A Touch of Zen
A Touch of Zen is a 1971 film from Taiwan and Hong Kong, directed by King Hu, running 200 minutes. reelscum files it under martial arts.
- Year
- 1971 · 1970s films
- Country
- Taiwan · Hong Kong
- Runtime
- 200 min
- Director
- King Hu
- Updated
- 29 Oct 2026
- Obscurity
- known (28/100)
- Also known as
- Chivalrous Lady · A Touch of Zen
Defined in the glossary: Martial arts
Three hours, a bamboo forest, and a Cannes prize. Barely exploitation.
King Hu's three-hour epic, a film that won at Cannes and belongs more to art cinema than exploitation. A scholar becomes entangled with a fugitive noblewoman and the monks and agents pursuing her, and the film builds from village comedy to a bamboo-forest battle of astonishing beauty and finally to something close to transcendence.
The bamboo-grove fight alone influenced Crouching Tiger and a generation of imitators, and Hu's Buddhist finale reaches for the sublime. It demands patience and rewards it completely.
Barely exploitation, and one of the greatest films in any genre on this site.
Trailer
The numbers
Nobody has rated this yet. Be the first to make a claim you'll have to defend.
Your call
Where to watch
Legal options in USA
Links open in a new tab (↗). Availability data via TMDB and changes constantly, so confirm on the service. Legal options only. Checked 8 Nov 2026. All options ↗
Discuss with AI
Open a chatbot with a question about this film already typed out. Useful for a second opinion, plot detail, or where to find a copy.
Filed alongside
The One-Armed Swordsman
The film that made Shaw Brothers switch to male leads and stay there.
Come Drink with Me
King Hu, Cheng Pei-pei, and the template for every wuxia since.
Master of the Flying Guillotine
A blind monk, a bladed hat on a chain, and a tournament. Perfect.
Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky
A live-action gore manga where nobody has heard of restraint or arterial pressure.
Five Fingers of Death
The one that broke kung fu in America, months before Bruce Lee did.
The Man from Hong Kong
Jimmy Wang Yu wrecks Sydney, with hang-gliding and a man actually on fire. Peak crossover.
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin
The best training film ever made. Lau Kar-leung at the peak.
Five Deadly Venoms
Chang Cheh's oddest. Five styles, five masks, one whodunit.
Black Belt Jones
Jim Kelly karate-chops the mob to save a Watts dojo. Blaxploitation meets kung fu, joyfully.
Drunken Master
Jackie Chan finds the formula: comedy, pain, and visible competence.
Heroes of the East
Chinese kung fu versus Japanese martial arts, as a marriage. Lau Kar-leung's most good-natured film.
The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter
Lau Kar-leung's brutal last great Shaw film. A massacred family, and pole fighting as grief.