Synopsis
Ming dynasty noblewoman Yang must escape from the evil eunuch Hsu. She seeks refuge at a decrepit town where she gets assistance from a naïve scholar and a group of mysterious yet powerful monks.
A Touch of Zen
Cast
Hsu Feng Shih Chun Pai Ying Tian Peng Roy Chiao Tsao Chien Miao Tian Melvin Chang Yun-Wen Hsieh Han Han Ying-Chieh Sammo Hung Chang Ping-Yu Jui Wang Wan Chung-Shan Chang Yi-Kuai Pan Yao-Kun You Pin Liu Lam Ching-Ying Billy Chan Lung Fei Shan Mao Hao Li-Jen Chu Liu Kao Ming Chia Lu-Shih Chan Ming-Wai Kei Ho-Chiu Yeung Sai-Gwan Jacky Chen Shao-Lung Show All…
Director
Producer
Writers
Editors
Cinematography
Executive Producer
Art Direction
Stunts
Choreography
Composer
Costume Design
Makeup
Studios
Countries
Language
Alternative Titles
Chivalrous Lady, Les Maîtres du Zen, Xia Nu, Kultainen hämähäkki, A Tocha de Zen, Les Héroïques, Xia nü, SHA-NU, Касание Дзен, 협녀, Zen'in Dokunuşu, Ein Hauch von Zen, Hiệp Nữ, Ett drag av Zen, Un toque de zen, Dotyk Zen, Touch of zen - La fanciulla cavaliere errante, Neshani az Zen, Lamsah men alzen, Dodir zena, Дзен докосване, Un toque de Zen, A Touch of Zen - La fanciulla cavaliere errante, 侠女, Прикосновение дзен, Dotek zenu, Xia Nü
Genres
Themes
Releases by Date
Theatrical
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Hong Kong
30 Jul 1986
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France
21 Dec 2023
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Germany
Digital
10 May 2020
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France
10 Jan 2022
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France12
Physical
23 Sep 2004
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France
21 Sep 2016
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France
14 Nov 2016
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Netherlands16
Releases by Country
France
30 Jul 1986
- Theatrical
23 Sep 2004
- Physical DVD
21 Sep 2016
- Physical Blu-Ray
10 May 2020
- Digital VOD
10 Jan 2022
- Digital12 Prime Video
Germany
21 Dec 2023
- Theatrical
Hong Kong
18 Nov 1971
- Theatrical
Netherlands
14 Nov 2016
- Physical16 DVD, Blu ray
Popular reviews
More-
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.
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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.
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I love how this starts as something of an horror mystery develops towards earthly matters and later achieves heaven.
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the story begins with a spider-web.
there is a man, with weak smiles and expert painting hands. there is a doctor who only arrived in town last month and holds mysteries in his eyes. there is an agent who hides behind laundry-lines and mercilessly hunts for his prey. there is an old fort with ghosts lurking in the rafters. and there is a woman armed with nothing but determination and steel, running for her life.
the story will not end with defeat.
the army is marching across rivers and plains and rocks. they claim they stand for the laws of the land and they hide behind the rules so they can commit injustices. earthly matters of greed and power are…
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a corporeal, elemental and mystical dance of death... and eventually life. not quite the movie i was expecting after Dragon Inn which despite having higher aesthetic ambitions as well is almost a pure, rollicking kung fu action movie in comparison to this which seems interested in the fighting in so much as it contributes to the larger sense of feeling and dreaming these characters, locations, histories, myths. but one hell of a movie nonetheless and one the genres most transcendent finales. "humans can't fight ghosts."
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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.
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A spineless nerd who takes a backseat to his own story until he gets to play armchair Napoleon/Home Alone using all his military history reading. Having found his confidence from getting laid and setting a bunch of traps, he walks through the aftermath howling with laughter at his brilliance until he sees all the bodies his creativeness has left behind. Another classic Hu heroine emerges in a whirl of steely looks and vicious lunges, acquiescing to partnering with our protagonist but leaving him before social mores can sap her of her fierce independence.
And the interest in nature's beautiful indifference that cropped up at the margins of Dragon Inn is now arguably more centered than the ostensible lead, starting with…
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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.
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An ambitious work, transcending all genre conventions, in both its philosophical exploration/s and its filmmaking techniques...
Exploration:
(Among many other topics) rural life during the Ming Dynasty, political intrigue and Daoism vs Zen Buddhism.
Like Hu’s other movies, a message about working in harmony with others as a collective, against government officials.Techniques:
The first two acts feature wonderfully staged dialog exchanges, superb art direction and camerawork.
The action scenes remove wires and replace them with trampolines, cutting between jumps and lands for a more grounded feel (completely unique for wuxia).
The dancelike choreography and symbolic violence, early Soviet era inspired montage editing (fragmenting the action to constituent moments and parts, whilst maintaining continuity). Characters moving through each frame like a… -
Using what critical facilities I have when it comes to 1960s-70s Asian cinema (ie. fairly limited), what is striking to me in the work of King Hu is how pointedly different it is from an action choreographer like Lau Kar-Leung. Notably, Hu's action is at one more simple and more fantastic. The sequences here (which the first only happens after an hour of set up) are built on notably longer takes (meaning at least a 4-5 ASL during action), often shot from a distance, and most notably are built around pausing. The too oft-repeated "kung fu like ballet" doesn't seem as appropriate here - the action is built around one or two careful blows followed by long pauses where the…
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Trees shimmer. Sword glints. Light winks off water. Blade blurs. A body falls. The wind blows. Struggle ties us to this world, knots us to this dominion. Once untangled, we bleed gold.
A landmark in the elevation of wuxia. There are sequences so impressionistic, so hypnotic and mesmerizing, that watching them delivers on the title of the film completely.
Told in three separate acts, each so distinct from one another as to almost be three short stories. Yet, as character perspectives shift and the narrative blooms, we realize everything is part of a larger connected tapestry, rich and wide and singularly conscious.
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