Reviews & Ratings for
Legend of the Mountain More at IMDbPro »Shan zhong zhuan qi (original title)

12 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
Chinese ghost story - the prequel?, 17 July 2006

Author: (winner55) from United States

Ching Sui Tung, long time admirer of King Hu (he helped arrange Hu's direction of the first Swordsman film), was to take the bare bones of this film and make his legendary "Chinese Ghost Story" films. It's about a monk on retreat to an isolated temple in order to write a sutra, who thereby comes under the observation of two female ghosts who may or not actually fall in love him - Hu maintains a careful ambiguity on this and other issues, clearly conveying to the audience the very confusion of the scholar himself, who never quite gets a handle on what he's accidentally walked into here.

But in the last analysis, this is neither ghost story nor romance, but a determined effort on Hu's part to make a visually beautiful set-piece of open, well-lit Chinese landscape, and high-contrast, sharply defined interiors. In short, it is an attempt to make a beautiful work of art.

Because Hu's principle interest is just this visual beauty, the pacing of the film gets a little slow at times, and Hu shows no interest in "cutting to the chase" story-telling. Consequently, I think he has succeeded in this artistic perfectionism, but at a price, which is that the film is not going to appeal to a wide audience. But given some patience, it offers real rewards to the senses.

6 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Spooky story of a man beset by ghosts, 18 November 2006

Author: Chung Mo from NYC

King Hu while revered for a number of unique films in the 1960's was outside the HK studio system by the 1970's and only produced three films in that decade. In 1979 his made two "Mountain" films concurrently. This one being a ghost story in the tradition of Japanese ghosts films like Ugetsu or Black Cat from the Grove.

A traveling scholar, Mr. Ho, is assigned the task of translating a special sutra for a ceremony honoring deceased soldiers. Needing a place to concentrate while he works, he is sent to a fort to be hosted by a Mr. Tsui, the secretary to the general of the fort. Arriving at the fort Ho find the place abandoned except for Tsui who informs him that the general and most of the soldiers died in battle. Tsui, his crazy servant Chang, a bizarre old lady named Mrs. Wang, her beautiful daughter and a maid are apparently the only residents in the vicinity of the fort. Ho is invited to a dinner given by Mrs. Wang. He becomes strangely drunk while the daughter plays a drum and loses consciousness. Waking up he finds that two days have passed and he has married the daughter. And so the mystery begins.

A unique film in some ways, it frequently has a problem holding the atmosphere consistently. There are several interludes of beautiful scenery that interrupt the effective spookiness. Sometimes King Hu, who was also the editor, shows a remarkable mastery of the medium and other times is almost amateurish in his editing choices. His aesthetic is anchored in the 1960's as ghostly doings are accompanied by clichéd sound effects. Overall the film is very effective as long as you can forgive the primitive special effects and the occasional sappy music.

The print available is not in great shape but it's a good film.

2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
A Chinese ghost story, Part 1, 23 April 2009

Author: ky_chong

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.

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