''Legend of the Mountain'' ( zh, t=山中傳奇, s=山中传奇, first=t, w=Shan-chung ch'uan-ch'i) is a 1979 Taiwanese-Hong Kong film directed by

King Hu Hu Jinquan (29 April 1932 – 14 January 1997), better known as King Hu, was a Chinese film director and actor based in Hong Kong and Taiwan. He is best known for directing various ''wuxia'' films in the 1960s and 1970s, which brought Cinema of ...

Plot

Ho, a young scholar, is responsible for translating Buddhist sutras which are said to have power over the creatures of the afterlife. He goes to a monastery to fulfill the task. He meets strange people: Mr. Tsui and his friend Chang, Melody a Chinese drum player, an old washerwoman and a flutist.

Cast

* Shih Chun as Ho *

Hsu Feng Hsu Feng (born 17 December 1950) is a Taiwanese-born actress and film producer. In the 1970s she was one of the leading actresses of the cinemas of Hong Kong and Taiwan, particularly known for her roles in wuxia films and her work with directo ...

as Melody * Sylvia Chang as Cloud * Tung Lam as Mr. Tsui *

Tien Feng Tien Feng (born Tien Yu-kun, 4 June 1928 – 22 October 2015) was a Chinese actor, who appeared in hundreds of films in Taiwan and Hong Kong. He has acted with Bruce Lee in '' Fist of Fury'' (1972) and with Jackie Chan in '' Little Tiger of Can ...

as Cheng * Chen Hui-lou as Reverend * Rainbow Hsu as Ms. Chang * Wu Jiaxiang as Man carrying wood * Ng Ming Tsui as Lama * Sun Yueh

Release

''Legend of the Mountain'' was released in 1979. The film was also shown at the 1979 Festival of Festivals in Toronto.

Reception

From contemporary English reviews, Richard Labonte of the ''

Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as ''The Bytown Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris, it was renamed the ''Citizen'' in 1851. The new ...

'' described the film as an "intellectual challenge" and as "three hours of film which never drags" and that it was "structured with a rigid formalism which allows for no spontaneity at all and is also a unique treat, for those who can adapt to a slow and mannered Eastern style rather than the fast-paced and action-packed style of most Western films."

Review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

retrospectively gave the film an approval rating of 100% based on 7 reviews from western critics, and an average rating of 8.3/10.

References

External links

* * * 1979 films 1970s fantasy films Taiwanese fantasy films Hong Kong fantasy films 1970s Hong Kong films {{Taiwan-film-stub