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King Hu’s landmark martial arts film is like getting several films in one. Hu combines a political mystery with a siege story with a ghost story with a metaphysical battle between good and evil. It was the first Chinese film to win a prize at Cannes; it won the technical grand prize and was nominated for the Palme d’or. Many martial arts fantasies, such as CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON and THE HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS, were inspired by this wuxia classic.

Ku Chen Chai (Chun Shih, DRAGON GATE INN) is a clumsy scholar and painter who lives with his mother in an old abandoned fort. A traveling warrior Ouyang Nin (Tin Peng, MAGNUM FIST) comes to his stand and asks for his portrait painted… and for some questions answered. He’s looking for someone. Meanwhile, Chen Chai’s mother wants to introduce her son to their new neighbor Yang Hui-Ching (Hsu Feng, DRAGON GATE INN), because she is desperate for her son to marry and have kids so that the Ku name will carry on. When she mentions the government exams Chen Chai keeps avoiding, Ouyang offers his help, but Chen Chai is content with his simple life. But his simple life will be completely disrupted when he gets involved in the plot of a corrupt eunuch who wants to have the entire family of a whistleblower killed.

This isn’t your typical kung-fu flick; Hu works Zen Buddhism into the corners of the entire story. Abbot Hui Yuan (Roy Chiao, GAME OF DEATH), a martial arts master, plays a large role in the story’s subplot of the enlightened versus the worldly. Eunuch Wei sends increasingly deadlier agents to find the fugitives – the plot element of the worsening “big boss,” a standard plot of martial arts films and later video games. Abbot Hui Yuan uses no weapons and takes the fugitives, which includes renegade general Shih Wen-chiao (Pai Ying, DRAGON GATE INN), in to protect them against the corrupt officials. He trains them in the martial arts, but they constantly feel hunted. And when Wei sends the evil commander-in-chief Hsu Hsien-Chen (Han Yin-Chieh, THE ONE ARMED SWORDSMEN), they are confronted with a formidable foe.

Between the action, Hu works in an innocent romance between Ku Chen Chai and Miss Yang. But Miss Yang isn’t your typical love interest. She has motives of her own and she isn’t just a damsel in distress. Moreover, the banter between Ku Chen Chai and his mother adds for a nice dose of comedy. A unique element is that the film stays true to its characters. Ku Chen Chai never becomes the martial arts phenomenon over night, but uses his brains to help the fugitives. In the end his fate becomes a subplot to the bigger tale of enlightenment versus worldliness, and yet his life was always an ode to enlightenment.

Hu technically provides a rich tapestry as well. He has patience in telling his story, and in a very Zen fashion waits nearly an hour before he gets to the first fight sequence. He’s interest in building a different kind of tension in the audience other than bloodlust. Provocative use of jump cuts often startles the audience and creates unease. His cinematography is beautiful, using spiderwebs as a metaphor for the corrupt world and the sun as a vision of enlightenment. Watch how he films the monks, it’s not just because it makes them look badass. For his technical achievements, he uses hidden trampolines to make his characters fly, bouncing off buildings, roofs and bamboo trees.

Hu keeps us guessing throughout. Each plot turn creates more depth and intrigue. The story is so engaging that it carries us along for three plus hours through its superfluous ending. While the closing might not have anything to do with the plot of main character Ku, it does give a grander look into his future. He might not be a rich official or married or a martial arts master, but in a Zen way his life is richer than anyone who has any of those Earthly things.

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