Early in the film Chow Yun Fat's swordsman Bai Li Mu hands his weapon named The Green Destiny to fellow warrior Lien Yu Shu (Michelle Yeoh), asking her to give it to a common friend to hide-- he's retiring from a life of bloodshed, he tells her. Cut to the friend's house: Yeoh has the sword wrapped in a cloth when she bumps into another guest, the Governor's daughter Jen (Zhang Ziyi), a woman she has never met before, and what does she do next? Pulls out the sword and starts showing it off.
King Hu's A Touch of Zen differs from his earlier Dragon Gate Inn and later The Valiant Ones in that the film begins not with a heroic character, but humble one: Ku Shen Chai (Shi Chun), a scholar who wastes his education writing letters and painting portraits on commission. Ku is visited by Ouyang Nin (Ting Peng) who asks for a portrait; Ku, sketching, is struck by the intensity of Ouyang's eyes. When Ouyang abruptly leaves him to follow herbalist Dr. Lu (Sit Hon), Ku is intrigued by his manner, and follows. Hu stages, shoots and edits this surveillance-within-a-surveillance so skillfully that not only are we caught up with it we also get a quick lesson in the town's local geography: we know where Ku's portrait shop is in relation to Dr. Lu's herb stand; we know exactly at what point Dr. Lu disappears (to the consternation of Ouyang Nin); when Dr. Lu reappears behind watchful Ku, we are as startled as he is.
The marvelous sequence, utilizing not a line of dialogue, does several things at once: it strikes the right note of intrigue and mystery, introduces three important characters (Ouyang Nin, Ku, Dr. Lu), sketches their relationship to each other (follower, second follower, followed), emphasizes the fascination Ouyang Nin has for Ku. It also shows Hu the director effortlessly tossing off a masterful piece of cinema for no other reason than that it serves the story.
Brief thoughts on his first and arguably best film:
Once Were Warriors. Beth Heke--perhaps too neatly--stands for what was proud in her people. A Maori princess, she turned her back on her heritage to marry Jake Heke and have children by him. Jake, who represents the degraded Maori, responds to his wife's royal pride by ignoring their children and beating her. Predictable and schematic, but first time director Lee Tamahori knows enough to give his film an intensity that rides over the obviousness. He bathes the film in orange light-- a brilliant lava glow that falls on the blasted urban landscape, turning junkyards and cheap housing developments into barbaric temples in twilight. Against this backdrop stand the Maoris, huge muscled people with tattooed faces living violent, chaotic lives.
In the film's strongest sequence, Jake throws an all-night party, a nightmare of half-full beer bottles drunken guests greasy dishes that climaxes with Jake battering Beth. No open-handed slaps or rabbit punches--Jake takes roundhouse swings at her with his entire weight behind them, pounding, bone-breaking blows. He grips her by the back of the neck and rams her head into a picture frame. He throws her across the room, and half the furniture at her, then ends the evening by raping her.
It helps the film to have Temuera Morrison, who's both threatening and compelling as Jake; even at his most brutal, he invests Jake with a primitive innocence. As Beth, Rena Owen is earthy, sexy, loving and courageous. You flinch for her when she stands up to Jake-- the bruises on her face are horrendous-- but stand up to him she does. You can see all the pride of the Maoris in her erect posture and magnificently chiseled face.
