I Wonder if They Serve Punch

Film: Da Zui Xia (Come Drink With Me)
Format: DVD from NetFlix on big ol’ television.

The wuxia genre is a fun one, but not one I know very well. There are only a couple of films from this genre on The List, so I won’t be getting too familiar with it in the near future, either. Da Zui Xian (Come Drink With Me is a relatively early entry in the genre, and an early one in the career of direction King Hu. It shows its age and its relative ineptitude in places, but it stil proves to be a movie very much worth seeing, if only for the history of the genre.

Like many a wuxia film, I’m not completely positive I followed every nuance of the plot. Only the most diehard fan will have the desire to unravel all of the different plot threads here. It’s perhaps too complicated for a film that is based on seeing people punch each other repeatedly. A group of bandits has had their leader captured by the authorities of the area. The leader is being led off for execution. In retaliation, they kidnap the son of the governor, hoping to enact a trade—the leader for the son. If they don’t get their leader back, they’ll kill the son, no questions asked.

Wuxia

Film: Xia Nu (A Touch of Zen); Wo Hu Cang Long (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon)
Format: DVD from NetFlix on kick-ass portable DVD player (Xia Nu); DVD from personal collection on big ol’ television (Wo Hu Cang Long).

A few months ago, I started compiling reviews for the Large Association of Movie Blogs, also known as the LAMB. Every month, I put up a compiled list of film reviews from fellow members on a specific national cinema, genre, or style. This is called “Foreign Chops.” The first edition of this was on wuxia films, a Chinese genre of film that follows the exploits of martial heroes. While this may include martial arts films, often the hero is armed with a specific weapon. Typical xia (warrior) heroes are not in service to a lord or master, and use their abilities to help the oppressed or to redress wrongs done to others.

When I compiled that first list of films, Xia Nu (A Touch of Zen) appeared from several people. I knew it was on my list, but I didn’t really know anything about it. I’ve seen a couple of more modern wuxia films, but remained interested in this one, put off only by its three-plus hour length. Well, after a crazy week, I finally had time to watch it. Since watching, I’ve done a little research on it and have discovered that this film is formative for the genre, and now that I’ve seen it, I can also see this influence—a power it continues to have in Chinese films to this day.