Legend of the Mountain (1979)

"A Beautiful Classic"

King Hu's epic fantasy horror piece that was apparently the inspiration for the A CHINESE GHOST STORY series of films gets an uncut (ie 191 minutes) 4k dual format Blu-ray and DVD release from Eureka.

We are "maybe sometime in the 11th century" according to the opening narration. Ho Yunqing (Shih Jun) is a scholar who is employed to copy out a Buddhist sutra rumoured to have immense power over the spirits of the afterlife. The temple that has the relevant texts arranges somewhere quiet for Ho to do his transcription work. For some reason this is absolutely miles away from the temple itself.

Ho finds himself in an isolated monastery where he is informed that he has entered a 'no-man's land'. At his residence he encounters a number of peculiar characters including Madame Wang (Rainbow Hsu, who I must admit I was convinced was a man in disguise but imdb suggests otherwise) and her beautiful daughter Melody (Feng Hsu) who sports a nice line in 1970s giallo-style eye makeup. 

Madame Wang and the gang get Ho drunk and he wakens two days later. From hereon in both he and we aren't quite sure what is going on, who is good and who is bad, and even who may be alive or dead. The monastery is a place of ghosts and demons and he may not make it out alive.

LEGEND OF THE MOUNTAIN is a beautiful film and it's no doubt that King Hu set out to make a work of art (which it is) rather than a movie that's heavy on plot (which it isn't). That, coupled with the three hour plus running time means this is the kind of film that could have been shown in the chill-out tent at raves back in the day. Often slow-moving but frequently eye-opening with its fascinating visuals and sense of general weirdness, I hesitate to make the comparison because it may put some people off, but I found much of the middle act of LEGEND OF THE MOUNTAIN comparable with the dreamy early 1970s movies of Jess Franco, especially A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD. In that film too the lead character ends up in an isolated location filled with weird characters, some or all of whom may be dead, so who knows? 

Eureka's Blu-ray transfer is a 4K restoration with uncompressed LPCM mono audio. There are newly translated English subtitles, a new video essay by David Cairns, a new interview with Asian cinema expert Tony Rayns, a trailer and the usual collector's booklet. 

King Hu's LEGEND OF THE MOUNTAIN is out on dual format from Eureka on Monday 19th March 2018