Rating: 4.5/5
Criterion Challenge 2024 | 46/52 | 1970s
At night, spiders catch creatures in their massive webs. The sun rises, peeking into the valleys between mountains. At Jing Lu Fort, nature overtakes the once mighty stronghold. Deeper in, we go to the General’s Mansion, where statues of tigers guard the vacant home.
Still, a village survives in and around the fort. A man and his mother live inside the fort. What are a few ghosts in exchange for free rent? He leaves his home and opens his Letter and Couplet Writing shop—a sign bears his name: Gu Sheng-zhai. A man approaches the shop and observes a portrait hanging on the wall. Gu offers to paint the man’s picture. The man, Ouyang Nian, is a stranger to these parts, while Gu has lived here his whole life. Dr. Yu, Gu’s herbalist, stops by to say hello. Ouyang stops the portrait, promising to return tomorrow, and sneaks off.
Gu returns home as night falls and hears a chime from the General’s Mansion. Has someone moved into this haunted place? His mother serves him dinner and encourages him to take the civil servant exam. But Gu is content with his work and hopes to become a teacher. This dichotomy of power vs. knowledge causes a rift between them. The chime continues, and Gu follows the sound back to the mansion and inside. As he goes deeper in, he triggers a trap. But he also recognizes forging tools that are still hot.
The following day, Ouyang returns to finish his portrait. He and Gu discuss ghosts. Gu does not believe in ghosts like his mother, but Ouyang thinks he should. Gu consults a book of Taoist spells to ward off ghosts. He fashions a wooden sword inscribed with a warding spell. But when he gets to the mansion’s doors, a woman and his mother emerge.
The woman’s name is Yang Hui-zhen. Believe it or not, the movie is about her and the people looking for her. Our protagonist, Gu, is a sort of Dr. Watson, acting as a witness to the story unfolding. Classic Chinese literature also took the approach of shifting the protagonist.
With this film, King Hu wanted to adapt a story from Liaozhai Zhiyi, a favorite collection of stories from his time as a student. The problem was that the stories were not complex and overly didactic without providing any meaningful message. So, Hu took a tale called The Heroic Maid (Xianü, also the Chinese name for this movie) and added “a touch of zen”—not as a religious approach, but as a way of enhancing the story.
This insight into filmmaking—that simple plots provide opportunities for enhanced visual design and style—pushed Hu to expand what wuxia can do without abandoning its core concepts. Hu’s obsession with detail drained him of financial resources, but he would not relent on the art he wanted to inject into this film. The filmmakers built the fort and town by hand, taking months. The result, however, is worth it, as we occupy the most grounded wuxia at that time.
The story, too, shows this patience, waiting an hour before giving us the first fight. The plot hints at things to come and establishes visual motifs—a glint in the eye, a doctor with a secret, and so on—but this slowed pace allows the viewer to live in this space and see all the hard-earned detail.
Hu also incorporated The Eastern Depot as a sort of anti-James Bond presence. Like Bond, this special service organization has a license to arrest and kill anyone, even people in the high courts, with impunity. Hu saw these types of organizations as threats, physically and morally, and so used the film to expose The Eastern Depot’s corrupt deeds.
Chinese opera influenced the fight sequences—like many Shaw Brothers kung fu fights, the filmmakers did not base the moves on any specific school. Instead, the film creates dances, allowing the fight’s storytelling to stand out.
Based on this and Legend of the Mountain, I assumed King Hu just made long movies, but I guess these are his two longest. I’m looking forward to watching more of his films and seeing what he does with a more condensed runtime.
A final note: I love how the movie pushes against Confucian aspects of traditional Chinese culture with the Buddhist monks, who seem to function in harmony with nature rather than at war with it. There’s a moment towards the end where they show up, and it’s one of the most beautiful scenes I’ve seen in a wuxia.