494. Hsia Nu/A Touch of Zen (1969)

Running Time: 187 minutes
Directed By: King Hu
Written By: King Hu, Songling Pu
Main Cast: Hsu Feng, Shih Jun, Pai Ying, Roy Chiao, Tien Ping

MORE WUXIA "FUN"

As I mentioned the other day, at the end of my "Come Drink with Me" review, I moved "A Touch of Zen" to the top of my Netflix queue, so that I could treat King Hu like a band-aid and rip him off with one, quick motion. I wish that motion had been a little quicker...

With a running time of over three hours, "A Touch of Zen" tells the tale of several key characters. The film starts out following Ku Shen-chai (Jun), a less than ambitious scholar, who spends his days at his studio drawing portraits and doing calligraphy. His mother hounds him day in and day out to make something of his life and become a well respected official, but Ku brushes off these notions. When a young woman, Yang Hui-ching (Feng) moves into the supposedly haunted mansion near Ku's house, he becomes almost obsessed with her. When Ku's mother tries to set-up a date between Ku and Yang, she denies the offer. Eventually Ku and Yang do become "friendly" though and this forces Yang to tell Ku her history and how her family was brutally murdered by imperial enemies. Yang is the last of the family to escape execution and she's on the run. Now, Ku feels obligated to help her and with the enlistment of a few allies, Yang and Ku try to fight back against enemy.

One could argue that I probably already had the opinion formed that I wasn't going to like this movie, before I even popped it into my DVD player and watched it and honestly, that may be kind of right. The film "Come Drink with Me" was so far from being "up my alley" that it was just really hard to get excited for another King Hu film, one that had a similar plot (a woman out for vengeance). When it arrived in the mail from Netflix and I got a look at it's length, I was really dreading it, but like I've had to do other times on my journey, I sucked it up and went on with it. At times, in the past, when I've had to suck it up and watch something I didn't want to, it worked out in the end. This time - not so much. I will give King Hu a little credit, as this time I could really see the effort being poured out on to the screen. As much as "A Touch of Zen" also wasn't up my alley, I still found the three hour running time to go by at a nice pace and there weren't too many "watch the clock" moments.

I can say that no other director has had the ability to put me to sleep quite like King Hu does. There were numerous times throughout the picture that I nodded off, only to wake up, having to rewind the film and catch what I missed. The story was, at times, extremely drawn out. The first forty minutes of the film go something like this: Ku awakens, goes to his studio, comes home, gets nagged by his mother and spends his night inspecting the haunted next-door house. That cycle runs through at least twice and nearly eats up forty minutes of screen time! If you want to bring up the great cinematography, then I'll tell you that it was "so-so", unless you're talking about the fight scene in the woods, then I'll tell you that it was brilliant. I had heard so many gushing stories about the "beautiful camerawork" in this movie and really that's the only scene that wowed me, the rest looked it's age and was unimpressive, in my opinion.

In retrospect, maybe I shouldn't have watched the two King Hu movies back to back. I know when I look back on them, both this and "Come Drink with Me" are going to get confused in my mind and their both going to end up getting balled together and placed in the round file of my filmic brain. I give the film a few points for not totally boring me into oblivion, but ultimately this gets added to that long list of "not for me" movies. Otherwise, if this type of thing is your cup of tea, then I'm sure "A Touch of Zen" would be a great film for you.

RATING: 4/10 Well, I can't say I'm sad to see King Hu films finished, as far as my journey is concerned.

MOVIES WATCHED: 355
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 646

November 27, 2011 8:20pm

451. Da Zui Xia/Come Drink with Me (1966)

Running Time: 95 minutes
Directed By: King Hu
Written By: Ye Yang
Main Cast: Cheng Pei-pei, Yueh Hua, Chan Hung-lit, Lee Wan-chung, Yueng Chi-hing
Click here to view the trailer

EVERYBODY WAS KING HU FIGHTING

Well my streak of good movies comes to a crashing halt here at the blog. My last seven reviews written have all been positive reviews, but "Come Drink with Me" would have had to serve me up something A LOT better to get anything even remotely close to positive.

While traveling in a caravan, a general's son is kidnapped and held hostage in exchange for the release of a bandit leader, who is to be put to death. The bandit gang of kidnappers agree that they'll give the opposition four days to release their leader, or else they'll kill the general's son. The only thing that they must worry about now is Golden Swallow (Pei-pei), the general's daughter, coming at them, in retaliation. Of course, she does and we find out soon that their fears were legitimate, as we see Golden Swallow showcasing some pretty fancy sword work and throwing pieces of money as if it were daggers. On her mission to free her brother, Golden Swallow meets up with beggar, Drunken Cat (Hua), a man who turns out not to be a beggar at all, but another warrior and wielder of the Green Wand, a magic wand that turns Drunken Cat nearly invincible. Ultimately Drunken Cat agrees to assist Golden Swallow and an all out war is waged as we head into the climax of the picture.

If you'll remember my "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" review, then you'll remember me filing that film into the folder entitled, "not for me". "Come Drink with Me" is basically "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" thirty years earlier, except the cinematography isn't as flashy and the special effects aren't as poured on. It's a film that looks like it's age and in my opinion, that's a big drawback. The story in "Come Drink with Me" just wasn't very interesting and ultimately I just didn't care about the heroes or the villains that were battling one another or the outcomes of their situations. I'll give them a few brownie points for some mildly exciting action sequences and some attention grabbing swordplay scenes. This is something that if it had a much stronger story and had just a little bit more flamboyancy, it could've really been a home run. Instead, this film just feels so mundane and unimportant. I haven't seen a whole lot of kung-fu films, but I have a strong feeling that this is just another in a plethora of cookie cutter martial arts flicks.

Also, this is apparently another case of the book just throwing something in for historical value, rather than a movie ACTUALLY being a must see. A quick trip to the IMDB page for "Come Drink with Me" and you'll find a message board post claiming that this is King Hu's worst film, where many supposed martial arts buffs denounce this film, recommending that everyone take a look at anything but "Come Drink with Me" when it comes to King Hu cinema. Not good enough for ya? The book also says and I quote: "...despite it's great charm, this is still early King Hu; his mastery of all aspects of the medium, especially his inimitable approach to editing, would only be perfected in later masterworks such as A Touch of Zen." Okay, so THE BOOK is basically flat out saying that, "Yeah this movie's okay, but if you really want a treat check out A Touch of Zen". Must I see something from a director who has yet to perfect his style, according to this book? Really? Nevermind, I've scratched my head over this one long enough.

RATING: 3/10 Not the worst thing I've seen from the book and a few, minor pieces of interest get it a '3', but still a recommendation to avoid. I've moved "A Touch of Zen" to the top of my Netflix queue, so that I can rip this band-aid right off, in one quick motion.

MOVIES WATCHED: 352
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 649

November 22, 2011 7:10pm