494. Hsia Nu

Hsia Nu
A Touch of Zen
1969
Directed by King Hu

I apologize again for not posting lately.  Finding these movies lately has been an adventure in itself and I haven't really been in the adventurous mood.  Particularly adventures involving illegal downloads and crappy subtitles.

This movie is almost impossible to find with subtitles so I had to use the old "download the subtitles and read along and half through the movie realize I have been behind by one scene the entire time which is why I have been hopelessly lost the whole time" method.  Thankfully, once I realized that the mother was somehow also the love interest of the son, it was quite enjoyable.

Ku is an artist, who much to his mother's disappointment, has no interest in becoming a government official.  He falls for his neighbor Yang who, of course, is secretly a fugitive princess.

This film falls under the wuxia, or the sword and sorcery, genre.  I personally love martial arts movies and any film that reverses gender roles soothes the angry feminist within.  While Ku is a pretty clueless and useless character, Yang kicks ass.  Although I should add that Ku grows into more of a man after bedding Yang, which gave me horrible American Pie flashbacks.

My only complaint would be that the fighting wasn't great, but there are plenty of great martial arts films on the horizon that excel in that respect.  Definitely worth checking out.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Originally divided into two parts.

451. Da zui xia

Da zui xia
Come and Drink with Me
1966
Directed by King Hu

I should preface this review by saying I love martial arts movies.  If you really want to explore the genre, you have to um, carve your way through a lot of cheese, so to speak, before you get to any good stuff.  As such, I have a very high tolerance for cheesiness with this movies; I would say more so than the average person.  But I have to admit, some of the scenes in this movie even had me cringing.  At the very least, this is a fun film to mock with friends (she wrote as she sat alone on a Friday night).

The plot of these movies is never really important but I will do a brief summary anyway.  The general's son is taken hostage so his daughter, Golden Swallow (no comment), is sent to rescue him.  Yay, a female is sent to rescue a male?  And she fights off a bunch of warriors?  Yes...wait what do you mean she still ultimately has to be saved by a man who ends up stealing the show?  Damn, better luck next time.  I guess we will try again with Thelma and Louise.

Like I said, the plot isn't that important.  What is really crucial is having amazing fight scenes.  And wow, the fights were just horrifying.  I mean, offensively bad.  Like none of them had ever seen a sword before, let alone held one.  I do have to give them credit for their fake blood, which looked quite real, except when it was randomly spurting out of sword wounds.

I have no idea why this is on The List but I did have fun with it.  Even though it was terrible, it was never boring, which I suppose is something.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Quentin Taratino is rumored to be interested in directing a remake.

Jackie Chan supposedly appeared as a child singer in the beginning of the film.

Somewhat hard to find so if anyone needs a link to this let me know.  What's with all the obscure films lately?  The Listmakers are testing me.  I hope I am worthy!