In Praise of Tsui Hark

Author : Sebastian Tse  
Date : 14 August 2001   

The Legend of Zu is a story about a group of Immortals fighting against their deadliest enemy, Insomnia. In the span of about 100 minutes, we are exposed to Tsui Hark's own fantasy vision of Good vs. Evil. as well as his reconstructed notion of the life of Immortals.

Tsui Hark never fails to challenge us, the audiences, by making the movie an expose of non-stop fantasy-based visual images and by forcing the viewers to look for specific clues to realise the plot. In short, The Legend of Zu is never a story for easy comprehension, not when you have not read the original novel (One that exceeds 8 million words and without an ending). Actually, I find the movie amazingly made with Tsui Hark's attempt not to succumb to classical narration as in Zu: Warriors from Magic Mountain but to re-invent the Chinese fantasy movie genre. 

The Legend of Zu recounts the story of a group of Immortals who lives in the Zu mountain range where different schools co-exist with each other. The chiefs and the disciples of the various clans represent what Zhang Ziyi, who played the role of a female general with aspiration of becoming an Immortal, puts forth as "the power of justice." Right from the beginning, we are led to see that the movie is going to impose its own logic on the audiences by reminding us the differences of being an Immortal and a Human Being. Ekin Cheng as King Sky has been following his master, Dawn (acted by Cecilia Cheung), in search of the road to immortality for 200 years. On the other hand, the struggle between the Good and Evil had already started 300 years ago when Insomnia destroyed the clan of Wah Shan. In this sense, The Legend of Zu attempts, in the words of Tsui Hark, to go one step further than its predecessor, Zu: Warriors from Magic Mountain, to explore the theme of Eternity. 

The Legend of Zu touches on many aspects about the lives of Immortals and the road to Immortality - themes that were not explored in Zu: Warriors from Magic Mountain. Even when, in the end, one finds out that Tsui Hark is not that successful in clarifying his theory on Immortality and Eternity, the attempt is well worth exploring. 

What is the secret to conquering Evil as well as to accomplishing Immortality? In the words of the Grand Master of Omei Clan, White Brows, you need to combine three powers together: Power of the Mind, Power of the Universe, and the Power of Regeneration. In subtle ways, the movie introduces us to the discovery of this power of combination and transformation. Zhang Ziyi represents the ordinary human effort to seek Immortality by framing her mind to allow the Master, Duan Lei (played by Patrick Tam), to accept her. Her mind waivers somewhat but she finally surpasses the difficult ordeal. The movie subtly shows her sword suddenly shining in gold to hint that she has experienced, through self-practising, a quantum leap in her practice to the second level, Power of the Universe. What Tsui Hark means about Power of the Universe is the existence of different forms of elemental power in the universe, such as rainbow, clouds, thunder, moonlight and fire. The road to eternity necessitates that an Immortal equipping with oneself a specific Power of the Universe, usually represented in the form of a weapon. For Dawn and King Sky, their weapons or Power of the Universe are the Moon and Sun Orb; for Enigma (also played by Cecilia Cheung, representing the regenerated Dawn, after her death 200 years ago) and Hollow, their weapons are the Sword of Heaven and the Sword of Thunder respectively, that is, the ultimate weapons in Zu: Warriors from Magic Mountain. The combination of Power of the Mind and the Universe represents an Immortal's advancement in ability. The most difficult stage is to attain the level of Power of Regeneration. This is shown rather ambiguously, in my view, in the movie as the death of both Body and Spirit and their ultimate Regeneration to a new Life. King Sky experienced this transformation by elevating his capability to incorporate an additional weapon (Power of Universe), the Ming Fire Sword, to fight against Insomnia, the Bloody Evil. 

What are the obstacles to the path of Immortality? Crisis in Belief, Love and Desire. Tsui Hark describes very clearly how the characters have to encounter these difficulties. The early example of Zhang Ziyi and even her Teacher, Duan Lei, has shown to us how a crisis is detrimental to the path to Immortality. Tsui Hark and Lee Man Choi (co-scriptwriter) shrewdly make use of a classic monologue first narrated by Stephen Chow in A Chinese Odyssey 2, to convey this message. Zhang Ziyi recounts the rephrased monologue: "There exists in this world, a power of justice. I've once encountered it. Unfortunately, I didn't treasure it. If I could, I'd like to re-discover this power." Her regret finally pays when her sword radiates golden rays of light, indicating her grasp of Power of the Universe. In the original A Chinese Odyssey 2, Stephen Chow says, "I'd found my best love, but I didn't treasure her. I felt regretful after that. It's the ultimate pain in the world." 

Love and Affection is a complex issue touched in The Legend of Zu. Not conforming to conventional rules, Tsui Hark portrays the master-disciple relationship of Immortals in extremely interesting ways. Dawn is King Sky's master yet they are lovers too. The Love that draws them so intimately together also impedes Dawn's practice of Immortality, and she blames herself for failing to control her Power of the Mind because she cannot overcome her emotion and put aside her Love for King Sky. In turn, Love also makes Hollow pay dearly during the process of merging the Sword of Heaven and Thunder (representing two generic Powers of the Universe - Yin and Yang). Love can clearly be detected in the Teacher-Student relationship of Thunder and Zhang Ziyi (Curiously, Zhang Ziyi has never been revealed her name in the movie). Tsui Hark very implicitly demonstrates that the Love affair between the two nearly blocks their road to Immortality. In the end, unless the love and emotion can be neutralised, the road to Eternity and Immortality is impossible.


The detrimental power of Desire to the Immortals is shown in the relationship between Red (played by Louis Koo) and Amnesia (by Kelly Lin). The fetish desire of Red toward Amnesia finally leads him succumbing to the mind control of the latter and to the greatest disaster coming at the end.


The above three examples aptly disclose the subtlety of Tsui Hark in depicting a more than complex picture of the Immortals in The Legend of Zu than in Zu: Warriors from Magic Mountain. We have the love and relationships between the Immortals (Dawn and King Sky); the Immortal and a human being (Thunder and Zhang); and the Immortal and a Devil (Red and Amnesia). Not in Zu Warriors where one can detect such a complex portrayal of love emotional feelings among the Immortals, the Devil Force, and the Human Being.

Ultimately, The Legend of Zu suffers from an imbalance between characterisation and CGI techniques. It is one thing to praise Tsui Hark of his bold attempt to reinvent the genre of Chinese legend movies and his collective will to fill 3/4 of the movie images with CGI effects. But local audiences clearly abandon Tsui Hark again for his overbearance and indiscretion. The depressingly distressful mood lingers longer when one remembers Tsui's sense of humour found in earliler movies such as Zu: Warriors from Magic Mountain or even in Time and Tide. The Legend of Zu is not funny and sometimes it is soberly serious. Tsui Hark makes it clear that, even for the Immortals, the road toward Eternity and Immortality is filled with hurdles.

 There is a commmon Chinese saying that goes like this, "One lives happier as a Human Being than as an Immortal." The Legend of Zu actually does well to show how hard it is to become an Immortal. In a conversation between King Sky and Red, the former actually ridiculed the latter for following the orders of the Senior Immortals (implying White Brows). A second thought strikes that the many Immortal clans should have joined together in collective security against Insomnia. After all, it is Insomnia that destroyed the Wah Shan Clan five hundred years ago, to be followed by the Kun Lun Clan three hundred years ago.

 It is unfortunate that Tsui Hark and his work, The Legend of Zu, are bound to receive harsh treatment again, unlike the near majority praise for Shaolin Soccer. But a closer attention paid to Tsui Hark's boldness convinces me of the worthiness of The Legend of Zu.