Legend of the Mountain

press release:

LEGEND OF THE MOUNTAIN (SHAN ZHONG ZHUAN KI)

Taiwan | 1979 | DCP | 184 min. | Mandarin with English subtitles

Director: King Hu; Cast: Chun Shih, Feng Hsu, Sylvia Chang

From the director of A Touch of Zen and Dragon Inn comes this supernatural fable set during the 11th-century. “A scholar-errant, tasked with translating and safeguarding a Buddhist sutra involving the afterlife, loses his grasp of space and time as he wanders through a strange, haunting mountain landscape. Along the way, he encounters temptress ghosts and Taoist priests, ancient abandoned fortresses and inns, and a delirium of color, sound, and silence” (NY Museum of Modern Art). A beautiful new 4K restoration will be shown.

New Taiwanese Restorations: In January and February, we present two decidedly different movies from Taiwan, each directed by an established master of cinema. Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s Daughter of the Nile is an intimate contemporary family story that marked a transition between Hou’s “coming of age” trilogy and his period films. Legend of the Mountain is a deliriously entertaining epic of the supernatural from Wuxia expert King Hu. Both movies will show in gorgeous new 4K digital restorations.

All Cinematheque screenings are free and open to the public.