A Touch of Zen is renowned as being a more 'meditative' kung fu-film, if we can call it so.
The story starts with us seeing the artist Ku who lives with his mother in spite of being long since grown up. His mother scornes him for being lazy and not taking initiatives in life, letting every day pass by in the same way as the previous.
Close to their house there is an old fort(ress), since long abandoned - til one day when Ku hears some strange noices and starts to investigate where they come from.
When doing so he meets a young woman - Yang - living there with her mother and as Ku's mother tries to help them, he gets closer to this woman, something his mother doesn't object to as she wants him to get married.
Soon they find out that the family of this young woman has been murdered by the imperial noble who now wants to find her and kill her too. It turns out to be a stranger - having earlier asked Ku for a self-portrait, with the only aim to get closer to Yang - who is in charge of the task to bring her back and eventually kill her. Why?
Because her father once wanted to warn the emperor of the eunuch's corruption at the court.
In his struggle to defend Yang, Ku does not use force, he's not a combatant, as in most other kung fu-films.
After having slept with Yang he seems though lose his innocence and he becomes devoted, not only to Yang, but to her cause and tries to help her in every way. He manufactures a special trap capturing most of Yangs opponents and his newly awakened ingenuity, is of much help to Yang.
When the fight is over Yang disappears and Ku starts searching for her, finding her in a monastery where she has given birth to a child (their child most probably) and where she explains that she has decided to become a nun.
The monastery is runned by Abbot Hui Yuan, a very powerful monk with almost 'supernatural' powers, not least spiritually.
The 'love story' between Ku and Yang is hereby over but not the problems as Ku, with the child, later on is attacked by Hsu Hsien-Chen, a mean and cunning commander of Eunuch Wei's army.
Yang and Hui Yuan come to the rescue of Ku and the commander and his men are killed but on the same time Yang and the abbot is badly injured.
The film ends with us seing Yang trying to reach the abbot when he is meditating on a small mountain, with a halo around his head, bleeding golden blood, indicating that he has become an enlightened person, a buddha.
On the whole this film is in many parts a very beautiful film but to say that it brings a meditative, more spiritualistic aspect to the ordinary Kung fu film, is perhaps to exaggerate.
Of course the plot, as one ingredient, have the monks from the monastery, their spiritual way of living displayed to a certain extent, the non-violence displayed up til the point when your life is threatened etc. but to say that this makes the film more 'spiritual' than ordinary kung fu-films is not totally accurate I think.
One of the interesting things is that the director King Hu blends a non-violence ideology with the recognition of the fact that violence sometime has to be used in order to achieve a less violent result, not achieved by pure non-violence ideology. This lend to the film a sense of credibility and non-fundamentalistic perspective.
Among the actors we find: Chun Shih (Ku Shen Chai), Feng Shu (Yang Hui-ching), Roy Chiao (Hui Yuan) and Ying Bai (General Shih Wen-chiao).
The story starts with us seeing the artist Ku who lives with his mother in spite of being long since grown up. His mother scornes him for being lazy and not taking initiatives in life, letting every day pass by in the same way as the previous.
Close to their house there is an old fort(ress), since long abandoned - til one day when Ku hears some strange noices and starts to investigate where they come from.
When doing so he meets a young woman - Yang - living there with her mother and as Ku's mother tries to help them, he gets closer to this woman, something his mother doesn't object to as she wants him to get married.
Soon they find out that the family of this young woman has been murdered by the imperial noble who now wants to find her and kill her too. It turns out to be a stranger - having earlier asked Ku for a self-portrait, with the only aim to get closer to Yang - who is in charge of the task to bring her back and eventually kill her. Why?
Because her father once wanted to warn the emperor of the eunuch's corruption at the court.
In his struggle to defend Yang, Ku does not use force, he's not a combatant, as in most other kung fu-films.
After having slept with Yang he seems though lose his innocence and he becomes devoted, not only to Yang, but to her cause and tries to help her in every way. He manufactures a special trap capturing most of Yangs opponents and his newly awakened ingenuity, is of much help to Yang.
When the fight is over Yang disappears and Ku starts searching for her, finding her in a monastery where she has given birth to a child (their child most probably) and where she explains that she has decided to become a nun.
The monastery is runned by Abbot Hui Yuan, a very powerful monk with almost 'supernatural' powers, not least spiritually.
The 'love story' between Ku and Yang is hereby over but not the problems as Ku, with the child, later on is attacked by Hsu Hsien-Chen, a mean and cunning commander of Eunuch Wei's army.
Yang and Hui Yuan come to the rescue of Ku and the commander and his men are killed but on the same time Yang and the abbot is badly injured.
The film ends with us seing Yang trying to reach the abbot when he is meditating on a small mountain, with a halo around his head, bleeding golden blood, indicating that he has become an enlightened person, a buddha.
On the whole this film is in many parts a very beautiful film but to say that it brings a meditative, more spiritualistic aspect to the ordinary Kung fu film, is perhaps to exaggerate.
Of course the plot, as one ingredient, have the monks from the monastery, their spiritual way of living displayed to a certain extent, the non-violence displayed up til the point when your life is threatened etc. but to say that this makes the film more 'spiritual' than ordinary kung fu-films is not totally accurate I think.
One of the interesting things is that the director King Hu blends a non-violence ideology with the recognition of the fact that violence sometime has to be used in order to achieve a less violent result, not achieved by pure non-violence ideology. This lend to the film a sense of credibility and non-fundamentalistic perspective.
Among the actors we find: Chun Shih (Ku Shen Chai), Feng Shu (Yang Hui-ching), Roy Chiao (Hui Yuan) and Ying Bai (General Shih Wen-chiao).
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