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)
For most of the first hour, the movie is a suspense mystery as the artist watches and wonders. It's really impressive.
You don't get an explanation of what's going on until near the halfway point, but that's done well and introduces these unstoppable monks that are really cool.
But then things get weird. The artist comes up with a strategy that seemed fairly ridiculous, the story takes some weird turns, and after another fun scene with the monks you get a real WTF? Finale that I don't know what to make of.
In spite of being a martial arts film, there's not really a lot of action. What there is is pretty good, with scenes that suggest these people are genuinely trying to kill and not be killed, although towards the end the fighting gets increasingly nonsensical.
I don't know what to make of all the reviews here saying this is a great work of art. The cinematography is nice but at its best its effective suspense and at its worst it's a jumble of confused ideas. But it's still worth watching for the carefully crafted first half.
- How long is A Touch of Zen?Powered by Alexa
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