A Touch of Zen

A Touch of Zen is by far the longest film I have ever seen in my life. For some reason this film seemed like it took an eternity to get from beginning to end. The film takes place in a small village, where pretty much everyone knows one another. Ku, is a scholar who lives in the village who does paintings for people. One day a strange man comes and asks for a portrait of himself. This man roams around the town very suspiciously for a while until later in the story we learn that he is there to capture Yang, a woman who recently moved to the village. Yang's father apparently tried to show Eunuch Wei's corruption, and as a result he and the rest of his family were killed with the exception of Yang.

Wei then sent the strange man, Ou Yang Yin, to capture Yang so that she can be killed like the rest of her family. Ku's mother knows Yang and thinks that Ku and Yang would make a great couple so she tries setting them up with minimal success. Ku and Yang become friends however and he helps her defend herself from the men sent to capture her, at one point the two sleep together giving Ku confidence. Because Ku is a scholar he has read many books on military strategy and technique. He is a very intellectual man he comes up with a plan that uses the haunted myths of the city in their favor. He constructs devices to make the men think that the ghosts are coming after them. His strategy works and the win the battle. However after the battle Yang is missing. She leaves Ku and flees for a monastery where she becomes a nun. Ku tracks her down where he receives their baby. Ku then leaves and comes face to face with Hsu Hsien-Chen, a commander sent by Wei. Yang then comes to Ku's rescue however she is injured during the battle. The end scene shows Yang walking toward the settling sun towards a silhouetted figure with a halo.

I did enjoy some aspects of the film, such as the fight scenes and the way in which they were choreographed. It reminded me of the fight scenes in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. The story was interesting however it was very hard for me to keep up with every event since the film moved so slowly. I feel that even though Chinese Cinema is much slower moving that American Cinema that this film was still drawn out and could have been tightened greatly through many scenes. The scenes themselves were too long they could have been shortened a bit in order to make the film flow more smoothly I feel that it often took a great deal of time to show the events of one scene. The ending however was pretty clever how there was a religious reference to close the film.