A Touch of Zen 4K 1971

Director Qing Hu came from an aristocratic family. His grandfather, for example, was the leader of Henan Province. In 1949, when the Communists came to power, Kin Hu emigrated to Hong Kong. After working in the film industry and gaining success as a director, he moved to Taiwan. Here he made his most successful films, including “Dragon Tavern” (1967) and “A Touch of Zen” (1971).

Charismatic commoners; aristocratic aristocrats, equally good with swords and musical instruments; romantic intellectuals and sword duels - the recipe for success of these films.

“Touch of Zen,” or ‘The Zen Seal,’ became iconic around the world (immigrants from China were everywhere). American connoisseurs of Hong Kong cinema speak of this movie with fervor.

The Chinese title of the movie is 女俠. The heroine is a girl named Yang, the daughter of an official who wrote a denunciation against a powerful eunuch but was caught and tortured by him. Two generals loyal to her father escape with Mrs. Yang. The eunuch's soldiers pursue them all the way to the sea (think Hong Kong and Taiwan). Throughout the movie, the fugitives will try to get their lives together; and the spies will try to get them back to the restless eunuch. The only reliable defense against persecution will be a Buddhist monastery.

Kin Hu's movie work as a cultural figure was probably an attempt to find his place in life. Emigrants from all over China, usually aristocrats, did not speak the local dialect and were not needed by the natives. Together with the characters in the movie - and the audience - the director tries to build a new scale of life values in this new home. To preserve ancestral honor by embracing all that is good.