Legend of the Mountain

Legend of the Mountain saw director King Hu do away with the traditional trappings of a wuxia film: gone is the typical knight errant character; gone, even, are the musical action sequences featured in the film’s immediate predecessor, Raining in the Mountain. The film does, however, retain some of the flavour of A Touch of Zen. A solitary traveller, wandering in the mountains; a beautiful woman, backlit in flowing white robes; a deserted fortress – there is a static, tranquil beauty to Legend of the Mountain. On one level, it is the mysterious tale of a scholar colliding with a ghostly realm. On another, the film seems almost like a revelation of Hu’s innermost feelings: the scholar copying out scrolls is just like a filmmaker who, although assisted in his work by countless others, in the end sees these fall away, leaving him to rely on himself and his own talents.

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