Legend of the Mountain (1979) Shan zhong zhuan qi (original title)

Director:

King Hu

Writer:

King Hu (writer)

Release Date:

4 October 1979 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Fantasy | Horror | Mystery

Plot:

A scholar, tasked to copy a sutra, meets with a mysterious old lady and her daughter in the mountains. |

Plot Keywords:

Ghost

Awards:

5 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Chun Shih	...	Scholar He Qingyun
Feng Hsu	...	Melody
Sylvia Chang	...	Cloud
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Hui Lou Chen	...	Taoist priest Yang
Rainbow Hsu	...	Madam Wang
Yueh Sun	...	Han
Feng Tien	...	Zhang - ragged mad servant
Lin Tung	...	Adviser Tsui
Chia-hsiang Wu	...	Woodcutter
Ming-tsai Wu

Directed by
King Hu

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
King Hu		writer

Produced by
King Hu	....	producer
Cheuk Hon Wong	....	executive producer
Cheuk Hon Wong	....	producer

Original Music by
Ng Tai King
Ta Chiang Wu

Cinematography by
Henry Chan

Film Editing by
King Hu

Costume Design by
King Hu

Other crew
Catherine Lau	....	script supervisor
Mingcai Wu	....	martial arts director

Production Companies

• Feng Nian

Distributors

• First Distributors (worldwide)
• Pathfinder Pictures (2005) (USA) (DVD)

Also Known As:

"Shan zhong zhuan qi" - Taiwan (original title)

Runtime:

184 min

Country:

Taiwan

Language:

Mandarin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Singapore:PG

Company:

Feng Nian

A Chinese ghost story, Part 1

A scholar, tasked with the job of copying a sutra, meets an adviser, an old lady and his daughter in a residence in the mountains. After marrying the daughter, he meets with another, equally ravishing young lady, who discloses to him that his wife is an evil ghost. King Hu's "Legend of the Mountain" takes its cue the numerous ghost stories in Pu Songling's "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio". Shot back to back with "Raining in the Mountain", released the same year, this tale effectively "recycles" many of the actors used in the previous film, such as Xu Feng (the evil ghost), the Taoist priest, the lama, the raving servant and the well-meaning adviser.

The whole film is shot in Korea, full of beautiful pictorial shots. But the story itself is rather spooky - it is after all a supernatural ghost story alongside Buddhist myths. King Hu's interest in Buddhist supernatural mysticism was such that he made two more movies on these themes - his last film uses a similar plot. Tsui Hark would produced a similar "ghost story" movie in his "A Chinese ghost story", released in 1987.

The Code 3 DVD I watched was from Hong Kong, and the running time was just a little over 110 minutes. However, it is not the complete version. Googling on the net, there appears to be a Japanese TV version which is 191 minutes long, while the Hong Kong Film Academy lists a cut which is 184 minutes.

So, as this DVD is drastically cut, I cannot make a justified assessment of the movie. But the 110-minute cut still makes a strong impression, and anyone interested in King Hu's films would be urged to catch this movie in full.