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A Touch of Zen
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A Touch of Zen
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.
The film is set in 17th-century China during the Ming dynasty. In a remote mountain village, Gu Shengzhai, a well-meaning but unambitious scholar and painter, has a tendency to be clumsy and ineffectual. One day, a stranger called Ouyang Nian arrives in town and asks Gu to paint a portrait of him. Ouyang's real objective, however, is to arrest a fugitive on behalf of the spy agency Eastern Depot. The fugitive, Yang Huizhen, is Gu's friend and together they plot against the evil eunuch Wei Zhongxian, who wants to exterminate Yang's family after her father Yang Lian attempted to warn the emperor of Wei's corrupt ways.
Yang has fled under the protection of Shi Wenqiao and Lu Ding'an, who are loyal to her father. The saintly and powerful Chan Buddhist monk Huiyuan intervenes to protect them, and they spend two years at his monastery where he teaches them self-defence. Ouyang, Yang and her friends are all superior martial artists. Ouyang has a special flexible sword that bends and that he can wear within his belt, making him seem unarmed.
Gu and Yang become lovers. As Gu becomes drawn into Yang's conflict with the Eastern Depot, he gradually develops from a passive scholar into an active participant in the resistance, and he even comes up with a fiendish "Ghost Trap" for the Eastern Depot agents. Ouyang is killed in a fight in a bamboo forest, and they use his signature seal to lure the Eastern Depot agents into the trap. This is a plan to use a supposedly haunted site to play tricks on the guards to make them believe they are prey to the undead. Lu dies in the "Ghost Trap" battle. In the aftermath, Gu walks through the carnage, laughing at the ingenuity of his plan until the true cost of human life dawns upon him. He sees Huiyuan and his followers arrive to help bury the dead.
After the battle, Gu is unable to find Yang, who has apparently left him and does not want him to follow her. He tracks her down at the monastery, where she has given birth to a child and become a nun. She tells Gu that they are not fated to be together, and entrusts their child to his care. Later, when Gu and the child are tracked down by Wei Zhongxian's deputy Xu Xianchun, Yang and Shi come to Gu's rescue. Huiyuan and four of his fellow monks also arrive to fight Xu. After Xu fakes repentance in order to surprise attack Huiyuan, a battle begins in which Xu is killed and Yang, Shi and Huiyuan are all badly injured.
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A Touch of Zen
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.
The film is set in 17th-century China during the Ming dynasty. In a remote mountain village, Gu Shengzhai, a well-meaning but unambitious scholar and painter, has a tendency to be clumsy and ineffectual. One day, a stranger called Ouyang Nian arrives in town and asks Gu to paint a portrait of him. Ouyang's real objective, however, is to arrest a fugitive on behalf of the spy agency Eastern Depot. The fugitive, Yang Huizhen, is Gu's friend and together they plot against the evil eunuch Wei Zhongxian, who wants to exterminate Yang's family after her father Yang Lian attempted to warn the emperor of Wei's corrupt ways.
Yang has fled under the protection of Shi Wenqiao and Lu Ding'an, who are loyal to her father. The saintly and powerful Chan Buddhist monk Huiyuan intervenes to protect them, and they spend two years at his monastery where he teaches them self-defence. Ouyang, Yang and her friends are all superior martial artists. Ouyang has a special flexible sword that bends and that he can wear within his belt, making him seem unarmed.
Gu and Yang become lovers. As Gu becomes drawn into Yang's conflict with the Eastern Depot, he gradually develops from a passive scholar into an active participant in the resistance, and he even comes up with a fiendish "Ghost Trap" for the Eastern Depot agents. Ouyang is killed in a fight in a bamboo forest, and they use his signature seal to lure the Eastern Depot agents into the trap. This is a plan to use a supposedly haunted site to play tricks on the guards to make them believe they are prey to the undead. Lu dies in the "Ghost Trap" battle. In the aftermath, Gu walks through the carnage, laughing at the ingenuity of his plan until the true cost of human life dawns upon him. He sees Huiyuan and his followers arrive to help bury the dead.
After the battle, Gu is unable to find Yang, who has apparently left him and does not want him to follow her. He tracks her down at the monastery, where she has given birth to a child and become a nun. She tells Gu that they are not fated to be together, and entrusts their child to his care. Later, when Gu and the child are tracked down by Wei Zhongxian's deputy Xu Xianchun, Yang and Shi come to Gu's rescue. Huiyuan and four of his fellow monks also arrive to fight Xu. After Xu fakes repentance in order to surprise attack Huiyuan, a battle begins in which Xu is killed and Yang, Shi and Huiyuan are all badly injured.