism, conservative female roles, and the ghost story. The film was produced in Taiwan and funded by the Union Film Company. In his book on the film, Stephen Teo suggests that the film has roots in Hong Kong cinema, noting the number of both Taiwanese and Hong Kong actors and crew members. Because the director Hu was a filmmaker in the Shaw Brothers Studio before moving to Taiwan, the emergence of the film established the international visibility of the Hong Kong New Wave. At the 1975 Cannes Film Festival, the film was nominated for the Palme d'Or and won the Technical Grand Prize award, the second-ever Chinese-language film to win an award at the festival. The original Taiwanese release was in two parts in 1970 and 1971 (filming was still ongoing when the first part was released) with the bamboo forest sequence that concludes Part 1 reprised at the beginning of Part 2; this version has a combined runtime of 200 minutes. In November 1971, both parts of the film were combined into one for the Hong Kong market with a runtime of 187 minutes. A 4K restoration project was initiated in 2014, hosted by the male lead Shih Chun and funded by the female lead Hsu Feng. The restored version, with a total runtime of 180 minutes, was re-screened in the "Cannes Classics" section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

More like this

• Duel for Gold (1971)
• Blood of the Dragon (1971)
• The Jade Faced Assassin (1971)
• Black and White Swordsman (1971)
• The Duel (1971)
• Vengeance of a Snow Girl (1971)
• Dragon Gate Inn (1967)
• The New One-Armed Swordsman (1971)