Jan. 31st, 2006

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King Hu is widely considered the first great director of wuxia, or martial chivalry (or, as I first thought of them, flying swordsman), films. His movies have been very influential on later directors, and some of us first became aware of him after Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) came out and Ang Lee spoke of how the scene in the bamboo forest was a tribute to the one in King Hu's Touch of Zen (1970). On the Crouching Tiger commentary, Lee apparently talks about the influence of Hu's Come Drink With Me (1966), which he refers to by a literal translation of the Chinese title, Big Drunk Hero. That film starred Cheng Pei Pei, who shows up in Crouching Tiger as the villainous Jade Fox. More recently, Zhang Yimou also included an homage to the bamboo forest scene in The House of Flying Daggers (2004), and this is only the tip of the iceberg of King Hu's influence.

Come Drink With Me, which was made in Hong Kong for the Shaw Brothers studio, is often cited as a revolutionary moment in the tradition of wuxia films. (Stephen Teo has written an excellent overview and analysis of Hu's career.) After the success of that film, he broke away from the Shaw Brothers and made Dragon Gate Inn (also known as Dragon Inn) in Taiwan the next year. I "saw" it a few years ago on a bootleg tape that was so awful that I couldn't really make out what was happening. Recently I picked up what is apparently a bootleg DVD, and it is very good quality for a bootleg. There is apparently also a legitimate German DVD, but that's about it if you need English subtitles as I do.

ExpandIt's worth hunting it down one way or the other ... )

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