Legend Of The Mountain [1979].x264.DVDrip(KungFu.Classics)

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Video Information
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Type.................: Movie
File Validation......: MD5 & SHA-256 HASH

Title................: Legend Of The Mountain, "Shan zhong zhuan qi" (original title)
Studio...............: Tai Seng
Actors...............: Chun Shih, Feng Hsu, Sylvia Chang, Hui Lou Chen, Rainbow Hsu
Directors............: King Hu
Writers..............: King Hu
Genre................: Fantasy | Horror | Mystery
Release Date.........: 4 October 1979 (Hong Kong) ,February 11, 2003 (DVD)
Duration.............: 01:52:10 (per actual main feature)
Rated................: Not Rated
Cover(s) Included....: Yes

Language.............: Chinese
Subtitles............: Chinese, English
Resolution...........: 480p @ 16x9
Source...............: Retail R3 DVD

IMDb Information.....: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079886/
IMDb Rating..........: 7.3
RottenTomatoes.......: N/A
RT Rating............: N/A

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Encoding/Bitrate Information
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Format : MPEG-4
File size : 972 MiB
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 1 211 Kbps

Video

Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 8 frames
Bit rate : 1 100 Kbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 288 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.25:1
Frame rate mode : Variable
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Minimum frame rate : 8.688 fps
Maximum frame rate : 29.970 fps0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Writing library : x264 core 142 r2479 dd79a61

Audio

Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 96.0 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Title : Stereo / Stereo
Language : Chinese

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Filename : Legend Of The Mountain [1979].x264.DVDrip(KungFu.Classics).mp4
MD5 : a948dcafde86a2996a3af478a015997b
SHA-256 : 6e04a44124042f55a307ddc5dfe6bef5c950451337b31f2c5eee9a19bdcfc3cd
File Size : 1,018,995,680
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Reviews/Synopsis
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Please go to the following website for detailed information:

[url]

King Hu belongs to a dubious group of filmmakers: the neglected; alongside the likes of Satyajit Ray, Mikio Naruse, Youssef Chahine and Ritwik Ghatak. As with all of those filmmakers, King Hu's work - when available at all (his legendary DRAGON INN is nearly impossible to find), is only available in dubious quality - fuzzy DVDs, cropped or pan-and-scan editions, VCDs, DVRs.

This is a shame - Hu's flair for history recalls Kenji Mizoguchi or Satyajit Ray, his personal and highly evolved spiritual ideas evoke Andrei Tarkovsky, and his flair for both landscape and action is reminiscent of Kurosawa or John Ford.

That noted, LEGEND OF THE MOUNTAIN - one of the handful of King Hu's films currently available - seems like lesser Hu. I'd say 'seems like,' because it's companion film, RAINING IN THE MOUNTAIN (the two films are apparently interrelated) has been mostly unavailable on VHS or DVD, save for a Japanese DVD edition (no English subs) recently released. Without seeing both, I'd guess that it would be difficult to evaluate in a thorough fashion.

Here we have a ghost story, heavily infused with Buddhist mysticism: a young, and rather earnest scholar (Hsu Feng, who also starred in Hu's extraordinary A TOUCH OF ZEN) retreats to semi-abandoned fortress in an isolated mountain range to study and translate an ancient sutra.
Upon arrival, he immediately encounters a small, but eclectic cast of locals; his encounters with them propel him into a series of intrigues that ultimately escalates into a good-vs-evil struggle.

The story recalls A TOUCH OF ZEN in its' ambitions and complexity, but compressed into the 110-minute running time here, the entire story (and the acting) feels a little forced, and a little rushed.
The cinematography (the film was shot on location in South Korea) seems to be dazzling, though currently available editions of the film are fairly grainy, and night scenes are very indistinct.
Hu's sense of action fails him here; the majority of it seems very half-hearted, compared to earlier films, and Hu's sense of slapstick (one gets the distinct impression that some commerical pressures may have intruded upon this film) threatens to overtake that more supernatural sides to the story.

That being said, the film STILL looks good, and manages to be entertaining - and there are a few set pieces here that are breathtaking, in spite of the flaws also evident here.
Perhaps for fans of Hu; but if you're one of those and you haven't seen this, you should.

SCREENSHOTS:



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This was personally encoded by me, Carjacker, from the Retail Edition DVD.
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