casts nature as mysterious, tangled but carefully deliberate, and casts reformers combating totalitarianism as potential ghosts, the past returning to claim its place, the dead returning to vanquish their living betrayers. Hu famously continues to restore to film from Chinese literature the female knight, another piece of the past that now points forward. and the male hero finds his strength only after he sleeps with her and meets the Abbot; the power here is sexual, literally balls to bones, naturally emanating from within. the villain, corrupt and unseen, is a eunuch; his power is baseless, empty, founded on lies. sex vs death. the film folds themes in so gradually that you truly float down the river without ever seeming to get wet.

Someday, some enterprising company is going to restore and rerelease these King Hu movies and then they're going to get a whole lot of my money.

100

As dreamy as the rivers in which we seek nourishment and as haunting as the figures which impede the voids which we yearn to observe in the darkness. One of those movies that check every box on the list and even invent a few new categories just for the hell of it.

It's probably a good five minutes before we see any human beings in A Touch of Zen - before that it's the title sequence, then some close-ups of insects in spider's webs, and various shots of water, trees, light, nature at rest. It's like a soft prayer before the story begins, and it's your first clue that this is no typical kung-fu action movie, containing almost none of the genre's usual concessions to audience attention spans. Even when the action does start up, it's pretty removed from the expected Shaw Bros. athleticism, instead punctuated by long stretches of patient waiting in between the jump-cut-aided fight choreography, just outside physical reality as we (think we) know it.

I love how this starts as something of an horror mystery develops towards earthly matters and later achieves heaven.

It seems to me that I often find myself reacting to this more-than-meets-the-eye cinema akin to the way any student of the enlightenment would approach a system which deterministically connects mysticism + defying of gravity with goodness and kindness – namely with scepticism.

Desde o início, percebemos que o diretor aplica um ritmo distinto aqui, cadenciado, lento... Cada detalhe ambiental é minuciosamente exposto, a situação é mais importante que a trama em si. De modo que, depois que compreendemos o enredo e situamos os personagens, não nos surpreendemos de todo que o filme mergulhe numa lógica do cinema de fluxo e quase abandone os diálogos por quase uma hora. Fotografia magistral, lutas magistralmente coreografadas, recursos de edição brilhantes, no afã por compensar dificuldades técnicas e/ou limitações orçamentárias. Mas é no terço final que o filme expõe toda a sua genialidade e justifica este tosco título brasileiro: admito, estava um tanto fatigado pela extensão e lentidão intencional do filme, mas o clímax budista é aplaudível ao extremo, podendo ser transladado para questões mais gerais envolvendo a perquirição por laicidade em ambientes políticos. Filmaço. Merece todo o auê crítico, evidentemente! Extenua, mas pela melhor das causas: o autoconhecimento com vistas ao respeito ao próximo! (WPC>)

이번 서울아트센터에서 기획한 시네바캉스로 봤는데ㅎㅎ..아마 1969년에 이 영화를 만났다면 영혼을 갈아넣었겠지만 2015년의 나는 지루함을 감출수 없었다. 대나무숲씬만큼은 명불허전

Great sword fights and I can see the inspiration for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," but the plot confused me.

p/reviously screened

It would have been great if they would have trimmed the whole final act (about 30-40 minutes of the movie). Apparently they shot it like two different movies. I have the feeling they didn't have enough material for the second one and they dragged it along unnecessarily.

Really long and draggy. That seems to stem from the fact that it's three or four movies in one instead of one