Raining in the Mountain - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Raining in the Mountain



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
Raining in the Mountain is probably one of the most unique Wuxia style Asian films that I grew up with. I remember sitting down to watch the 2+ hour film as a 10-12 year old boy thinking I was going to be getting your typical Shaw Brothers style of action movie, only to be surprised by a slow burn mystery drama that twists in elements of 1947’s Black Narcissus into the picture. I guess you could say that it’s really a movie about Buddhist norms that are subverted and dissected very heavily by writer/director King Hu, as he opens up a Buddhist Monastery to a whole bevy of problematic instances

King Hu was probably one of THE most prolific Wuxia directors of the golden age of Asian martial arts cinema, as he gave us some of the most prolific heroes and stories of the time. Films like Dragon Inn, All the King’s Men, Come Drink with Me, A Touch of Zen, and many more dot his amazing career. However, Raining in the Mountain is his most subversive film to date, and one that I almost thought had been lost to the ravages of time forever. I had seen a print of it back when I was 12 years old, and it was in REALLY rough shape, but it looks like they were able to restore a goodly portion of the film and rescue other bits through various different sources to cobble together the entire film.

This is really a tale of conflict and a complicated dissection of the Buddhist issues prevalent at the times in modern China. There are two stories at play here with different subtexts. The first being a story about an ancient scroll hidden in a monastery up in the mountains, and attempts to steal and subvert it from it’s throne, with the other revolving around the change of power as the aging Abbot comes to the end of his time as leader of the monastery. Needless to say that chaos and destruction ensues as various people try to wrest the scroll from it’s location, as well as infighting among the rest of the monks as they try to vie for the Abbot’s seat as leader. It’s complicated and intense, giving us a view into the turmoil and infighting that was present in Buddhist structures, really is a heavy handed criticism about how the clergy were acting, and how they were SUPPOSED to be acting in according to the great Buddha's wishes.

There’s intrigue, there’s action, there’s long periods of talky drama, and while it has elements of both Wuxia and a dramatic epic, Raining in the Mountain really doesn’t adhere to either genre. It’s really in a genre all it’s own, as it acts as both action movie and period piece epic, without feeling like either one. It’s a film that deserves watching more than once, and one that is probably the most fascinating of King Hu’s rich and varied history of film making, even if it's never his best one.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA



Video:

According to the special features and the booklet Raining in the Mountain was restored using a 2K master by the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute. According to what little info I could glean, this transfer was taken from a negative, an interpositive AND a release print back in 2018. All of that to say, the original negative was most likely in pretty bad shape (typical when you’re sourcing from multiple prints and multiple types of sources like this). That means that the transfer is a good bit uneven throughout. Some of the restored scenes from the negative look jaw droppingly clear, with crisp colors and great details. Then there are other scenes where everything is bleached out and a sort of purplish hue is given to the image, including speckles and other print damage. Some shots are razor sharp and full of immaculate details, while others can look smeared and washed out. Even in fairly clean shots there are times when dramatically different color timings come into play. Something that caught me by surprise was the fact that there were subtitles that were burnt into at least one of the sources, which are burnt (or blurred) out of the image using digital means. If you look closely near the bottom you can see the smear marks at times. It’s an interesting looking image for sure, and most likely the best the Taiwan Film Institute could pull off considering how bad the original negate must have been. There are moments of greatness intermingled with decidedly problematic scenes making it a very uneven, if still very watchable image.





Audio:

Much like the video, the audio is rather uneven and issue filled as well. It really sounds like one of the poorly recorded Shaw Brothers films from watching them on TV, complete with harsh upper regions, plenty of hisses and pops in the track, and some uneven voice recording levels. It’s certainly a very listenable experience, but definitely a well worn track that was never recorded with top of the line equipment to begin with. From what I was able to gather, the audio track was very aged and VERY much in creaky shape, so restoring it as best they could was a high priority. All in all, a solid track for a film that was barely recoverable in both audio and video.





Extras:

• 2K RESTORATION OF THE FILM from the Taiwan Film Institute
• Treasure of the Spirit – a new video essay by Chinese-language film expert and author Stephen Teo
• Audio commentary by critic and Asian cinema expert Tony Rayns
• 20-page booklet with a new essay by New York Asian Film Festival Executive Director Samuel Jamier

Final Score: ​

Raining in the Mountain is a VERY different Asian film, as it isn’t your typical Wuxia fantasy, or high flying martial arts film. It has action, it has martial arts, but really it’s a deconstruction of Buddhist traditions in a sort of dramatic fashion. There are definitely elements of sly comedy, but it’s hidden among the copious amounts of dramatic interactions and the beautifully shot period piece epic elements. Its’ a fascinating watch for those of us who grew up on the old Kung-fu/Wuxia films of the 70s and 80s, and is a stark contrast to the old Shaw Brothers flicks. I haven’t seen the film since I was probably 12 years old and even today it still stands out as one of the more unique Asian epics that I was introduced to as a child. The restoration elements aren’t stunning or jaw dropping, but Film Movement Classics presentation is faithful to what the Taiwan Film Institute was able to pull off due to the aging source elements, and probably the best it will ever look/sound in our life time. Worth checking out for genre fans


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Feng Hsu, Yueh Sun, Chun Shih, Feng Tien, Hui-Lou Chen
Directed by: King Hu
Written by: King Hu
Aspect Ratio: 2.24:1 AVC
Audio: Mandarin: LPCM 2.0
Subtitles: English
Studio: Film Movement
Rated: NR
Runtime: 120 minutes
Blu-Ray Release June 8th, 2020

Recommendation: Check it Out

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Will check it out.