Raining in the Mountain

Seems about right for a King Hu wuxia film. Martial arts action, a slight touch of comedy and a barebones but functional story to hold it together. It could stand to be a bit shorter, but it's fun to watch.

King Hu is in fantastic form even when he relies less on martial arts and more on narrative. He forged a visual style from his early successes, and they translate well when attempting a primarily philosophical story. The philosophy itself isn't too challenging, and the fights aren't really the center of the story, so what'a left is, thankfully, a story about people, and how they interact with each other. The labyrinthine monastery works well both for chase scenes and character building.

This is a martial arts movies almost in name only. It features very little fighting. It feels like Hu only added those to get financial backing. It's clear that Hu used this to make another movie about Buddhism, mostly about the Samgka (the Buddhist monastic order). The movie is full of critique on the Samgka. In one scene they are distracted during meditation by the bathing harem of the lay master and the main candidates for new abbot are involved in shady dealings to secure their position,

To compare if to the other Hu movies I've seen, it's a middle point between the longer and more fantastical epics A Touch of Zen and Legend of the Mountain, and the shorter, action focused Dragon Inn. In that respect it's sort of missing the best of both worlds, but it is a fun heist movie/succession plot/farce all rolled into one.

A little light on the wuxia (at times, it's oddly placed in some very far-away shots). It makes up for it in an extended cat-and-mouse game, sometimes physical (that first sequence around the temple grounds exhausted me), sometimes conspiratorial. The sunlit shots accentuate the beautiful photography (were there *any* rainy shots?).