The 13th season of Chicago's Asian Pop-Up Cinema (APUC) will kick off on Sep. 15 and run through Oct. 12. Collaborating with APUC, Taipei Cultural Center in New York will present four restored martial arts classics by late director King Hu (胡金銓) from Sep. 22 to 28.
The four films include "Dragon Inn (龍門客棧)," "A Touch Of Zen(俠女)," "Legend Of The Mountain (山中傳奇)," and "Raining In The Mountain (空山靈雨)." All four films are available to stream online across the United States, with "Dragon Inn" also playing on the big screen at a drive-in theater on Sep. 28.
"Dragon Inn" was a blockbuster, setting box-office records in Taiwan, Korea, and the Philippines in 1967, and the film proved to have a broad and lasting impact. "A Touch Of Zen" took the Technical Grand Prize award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1975, propelling Hu onto the world stage.
"Legend Of The Mountain" was described as one of King Hu’s most visually ravishing works, and it swept six major awards, including Best Director at the 16th edition of Golden Horse Awards, while "Raining In The Mountain" became a virtuoso showcase for Hu’s typically luxurious mise-en-scène and elegant action choreography.
Praised as an "extravagantly talented visual stylist," cinematic titan King Hu revolutionized the wuxia/swordplay film, introducing a refined sense of aesthetics, attention to mise-en-scène, and sense of mysticism to the genre that was borne out of his lifelong love for Peking opera.
Asian Pop-Up Cinema: Season 13 will present 30 films at an in-person and drive-in festival, with select titles available for online streaming, bringing films from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, and China to Chicago and beyond.