A Touch of Zen (1971)

A Touch of Zen/Xia nü
Directed by King Hu
Written by King Hu from a story by Sung-Ling Pu
1971/Taiwan/Hong Kong
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

“. . in Old Karate, you learned your Art through pain. You learned- quickly that your techniques had to be fast or powerful or both. If you did not embrace pain and it’s lessons adequately, you simply did not survive”
― Soke Behzad Ahmadi, Ryukyu Kobujutsu : Bo – Tanbo – Toifa

This wuxia classic offers a real story, characters, and epic action.  A very entertaining combination.

Ku Shen Chai is a humble scholar who earns a meager living painting portraits and writing letters in the market.  He has a nagging mother who is perpetually after him to take the civil service exam and get married.  They live together rent-free in an abandoned fort that is rumored to be haunted.

Early on Ku Shen Chang comes across a number of people whose motivation is unclear. These include a handsome portrait subject and a blind beggar.  One day, Ku decides to explore a really creepy part of the huge fort and runs into his mother and the mysterious Lady Yang.

After about an hour of this we learn that a corrupt Eunuch that heads the Eastern Guard has murdered Lady Yang’s father, who opposed him; has vowed to kill Yang’s entire family; and has hordes of soldiers searching for our heroine.  It turns out that Ku Shen Chai is not much with the fighting but is a gifted student of military strategy.  More importantly, Lady Yang studied kung fu while in hiding at a Buddhist monastery with kick-ass monks who show up at the oddest times.  The rest of the movie is comprised of battles, each more epic than the previous one.  The outnumbered good-guys use both trickery and skill to defeat the foe.

The film throws the viewer into the midst of the action and creates a number of mysteries in the first hour.  While I could have done without some of this it does make you care about the characters when the swords come out.  It’s fantasy violence with lots of wire work, incredible feats of lightening-fast accuracy, and very little blood.  I love the strong, courageous heroine.  If you are at all interested in what the genre was about this would be a good one to start with.  Hu’s Dragon Inn (1967) is also excellent.