King Hu - The Chinese Cinema

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King Hu

A collection of 9 posts

The Valiant Ones (King Hu, 1975)

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The Valiant Ones (King Hu, 1975)

The King of Wuxia (Lin Jing-jie, 2022)

The King of Wuxia (Lin Jing-jie, 2022)

Joining the ever-expanding pantheon of great Chinese filmmakers given the full-length documentary treatment is King Hu, the man behind many of the most accomplished and influential action films of all-time. But while Johnnie To, Ann Hui, Hou Hsiao-hsien, and Jia Zhangke are still very much alive and working, and thus

A Touch of Zen (King Hu, 1971)

A Touch of Zen (King Hu, 1971)

The following discussion was published on the Frame.land website back in 2021. As it appears that site no longer exists, I'm republishing it here. A Touch of Zen (1970), King Hu’s wuxia masterpiece, is currently screening online as part of IFFR Unleashed 50/50 programme. An

Both Sides Now: Women in Chinese Film at the DC Chinese Film Festival

Both Sides Now: Women in Chinese Film at the DC Chinese Film Festival

This weekend, the (Washington) DC Chinese Film Festival [http://www.dccff.org/schedule.html], in partnership with The One International Women's Film Festival, presents a mini-festival focused on women in Chinese Cinema called “On Both Sides of the Camera” focusing on Chinese films by and/or about women.

King Hu Capsule Reviews

King Hu Capsule Reviews

The Story of Sue San (1964) — August 4, 2014 King Hu’s directorial debut. He’d been acting and working a variety of other movie jobs (props, writing, etc) since the mid-1950s, and this is for the most part in the vein of his two films as assistant director under

Legend of the Mountain (King Hu, 1979)

Legend of the Mountain (King Hu, 1979)

It starts with a Wagnerian incantation: elemental imagery calling forth the natural world, music rising with the sun, the mountain, the clouds and the river, always the river, rushing, falling, churning. A Touch of Zen begins much the same way, but this world is depopulated, not even a spider mars

Painted Skin (King Hu, 1993)

Painted Skin (King Hu, 1993)

King Hu’s final film, it is, like his greatest work (A Touch of Zen) and his first film as an assistant director (The Enchanting Shadow), an adaptation of a story from the 18th Century collection of folk and supernatural tales Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio by Pu Songling.

Dragon Gate Inn (King Hu, 1967)

Dragon Gate Inn (King Hu, 1967)

I keep saying The 36th Chamber of Shaolin is the Stagecoach of martial arts movies, but that’s wrong, this is. Or rather, they both are, but they represent two perfect forms of distinct subgenres of the martial arts film. 36th Chamber is the kung fu training film, where the

Come Drink With Me (King Hu, 1966)

Come Drink With Me (King Hu, 1966)

There’s the ending, and then the ending after the ending. And then there’s the ending after the ending that undermines the other two endings by trying to play the moral of the film both ways by espousing the rejection of bloody vengeance, but giving the audience the violent