★ Great filmmaker King Hu is a giant in martial arts cinema. Although he was not a productive filmmaker, he created a new style for and consolidated the genre of martial arts movies through his works.

★ Director Lin Jing-Jie (director of The Man Behind the Book) records Hu’s cinematic formation and explores his cinematic aesthetics as well as passion for and pursuit of cinematic art.

★ The King of Wuxia Part 1 presents interviews with and memories of cinema professionals in collaboration with King Hu, including actors Shih Chun and Sammo Hung, directors John Woo, Tsui Hark, Toon Wang, and Ann Hui, actress Cheng Pei-Pei, and critics Peggy Chiao, Wen Tien-Hsiang, and Chien-Yeh Huang.

★ The King of Wuxia Part 2 traces the trajectory of Hu’s life from Beijing, Hong Kong, Taiwan to the U.S., exploring the impacts of life experiences on the formation of Hu as a unique artist.

★ The King of Wuxia details Hu’s life and cinematic creation through a rare collection of reminiscences from his relatives and close friends about the life of this epoch-making master.

The King of Wuxia comprises two parts.

The King of Wuxia Part I: The Prophet Was Once Here shows King Hu’s cinematic charm through a chronology of his classic films, along with aesthetic analyses by major scholars and critics as well as interviews with important cinema professionals, such as Feng Hsu, Cheng Pei-Pei, Toon Wang, Tsui Hark, John Woo, and Sammo Hung, who share their memories about the details of working with Hu. The film gradually reveals the filmmaker’s cinematic approach, aesthetic style, and artistic devotion, along with his specific manners and mad pursuit of perfection.

The King of Wuxia Part 2: The Heartbroken Man on the Horizon thoroughly details King Hu’s fate as a homeless wanderer all his life, who lived in Beijing, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the U.S. The film explores how such fate is reflected in his oeuvre and affected his artistic career. Particularly, his continued effort for filmmaking in his later years was not as glorious as imagined. In failing to fulfill his last ambition, this epoch-making figure became a solitary hero lost amid the tumults of an era.

The film also features actor Shih Chun (leading actor in Dragon Inn and A Touch of Zen) who developed his career under the guidance of Hu, who was a fatherly mentor for him. Following Shih’s footsteps back in the locations of shooting by Hu along with flashbacks of filmmaking, the audience are led on a trip through time and space. Despite his age, this chivalrous man persists in retrieving the memory about his mentor for fifty years, a mentor that is fatherly with a sincere friendship.

【Background】

Martial arts films are a prominent genre in cinema today and a representative type in Chinese films. Director King Hu is generally acknowledged as a giant in this genre, but his reputation as an epoch-making master of mandarin martial arts films has gradually faded into oblivion with the passage of time. The timeless cinematic aesthetics he created has remained a profound inspiration and influence for subsequent generations of filmmakers, including internationally renowned directors such as Tsui Hark and Ang Lee.

Through an in-depth exploration by director Lin Jing-Jie, The King of Wuxia portraits the unique charm of Hu’s works and his solitary filmmaking career. The film outlines the cinematic formation of Hu as a filmmaker and discusses the aesthetics of his martial arts film and his love and pursuit of film art, like a knight with peerless Kungfu constantly waiting for the moment to draw his sword.

The King of Wuxia contains interviews with cinema professionals in collaboration with King Hu and under his impact, tracing Hu’s creative trajectory, exploring the greatness of his films through their views, and achieve a collage of this unique artist. The touching and impressive film is the first to reveal the mad pursuit of perfection of this master in cinematic art and his intricate life story as a wanderer.