King Hu’s great wuxia feature, A Touch of Zen, may be cinema’s greatest expression of human spirituality. Certainly, no other film has so perfectly embodied the concept of “holiness” with such force and such effortlessness.
Hu presents transcendence as both tangible and ineffable, all the while suggesting that it is profoundly effortless: to live a holy life is to live the most natural and sensible life.
“The sea of suffering is boundless. Arise and come ashore.”
Caves of Altamira 