The three-hour King Hu classic, A Touch of Zen. Sadly, the DVD is a very poor quality (I hear Region 2 discs are even worse). The picture is murky, dirty and washed-out, and the sound has problems as well. The subtitles are too big and get partially cut off when you try to use wide screen properly. It's too bad too, because you can still tell the cinematography is gorgeous (the last half hour in full daylight looks awesome, trippy Buddhist ending and all) and the locations beautiful, but you do get attention span problems during night scene, and there are a lot of them. This is a movie that takes its time, the first fight only occurring after the first hour, so attention spans CAN be an issue. The story? An unambitious artist falls for the wrong girl, the fugitive daughter of a rebel. Our protagonist spends the first half of the film hoping he's in a romantic comedy, but suspecting he is either in a western or horror film. The realization that he is in a martial picture is nothing less than shocking. From there, the action picks up quite a lot, but all those slow moments at the front end of the picture do pay off.
Fairly interesting first half, at least. I appreciate almost every type of action, from car chases to traditional martial arts, only... i have hard time getting into that supernatural flying around that tends to be too prolonged.
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Comments 1 - 13 of 13
greennui
A bit silly and stiff at times but it was hard not to appreciate the absolutely glorious backdrops, set-designs and free flowing camera movements.chryzsh
It's been restored to 4K with crispy mono soundtrack! The bluray looks fantastic.http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=17069
jmars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hXD2nf5HFgTorgo
People complain about the last half hour? The scenes in daylight are the best!tommy_leazaq
Wish my copy was better. Couldn't make out anything from the screen on the night scenessushantv10
very few martial arts movies from the 70's have a good plot....but this sure is an exception.Ivan0716
Glad to see this on the most favourites list.Carota
good dramaturgy at all.beautiful pictures. esp. the light section did a great job.
Siskoid
The three-hour King Hu classic, A Touch of Zen. Sadly, the DVD is a very poor quality (I hear Region 2 discs are even worse). The picture is murky, dirty and washed-out, and the sound has problems as well. The subtitles are too big and get partially cut off when you try to use wide screen properly. It's too bad too, because you can still tell the cinematography is gorgeous (the last half hour in full daylight looks awesome, trippy Buddhist ending and all) and the locations beautiful, but you do get attention span problems during night scene, and there are a lot of them. This is a movie that takes its time, the first fight only occurring after the first hour, so attention spans CAN be an issue. The story? An unambitious artist falls for the wrong girl, the fugitive daughter of a rebel. Our protagonist spends the first half of the film hoping he's in a romantic comedy, but suspecting he is either in a western or horror film. The realization that he is in a martial picture is nothing less than shocking. From there, the action picks up quite a lot, but all those slow moments at the front end of the picture do pay off.boulderman
Amazing. The script, settings and action.9/10 and clearly an inspiration for Crouching Tiger
Bolero Tenebris
Fairly interesting first half, at least. I appreciate almost every type of action, from car chases to traditional martial arts, only... i have hard time getting into that supernatural flying around that tends to be too prolonged.dpka
Last 33 minutes are really unnecessary.nicolaskrizan
Groundbreaking and impressive but also rather silly at timeshttp://1001movies.posterous.com/1033