A Touch of Zen

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A Touch of Zen
Image:A Touch of Zen DVD cover.jpg DVD cover
Directed by	King Hu
Produced by	Jung-Feng Sha Shiqing Yang
Written by	King Hu
Starring	Hsu Feng Shih Jun Pai Ying Roy Chiao
Release date(s)	November 18, 1971 (Hong Kong)
Running time	200 min approx
Country	Image:Flag of the Republic of China.svg Taiwan
Language	Mandarin
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A Touch of Zen (Chinese: 俠女, Hsia nu) is a 1971 wuxia film directed by King Hu, and made in Taiwan. The movie won significant critical acclaim and became the first Chinese action film ever to win a prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

Although filming began in 1969, A Touch of Zen wasn't completed until 1971^[1] and has a running time of over three hours, making it an unusually epic entry in the Wuxia genre.

1 Synopsis
2 Significance
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Synopsis

The plot is largely seen through the eyes of Ku (played by Shih Jun) who is a well meaning but unambitious scholar and painter, with a tendency towards being clumsy and ineffectual. A stranger arrives in town wanting his portrait painted by Ku, but his real objective is to bring a female fugitive back to the city for execution on behalf of the East Chamber guards. The fugitive, Yang (played by Hsu Feng), is befriended by Ku and together they plot against the corrupt eunuch who wants to eradicate all trace of her family after her father attempts to warn the king of the eunuch's corruption.

One of the unique aspects of the film is that Ku is a non-combatant all the way through the film and only becomes involved when he sleeps with Yang. Upon doing so, he is no longer the naïve bumbling innocent, but instead becomes confident and assertive, and when Yang’s plight is revealed, he insists on being part of it – and even comes up with a fiendish "Ghost Trap" for the East Chamber guards. This is a callously devised trap using a supposedly haunted site to play tricks on the guards to make believe they are prey to the undead. In the aftermath, Ku walks through the carnage laughing at the ingenuity of his plan until the true cost of human life dawns on him.

[edit] Significance

The film is unusual for its day and country of origin in its complexity of cinematography, with symbolism being surprisingly dominant with the use of spiders spinning their webs. This refers to both the tangled and sinister nature of the East Chamber and the evil Eunuch and the manipulative nature of Yang. Elsewhere, the film employs a dark, moody tone which enhances the sense of fantasy.

Featuring stunning settings and backdrops, A Touch of Zen was clearly influential to many films, particularly Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Zhang Yimou’s House of Flying Daggers.