Display of posters of a few of the 2023 Hong Kong
International Film Festival's close to 200-strong selection
The King of Wuxia Part 1: The Prophet Was Once Here and The King of Wuxia Part 2: The Heartbroken Man on the Horizon (Taiwan, 2022)
- Lin Jing Jie, director
- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Filmmakers and Filmmaking program
With a total running time of 3 hours and 36 minutes, Lin Jing Jie's documentary on King Hu has been split into two parts for screening at such as the Hong Kong International Film Festival The 126 minute long The King of Wuxia Part 1: The Prophet Was Once Here focuses more on King Hu the filmmaker while the 95 minute long The King of Wuxia Part 2: The Heartbroken Man on the Horizon focuses more on King Hu the man.
But while there invariably will be people who are more interested in one side of King Hu but not the other, I really don't think one should view just one part of this enthralling homage to one of Chinese cinema's greatest filmmakers. Also, it's not like there are no personal recollections about him in The King of Wuxia Part 1 nor no coverage of his films and filmmaking in The King of Wuxia Part 2; this not least since King Hu put so much of himself into his films and craft, and he never stopped thinking of making films up until his dying day (with the botched operation that prematurely ended his life being one that he had undergone in prepation for getting ready to direct his planned final film, The Battle of Ono).
Many of the film personalities who appear in The King of Wuxia also appear in both parts of the documentary. And what a stellar bunch they are! Among them are stars of King Hu's films including Shih Chun, Hsu Feng, Cheng Pei Pei and Paul Chun Pui, and actor-action choreographers Sammo Hung and Ng Ming Choi, directors like John Woo, Tsui Hark, Ann Hui and Shu Kei, and cinematographer Harry Chan (who was the cinematographer for Raining in the Mountain and Legend of the Mountain, which were filmed at the same time!). And truly, each and everyone of them provided interesting insights and information about the legendary filmmaker they knew personally and professionally.
In addition to interviews with film personalities, The King of Wuxia also contains a good amount of clips from King Hu's films -- which whet my appetite to re-view the films again. (For the record: I've viewed all 15 of the movies that he directed and also have seen a number of movies in which he's appeared!). There also is some on-set footage, and the likes of Shih Chun revisiting locales in different parts of Taiwan where they had filmed: including where King Hu had built an "inn" (for Dragon Inn (1967)) and the bamboo grove where an incredible fight sequence in A Touch of Zen was shot; and I really wished there had been visits to locales in Hong Kong where King Hu had filmed too, with a short view of Shing Mun Reservoir ending up feeling like such a tease!
From the stories we are told about King Hu in this documentary, he comes across as such an incredible talent and, also, absolute perfectionist. It's also amazing to learn how "hands on" he was about so much; with it becoming clear that he did a lot of the editing of his works as well as directing (and including action scenes even though he gave others martial arts/action choreography credits), and even worked on creating props and getting the sets to look like he wanted them to.
Sadly, his perfectionism resulted in the shooting of his films ending up being too lengthy and deemed too expensive to fund. Changing audience tastes also played a part in his ending up not making as many films as he wanted to. It also didn't help that he was so visionary that his films could end up being misunderstood. One of the most affecting parts of The King of Wuxia is Shu Kei tearing up upon recalling how he hadn't realized how great Legend of the Mountain was and ended up playing a part in editing down the over 3 hour long original to a less than 2 hour long work that was hoped would be more commercially successful.
As can be surmised from its subtitle of The Heartbroken Man on the Horizon, The King of Wuxia Part 2 contains a number of sad revelations. But happier tales and amusing anecdotes are shared in it as well as The King of Wuxia Part 1. But although quotes by King Hu appear on screen in both parts of The King of Wuxia, it's only in Part 2 that there's footage of him speaking -- and it's in English (rather than Mandarin, which is the primary language heard in the documentary; spoken by all of the Hong Kongers who feature in the film as well as the Taiwanese and, partly, by the American Chinese Henry Chan)!
For those who didn't know: King Hu was born in Beijing in what was then the Republic of China, in 1932. He emigrated to Hong Kong in 1949, got into the film industry there, and went on to direct films both in Hong Kong and Taiwan. (And although they are Hong Kong productions, Raining in the Mountain and Legend in the Mountain was filmed in South Korea.) King Hu passed away in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1997, but had spent the last decade of his life in the U.S.A. Truly, his was a life worth making into a movie -- with enough interesting details to fill two movies (or even more -- as I actually found myself wishing that there was a The King of Wuxia Part 3 to view!)
My rating for the film(s): 8.5
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