ARTE, the European culture channel, will be offering "A Touch of Zen (俠女)" by the late auteur King Hu (胡金銓), a visionary maker of epic martial arts films, as a streaming option from June 1 through Aug. 29.
Hu (1931 – 1997) lifted Mandarin-language cinema to new technical and artistic heights with his graceful fights, magnificent nature shots, and stunning sword fights. His seminal 1971 film "A Touch of Zen" was also the first title in the wuxia, or martial arts, genre to gain international recognition.
"A Touch of Zen" won the Technical Grand Prize award at Cannes in 1975, and the iconic duel in the bamboo forest was reenacted again in France when the film's digitally restored version was screened in Cannes Classics in 2015. The restoration to 4K resolution was carried out by the Taiwan Film Institute and the distinguished Italian laboratory L'Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna.
King's period action pieces combined Oriental aesthetics with Occidental approaches to artistic expression, creating a distinctive cinematic style that has been described as having "culture within combat and zen within swordsmanship." His films stunned audiences and had a profound impact on those who would come after him.
Log onto www.arte.tv to watch a classic from Taiwan that helped form the basis of canon of East Asia cinema.
A young scholar named Gu lives near a rundown fort rumored to be haunted. One day, he befriends Yang, a mysterious beauty hiding inside the fort. After a night of passion with Gu, Yang reveals that her father, an honorable official, was executed by the nefarious but powerful Eunuch Wei. Now, she is also hounded by Wei's agents, who attempt to eradicate all trace of her family. Gu then finds himself caught up in her struggle to survive…