Two of the best martial arts movies of the 21st century owe debts to A Touch of Zen, a two-part wuxia epic from 1971. Characterized by a fantasy-like ancient China setting, and heavy emphasis on swordplay and wirework, the martial arts subgenre known as wuxia has produced a long list of all-time great films, including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
The popularity of Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon led to other forays into that kind of world, with The House of Flying Daggers joining it as one of the 21st century’s best martial arts films. The two were part of a wave of wuxia movies that launched in the early 2000s, but they were hardly the first of their kind.
But rather than represent a new trend, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The House of Flying Daggers reflected a resurgence of a medium that had once defined the martial arts genre. And a major factor in the popularity once enjoyed by wuxia films was the critical success of A Touch of Zen.
A Touch Of Zen Was A Two-Part Wuxia Adventure Directed By King Hu
A few years after directing two wuxia masterpieces in Come Drink With Me and Dragon Inn in the mid-1960s, celebrated Chinese filmmaker King Hu helmed a third, A Touch of Zen, in 1970. But rather than releasing the whole story at once, it was split in half due to budget costs, with the second portion hitting theaters in 1971.
However, since then, A Touch of Zen has been treated as one film, and has been re-released and aired as such, allowing it to run at a whopping total of 180 minutes. It tells a long, sprawling narrative about a good-natured scholar and a female swordswoman on the run, who meet, share an adventure together, and eventually form a romantic relationship.
Given it’s long run-time, A Touch of Zen spends a great deal of time on setup and interaction between the story’s key players, but gradually builds towards the battles that the two protagonists engage with the forces of the corrupt eunuch who serves as the film’s central antagonist.
Unfortunately, both parts of the story failed at the box office. That said, it was revered by critics, and continues to be a beloved entry into the world of wuxia, a notion underscored by its remarkable 97% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
A Touch Of Zen Had A Major Influence On Other Wuxia Films
It’s not just critics and audiences, though, though, that loved A Touch of Zen. Other notable martial arts filmmakers, including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s Ang Lee, have cited their fondness both for its director, King Hu, and his work on A Touch of Zen specifically.
Its cinematic style and ability to lead into the beauty of wuxia had a lot do with the influence it’s had, and there’s perhaps no better example of that than the fight scene in the bamboo forest. How it acted as a form of cover for the combatants in the battle clearly inspired similar action sequences in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Jet Li’s Hero, and House of Flying Daggers.
There’s also the matter of its feminist themes and the ways in which it allows a female character to carry it on its shoulders (a staple of many King Hu films).
While unorthodox at the time, A Touch of Zen’s heavy reliance on its headstrong and unconventional heroine received a lot of praise, and laid the groundwork for other female-led wuxia movies from other filmmakers, with House of Flying Daggers and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon being its two biggest successors.
- Release Date
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November 18, 1971
- Runtime
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200 Minutes
- Director
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King Hu
