Budapest Classic Film Marathon 2024: Raining in the Mountain

Director: King Hu

Screenplay by King Hu
Director of photography: Henry Chan
Music by Ta Chiang Wu
Cast: Feng Hsu, Yueh Sun, Lin Tung

Programme section "Open Archives" / Women with Swords - Action Heroines in Taiwanese Film / Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute

Introductory speech: Teréz Vincze film critic, curator

Raining in the Mountain is an anomalous wuxia variant. One of its chief protagonists, White Fox, is a competent female knight errant who, however, is fighting not on the side of morality and heroism, but instead is an out-and-out thief and murderer. The story set in a Buddhist monastery is woven around the machinations to acquire a valuable sutra. However, the point is not the story but the near experimental directorial vision about Buddhist spaces and nature composing the spectacle and camera movements. The closing action scene in which White Fox demonstrates her supernatural physical powers is certainly one of the most dramatic King Hu ever directed.

Supporting film: Etude
Hungarian animation, colour, 1998, dir: Kinga Rofusz, No dialogue, 2’
Directed by Kinga Rofusz

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