Legend of the Mountain
Shan zhong zhuan qi
A film by King Hu - (Taiwan, 1979, 191’)
The story begins when an eminent monk charges the young scholar Ho Yunqing with a very important task: to transcribe a specific Buddhist sutra which is known to hold an enormous power on the Afterworld’s spirits. To achieve his task, Ho heads toward a far away fortress in an ancient city. After facing several strage events, the young man meets a lady named Melody, who turns out to be a spirit intentioned to manipulate him in order to seize the sutra. Ho will find himself involved in the battle between kind and evil spirits.
Based on a popular tale originated in the Song dinasty, Legend of the Mountain was shot in South Korea simultaneously with Raining in the Mountain, another masterpiece by King Hu. Both films prove the director’s mastery to comunicate his philosophical intuitions about life and existence, also thanks to spectacular graphics.