A lady fugitive on the run from corrupt government officials is joined in her endeavors by an unambitious painter and skilled Buddhist monks.A lady fugitive on the run from corrupt government officials is joined in her endeavors by an unambitious painter and skilled Buddhist monks.A lady fugitive on the run from corrupt government officials is joined in her endeavors by an unambitious painter and skilled Buddhist monks.
- Awards
- 2 wins & 1 nomination
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaDirector King Hu had a full village constructed for the opening half of the movie, and then left it alone for nine months to give it a weathered look.
- GoofsThe film is set in the 14th century AD. However, the Gu family have maize (corn) drying outside their house - this crop is American in origin and did not reach China until the 16th century.
- Quotes
Ku Shen Chai: Have you seen Miss Yang, the lady who lives here?
General Shih Wen-chiao: No, I'm blind.
Ku Shen Chai: Forgive me.
General Shih Wen-chiao: Miss Yang and her mother are gone.
Ku Shen Chai: Mr. Shih! She said you should run for your life too. Do you know where she went?
Ku Shen Chai: I have to find her!
[Shih pulls out a sword as two soldiers fly down from the sky and attack, but are quickly killed in a few brief strokes of the sword]
Ku Shen Chai: Mr. Shih! Mr. Shih, who are you really?
General Shih Wen-chiao: I'm not blind, that's for sure.
- Alternate versionsA Touch Of Zen was originally released in Taiwan in two parts with a total running time of 3 hours 20 minutes. However, the bamboo forest sequence which ended part one was reprised at the beginning of part two, adding over 20 minutes to the total running time. When the two parts were combined by King Hu without any repeated scenes in 1975, the resulting total time was 3 hours. The 2015 4K restoration from the original negative runs 2 hours 59 minutes.
- ConnectionsFeatured in La Menace (1977)
What I especially like about it is that it starts off as something totally different but eventually ends as am adventurous movie, with lots of material arts fights in it. It's a long movie (about 3 hours) so it takes its time to slowly set things up and let stuff develop into something different. This ensures that the movie is always slowly but gradually developing and also never stands still, so there is never being an actual slow moment in this movie.
As the story develops, things also definitely get more interesting and fun to watch. The movie turns into a real adventure, in which the main characters are almost constantly traveling and having encounters with people that want to take their lives. This ensures that there is also plenty of action to enjoy in this movie, involving sword fights but also plenty of hand-to-hand combat, with every now and then Wire Fu effects involved.
It's also being a real innovative and original movie at times with some of its editing and camera techniques. In that regard this is also being a real '70's flick, a period in which a lot of experimenting with editing and cinematography was going on. Especially the cinematography is great at times and also does a good job at capturing the right mood and brining the environments very lively to the screen.
It's just the sort of movie not an awful lot is being wrong with. It does everything well and within its genre it's being a great watch!
9/10
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- Boba_Fett1138
- Jun 14, 2012
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Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Ein Hauch von Zen
- Filming locations
- Taroko National Park, Hualien, Taiwan(monastery and river canyon)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime3 hours 20 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1