'A Touch Of Zen'

I have a feeling I've talked about wuxia. Do this thing long enough and you start to really not remember anything you done before. I spend more time searching for posts that I swore I've done than I do writing anymore.

A Touch of Zen is a Taiwanese film done in 1969 but released in 1971. In it's initial release it was split into two parts probably because it's 187 minutes long.

A Touch of Zen is an example of wuxia, which translates to "martial hero." It's a genre that has its roots in literature, but through the 20th century it's continued through video games, film, TV and comics.

The wuxia is not unlike the gunslinger of the American West or a knight of the Round Table. He's a hero with certain skills of survival like martial arts and fighting. Or swordsmanship in Arthur's England or the ability to shoot in a Gary Cooper Western.

More often than not, it's the wuxia's other skills that win the day. Patience, bravery, nerve, brains. Those are the qualities that really end up making the difference between the good guy or the bad guy winning.

In A Touch of Zen, our "martial hero" uses a bit of psychology to play on the superstitious tendencies of the enemy guards in order to gain victory. These warriors are noble. They fight for the right and the ethical. They carry the weight as if evil were always finding them somehow. As if life would be so much better if they'd be left alone. Probably, this is totally true.