A Touch of Zen 4K 1971 Ultra HD 2160p

Story Movie

Koo Sheng Chai lives in an abandoned fort with his mother. He is talented and clever, but lacks ambition and is therefore as poor as a church mouse. One day, a beautiful girl, Miss Yang, moves into the neighboring house, whom Koo immediately takes an interest in, but she behaves in an unsociable and extremely strange manner. What's the matter - could she be hiding from someone in the middle of nowhere? Or is she not from our world at all?

Review 4K Movie

Ku Sheng Chai works part-time as a portrait painter. His mother encourages him to take the civil service exam, but Koo Sheng Chai finds an excuse to postpone it. In the meantime, a girl, Miss Yang, whom his mother wants him to marry, arrives at a neighboring estate. Soon it turns out that Ms. Yang is on the run - her father fell into disgrace and was killed after he tried to inform the emperor about the corruption of one of the officials. Now that same official seeks to kill Ms. Yang as well, declaring her a criminal. But when Koo Sheng Chai learns of the situation, he decides to help the girl. She went on the run a few years ago, then studied martial arts in a Buddhist monastery and is now ready to face the blow.

“A Touch of Zen” is good as an action movie, especially in the historical aspect, because you can trace the evolution of filming martial arts fights, but it is disappointing with its title, because Zen has nothing to do with it. The spiritual culture of Buddhists is not revealed here at all and is reduced simply to the knowledge of some mysterious techniques of hand-to-hand combat, which allows to quickly defeat opponents. These techniques are sometimes quite fantastic and, of course, very effective, in contrast to the spectacular but less effective techniques of the opponents. In general, one can feel the idealization of some ancient hidden knowledge, the fusion of the phenomena of the monk and the fighter, tinged with unthinkable Buddhist calm. Incidentally, Ms. Yang eventually chooses the monastic path, which is symbolic in its own way. Anyway, structurally, this work is a series of fights, many of which take place in the dark. The downside of the movie is a certain length, an attempt to create “suspense” by building up the atmosphere, which today looks, of course, very old-fashioned. Probably, the director wanted to evoke a sense of genuine fear, sending his hero to wander around the old manor, allegedly inhabited by ghosts, but these scenes today cause only yawns.

“A Touch of Zen” isn't interesting exactly as a historical action movie because the historical setting here is conventional. The domestic details of the Middle Ages (and maybe even earlier) are conveyed very schematically, and the main emphasis is on the confrontation between Ms. Young and her enemies. All of this makes it possible to appreciate only the fights and skirmishes, which seems to be the whole value of this movie.