1969, Taiwan. Starring Ping-Yu Chang, Roy Chiao, Shih Chun, Hsu Feng, Hsue Han, Ying-chieh Han, Tien Miao, Peng Tien, Cien Tsao, Pai Ying, Sammo Hung. Directed by King Hu. Available on DVD (Amazon).

Sometimes, a movie is so big that getting a grasp on exactly where you should begin a mere review is intimidating. King Hu's 1969 masterpiece, A Touch of Zen definitely falls into this classification, an elite spot held by only a precious few films in my pantheon. Needless to say, among fans of both Hong Kong cinema and cinema in general, this film has garnered a tremendous reputation, even taking an award at the Canne's Film Festival (a feat that used to actually mean something).

And in every way, A Touch of Zen lives up to it's monumental rep. Although the action focuses on a limited number of characters and locations, it drums up an overwhelming, epic feel, thanks in part to amazing cinematography. Every technical aspect of this film is damn near perfect: the camera work, the acting, the sound effects and music. And beyond the conventional aspects of film-making, the script is simply astounding. King Hu takes a fairly conventional martial arts plot and expands it to a grand scope, both physically and spiritually.

For those of us trying to see the film now, the task is even more daunting than writing a meaningful review. Upon it's completion, the film reportedly ran some 400 or so minutes long (!), and was cut down to just under three hours for Cannes Film Festival. Currently, I've never found anywhere offering the entire mammoth thing either on videotape or film. But even at it's chopped 187 minute running time (the most common one, it seems), this "lost film" is a mesmerizing classic, and whatever edits were made do not hurt the overall flow of action or plot.

I might also add that this is one of those films that absolutely must be viewed in it's full, widescreen format. King Hu uses every inch of the screen. No space is left ignored, and to see a pan and scan, cropped version of this film would devastate the effort that went into making it. There are plenty of films out there that are not really hurt by the cropping that happens to transfer it to video/television. This film is simply not one of them. You literally miss half the film if you don't see this letterboxed.

Set during the Ming Dynasty, A Touch of Zen begins with a young scholar named Ku who seems to lack ambition or direction in life. He meets a mysterious swordsman one day, and from that point on, life gets increasingly strange. The abandoned fort in which he and his mother live (abandoned because it is supposed to be haunted) soon sees a new tenant arrive, a young woman named Yang (Hsu Feng). Everyone seems to take an avid interest in the comings and goings around the haunted fort. Before long, Ku discovers that Yang is a wanted fugitive and masterful swordswoman. The mysterious swordsman is there to bring her in, dead or alive (preferably dead).

It turns out that she was a member of an honest noble family that had uncovered all sorts of treachery within the ranks of a government faction known as the Eastern Group. Before the report could be made, the Eastern Group, lead by an evil Eunuch, murdered her family. Only she, a good general, and one other man escaped. Like King Hu's Dragon Inn, the film revolves around a central location and the various attempts by each party to outwit and outmaneuver one another. Ku joins the rebels, lending them his knowledge of military tactics and other scholarly advice. he also falls in love with Yang, who seems to want to return his affections but cannot, and does not want to endanger Ku's life by entangling him in the ever-growing web.

The action choreography is great, and much like the entire film, sits firmly in between the Shaw Brothers style of swordplay popular in films like One-Armed Swordsman and Trail of the Broken Blade, and the Japanese style of martial arts film-making popular in samurai films. Of the two, samurai films have always been the more technically adept films, with even many of the best Shaw Brothers swordsman epics having a haphazard look to them. A Touch of Zen definitely ranks up there with absolute best film sin term of the actual construction, easily on par with Kurosawa at his best.

The second half of the film takes a far more spiritual turn, as Yang and the heroic General seek the protection of a group of monks who, like most monks in martial arts films, are allowed to kick ass but still be all into peace and harmony. A striking finale ensues with some of the most inspired film-making I have ever witnessed. A surrealist wave overcomes the film, and in the end, those who are in tune with nature are still standing, and those aren't have died.

The quick of eye will spot Sammo Hung as one of the right-hand men of the General of the Eastern Group. I should also point out that the whole "evil Eunuch" thing is very much grounded in factual history. In the latter days of the Ming Dynasty, Imperial Eunuchs were given a tremendous amount of power, and many of them abused it mercilessly. Eventually, the government of China decayed into a state of madness, chaos, and confusion, which allowed the Ch'ings from Manchuria to sweep through the country and set up one of the longest foreign-controlled dynasty in the history of the country. The other foreign-controlled Dynasty was the Yuan, which was founded by invading Mongolians but barely lasted over a quarter of a century.

It makes for interesting "revisionist" history in many films where the heroes are Ming patriots and the Ming Dynasty is viewed as heroic and virtuous. Certainly, no one in China wanted the Ch'ings to roll in and take things over, but the Ming Dynasty was so bloated with insanity and corruption that it was hardly worth fighting for. But I guess you'll take what you can get. Better to have domestic madmen controlling your life than foreign ones. And after all, the Mings made those nice vases.

King Hu creates one classic scene after another, meticulously rendered and delivered like an epic poem. The sword fight in the bamboo forest is brilliant, but my favorite scene comes after one of the big showdowns with the Eastern Group. Having used a variety of tricks and traps, the small band of heroic rebels slaughter a whole legion of soldiers. After the battle, Scholar Ku walks from trap to trap, laughing with joy at the ingenuity he has show, remembering how each weapon and trap was tested on a collection of stuffed dummies.

And then, all of a sudden, he steps into the overgrown courtyard, which is choked with the corpses of the men slain in the fight. The transformation of his demeanor from joviality to utter terror as he realizes the true cost of their fight, and that these are not dummies, but actual human beings, is staggering in its power, partly because it's handled in such a subtle way. A lesser director, or a lesser actor, would have gone for a sudden collapse into crying madness and fear. Here, however, the effect of Ku's revelation is more subtle, and much more powerful. Only a few actors understand and can use the power of subtlety.

A Touch of Zen would find itself on the top of any list of favorites I could ever come up with. It is a landmark piece of work, and I think, quite possibly, the greatest film to come out of the Hong Kong/Taiwan/China area. Hell, it's one of the greatest films to have come out anywhere in the world. The end had me just sitting wide-eyed in the dark, thinking about the final moments, final images, for quite some time before finally moving to turn the television off.

Labels: Director: King Hu, Historical Epics, Martial Arts: Wu Xia, Year: 1969