Film Illiterate, wherein the proprietor records movies seen, and sporadic progress through assorted lists of the "best". Originally started after regretfully renting something forgettable for the third time. I've forgotten what, but never again! A tedious endeavour since 2005. Hello. 🙂
I regret sleeping on this lower-budget King Hu (A Touch of Zen) film, which plays out like a wuxia heist thriller. The setting: an isolated Buddhist temple. A series of visitors arrive, motives unknown, among them a wealthy man and his concubine, a general, a constable, and a former prisoner. Meanwhile, the ailing abbot plans his succession.
This is a wonderful film that I appreciated going into blind, though I think it may be helpful to set expectations that it is relatively light on the wuxia action King Hu is best known for. A larger part of the runtime involves a Rififi-style heist, only with martial artists, to a score of gloriously jazzy Chinese percussion, but mostly it's a political piece about the gloriously convoluted manoeuvrings and the corruptive influence of the material world.
Equal star is the setting, the Bulguksa temple in South Korea which is now a UNESCO world heritage site; expect many loving shots of its recognizably Korean dancheong decoration.