Living in the same household with his mother makes Gu a tad more ambitious as she pushes him to marry and get a civil servant position. On the other end, Yang and her mother have recently become Gu’s live in neighbors, as they shift into a derelict home. Gu’s mother is determined to catch this opportunity and arrange a marriage between them. This is a tad uncomfortable for Yang as she is a runaway with her mother. They are running away from an eunuch Wei who reportedly assassinated her father when he found out about Wei’s devious motives and has now resorted to killing the rest of the family. The reluctance to get married is gone as the two form an odd friendship, turning of events reshape Gu’s personality as he gets more cunning. This makes him realize that they could conquer the supposedly haunted ruins their rivals used to live by.
King Hu’s film can certainly be distinguished from the other plethora of wuxia movies. For one, it is not a Hong Kong film but a Taiwanese one , which is a rare production to begin with. But the genre which King Hu directed does have a lot of distinguishing features. The Setting never exists solely for the background of the Film. Rather the setting itself is thoroughly crafted and delicately embedded with its own distinct set of stories, plots, betrayal, and detailed character exposition, The first action scene of the movie is set after 50 minutes due to Hu’s understanding of wanting to build the story and the characters well enough. King Hu directed another Wuxia film which had a female character named Gu as the protag. Wuxia films are known for their intense action and fighting scenes but in this film Gu is not trained for combat at all and is extremely meek for the larger part of the movie. This film also portrays exquisite outdoor shots of Shaw Brothers productions that were set inside for the larger duration. All in all, superb interplay of the Environment along with the Characters movement were a great addition.
The fourth is that Hu also added a number of moments of a symbol, such as the spider webs which seem to evidence Gu’s involvement in Yang’s case and Wei’s desire to ensnare the last part of yang’s family just like a spider fixates on its prey. Finally, he also put the concept of Zen into the story, which is quite a challenging task as Zen is believed to be something which cannot be properly explained but can only be sensed or intuited.
The said, however, does not mean that the action is wanting. On the contrary, there are many and long battles, all of whom are excellently choreographed and have some of the best choreography ever created in the genre. Particularly outstanding are the ones in the ruins and the two in the forest, as well as the script and the characters, and the primary stimuli for considering “A Touch of Zen” are a forerunner of movies like ‘Crouching tiger, hidden dragon and ‘House of Flying Daggers’.
Shin Jun performs well in the role of Gu his transition from a weak person devoid of ambition to a dangerous strategist that relishes the suffering of his opponents was probably the most impressive acting aspect of the film. Hsu Feng in the role of Yang is also fairly decent as the much terrified and disadvantaged daughter and at times, Roy Chiao manages to outshine everyone in the role of Abbot Hui Yuan, who sheltered Yang for some time before she came to Gu’s town. The battles he fights in are amazing and he is even able to come across as the embodiment of peace, even in the midst of all great drama, in a Zen way. On a very trivial note, the movie does include Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan in minor unaccredited roles.
In my opinion, the editing deserves a special mention especially those flashback parts, which made the movie easier to understand, and the music and background songs are very good as we see in the film. The only flaw in the technical side of the movie is that sometimes it is difficult to see the scenes because of poor light conditions. But then, this is a very minor fault in a movie that has technical skills which won the Technical Grand Prize in the Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for the Palme d’Or.
Moreover, in 1970-71 this film was first shown in two episodes. Nevertheless, in 2014, the Ministry of Culture ordered the Taiwan Film Institute to do it’s restoration as a component of the “Taiwan Film Classics Digital Restoration and Value-Adding Project,” with the only intention of Yu Feng, who traded her promising career as a film actress in the 80’s for a more fulfilling.
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