The Legend of Zu and Another WorldTai Kwun - Centre for Heritage and Arts

The Legend of Zu

From the late 1990s to the early 2000s, special effects became a trend in Hong Kong cinema. Films with extensive use of innovative visual effects gained popular appeals, such as The Storm Riders and Shaolin Soccer. The Legend of Zu is another work in the same period that employed special effects with great ambition. The work echoes Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain – another groundbreaking classic by Tsui Hark 18 years ago, but the young and fearless swordsman in the old work becomes a half-immortal helpless in confronting the demon in the latter work. Master Dawn and her apprentice King Sky of the Kunlun clan join hands with Grandmaster White Brows and his apprentices Red and Enigma of the Omei clan to fight against Insomnia – the demon who wants to destroy the magic mountain of Zu. A war between good and evil is about to happen. The film not only explores the new possibilities of special effects at the time but also brings a touch of cyberpunk to this oriental martial-arts fantasy: the "spiritual resurrection" similar to implanting consciousness into a cyborg, the laser-like Thunder Sword, the freewheeling iron wing weapon of Red, etc. Through oppositions and fusions of good/evil, master/apprentice, male/female and secular/sacred, the film constructs a unique conception and principle of the world which distinguishes itself from other fantasy action movies of the same type.

Director: Tsui Hark
2001 | Colour | Cantonese | Chinese and English subtitles | 104mins


Licensed by Fortune Star Media Limited. All rights reserved.

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Another World

In the netherworld for the dead, a little girl who died of famine and poverty is waiting for Little Ghost's guide to reincarnation, but she is reluctant to give up her past – she hopes to reunite with her missing brother who died young and became food for her family. The film brings together an excellent drawing, animation, dubbing and music team to create a fantasy world of vivid colours and unrestrained imaginations.

Director: Tommy Ng
2019 | Colour | Cantonese | Chinese and English Subtitles | 14mins