Tag: wuxia pian

King Hu directs this classic of Chinese cinema

‘A Touch of Zen’ on The Criterion Channel

!Featured, Blu-ray, Criterion, Criterion Channel, DVD, Essential Viewing, Foreign Affairs 12/02/201704/09/2019 Sean Axmaker

A Touch of Zen (Taiwan, 1967), King Hu’s romantic chivalry adventure, is a masterpiece of Chinese cinema, a magnificent epic with grand battles fought with the grace of a ballet with swords, and the most significant cinematic inspiration for Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The three-hour film took the uniquely Chinese genre of wuxia […]

Cheng Pei-Pei and Yueh Hua star in King Hu's classic wuxia pian

The Romantic Chivalry of ‘Come Drink with Me’ on Amazon Prime

!Featured, Amazon Prime, DVD, Foreign Affairs, Have You Seen...?, martial arts, SVOD 08/18/201708/18/2017 Sean Axmaker

Come Drink with Me (Hong Kong, 1966) is a landmark of Hong Kong cinema and a classic of the wuxia pian (“martial chivalry” genre), a genre that director King Hu redefined with this delightfully spry mix of action, humor, and costume spectacle. Cheng Pei-Pei stars as the pixie-ish Golden Swallow, a determined young female warrior […]