I am always interested in the translations of the film titles with King Hu’s films; this film in Chinese translates to “Female Warrior”. I feel like the titles are really important so I look forward to seeing which title relates more to the meaning of this film. I thought King Hu did a great job at portraying “a touch of zen” to begin the film by using a lot of nature shots including the spider, plants, darkness of the night, bird noises, and the moon. Once the story begins, then we see why the film might be titled “Female Warrior” instead.
I’ve noticed and also read in another article that King Hu films often begin with beautiful Chinese music and a voice over. A Touch of Zen begins with very nice Chinese music, but as I waited for the voice over, the story just began and there never was one, which was great! Although the V.O.s in the previous films were helpful and creative as it portrayed some real life history from King Hu’s knowledge, I felt a little relieved that there was no voice over because that would just be too expected and I would hope for something different and more unpredictable every now and then while watching a new King Hu film.
There are a few things that stood out to me after seeing part one of this film. The first thing is idea of having a ghost story in the film. I’m still unsure if there is going to be any ghost story here in part two, but that is a good way of building suspense in the beginning. The next thing that I really appreciated about this film is that it has another badass female that has to fight for herself. This seems to be another common thing in King Hu films but it definitely makes them more exciting to watch and I hope to continue to see this in the rest of the King Hu films that I see.
Another very powerful thing that King Hu did with this film is include the monks. This was definitely the most intense part of the film so far because King Hu did such a great job at introducing the monks by showing respect and making the leader of the monks have so much power without needing any weapons.
Although this film seemed to begin a little slower than the others, part one did a great job at setting up suspense for part two and I can’t wait to find out what is going to happen with the rest of the story. I really want to see why it is titled “A Touch of Zen.” I am really looking forward to seeing if and how the monks will continue to play a role in this story.
King Hu Films 