King Hu was a perfectionist who drove everyone crazy. He didn't just want to make a movie; he wanted to build a world that felt ancient, dusty, and spiritually heavy. When you sit down to watch A Touch of Zen, you aren't just watching a martial arts flick. You're entering a three-hour meditation on power, corruption, and the weirdly thin line between the physical world and something much more divine.
Honestly, the first hour doesn't even feel like an action movie. It’s more of a ghost story or a political thriller set in a crumbling village. We follow Ku Shen-chai, a talented but unmotivated scholar who still lives with his mom. He’s the guy who paints portraits and writes letters for people. He's not a hero. He's a bystander. But then Yang Hui-zhen shows up, and suddenly, the "ghost" in the local haunted fort is actually a political refugee running from the terrifying Eastern Depot—basically the Ming Dynasty’s secret police.
The Bamboo Forest and the Birth of Modern Action
Most people know A Touch of Zen because of the bamboo forest fight. If you’ve seen Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or House of Flying Daggers, you’ve seen King Hu’s DNA. Before this film came out in the early 70s, martial arts in cinema was often clunky or overly theatrical. Hu changed the game. He used "trampoline work" and frantic editing to make it look like characters were literally gliding through the air.
It’s fast. It’s chaotic.
The editing is so tight that you sometimes only see a few frames of a sword stroke, but your brain fills in the rest of the movement. This "glimpse" style of action creates a sense of supernatural speed. When Hsu Feng (who plays Yang) leaps off a bamboo stalk, it’s a moment of pure cinematic gravity-defying grace.
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But here is the thing: the fight isn't just there for the sake of cool visuals. It’s desperate. These characters are fighting for their lives against an overwhelming fascist state. The Eastern Depot isn't just a group of bad guys; they represent a soul-crushing bureaucracy that wants to erase anyone who stands in its way.
A Movie That Almost Didn't Happen
The production of A Touch of Zen was a nightmare. King Hu started filming in 1967, and it took years to finish. He was obsessed with the details. He reportedly waited for months just to get the right grass to grow or the right mist to roll over the mountains. The studio, Union Film, eventually lost patience. They split the movie into two parts to try and claw back some money, but it flopped at the box office in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
It wasn't until 1975, when a shortened version won a technical prize at the Cannes Film Festival, that the world realized what Hu had actually achieved. It was the first Chinese-language film to really break into the prestigious European festival circuit.
- Director: King Hu
- Starring: Hsu Feng, Shih Chun, Bai Ying
- Original Release: 1970 (Part 1), 1971 (Part 2)
- Runtime: Approximately 180 minutes (Restored version)
The film is loosely based on a short story by Pu Songling from the 17th-century collection Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio. But while Pu Songling's stories are often about literal ghosts and fox spirits, Hu pivots toward Zen Buddhism.
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The Spiritual Shift: Beyond the Blade
If you watch the movie expecting a standard revenge plot, the ending is going to confuse you. It gets weird. In the final act, the violence stops being the solution. We see the introduction of the monks, led by Abbot Hui-yuan (played by Roy Chiao).
When the monks enter the fray, the visual language changes. They don't just fight; they radiate. There’s a famous scene where the sun forms a halo behind the Abbot’s head. This isn't just a cool lighting trick; it represents the "Touch of Zen" mentioned in the title. It’s the idea that true power doesn't come from a sword, but from spiritual enlightenment and the refusal to be moved by the chaos of the world.
The villain, Hsu Hsien-chen, is a man of pure ego and violence. He represents the physical world’s obsession with control. The monks represent the void. The ending is divisive, even today. Some people find it a bit too "trippy" or abrupt, but it’s essential to King Hu’s vision. He didn't want to make a movie about killing bad guys. He wanted to make a movie about escaping the cycle of violence altogether.
Why You Should Watch the 4K Restoration
For a long time, the only way to see A Touch of Zen was on grainy, badly dubbed VHS tapes or low-res DVDs. You couldn't see the texture of the old forts or the subtle shifts in the lighting during the dawn scenes.
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The 4K restoration by the Taiwan Film Institute and the Criterion Collection changed everything. You can finally see the "ink wash" quality of the cinematography. King Hu was trained as a painter, and every frame looks like a Ming Dynasty landscape come to life. The depth of field is incredible. You can see the dust motes dancing in the sunlight in the abandoned fort, which adds to that eerie, lived-in atmosphere that makes the first hour so effective.
It’s a long movie. You have to be in the right headspace. If you’re looking for a quick 90-minute blast of adrenaline, this isn't it. But if you want to see the blueprint for modern action cinema and a deeply philosophical epic, it’s mandatory viewing.
How to approach your first viewing:
- Commit to the slow burn. The first hour is slow. Let the atmosphere sink in.
- Watch the backgrounds. Hu was a master of using the environment as a character.
- Notice the sound design. The clashing of swords and the whistling of wind in the bamboo are meticulously layered.
- Research the historical context. Knowing a little about the Ming Dynasty and the "Eastern Depot" makes the political stakes feel much higher.
Basically, A Touch of Zen is the bridge between traditional Chinese opera-style performance and the high-flying wirework we see today. It’s a masterpiece that survived a disastrous production and a failed initial release to become one of the most influential films in history. You can see its fingerprints on everything from The Matrix to Kill Bill.
To truly appreciate it, stop looking at it as an "old movie" and start looking at it as a piece of visual poetry. The rhythm is different, the stakes are spiritual, and the payoff is unlike anything else in the genre. If you want to understand where modern action came from, you have to start here.
Go find the restored version. Turn off your phone. Let the mist and the bamboo take over.