Hong Kong martial arts cinema: A Touch of Zen star Hsu Feng on working with King Hu, and winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes
- Taiwanese actress, one of the greatest female martial arts stars, recalled King Hu as more a painter than a director, with actors and crew part of the picture
- When A Touch of Zen won at Cannes festival she saw filmmaking in a new light and vowed to return and win the top prize, which she did for Farewell My Concubine
One of the greatest martial arts actresses of all time, Hsu Feng (or Xu Feng) is best known for her leading roles in classic King Hu movies including A Touch of Zen, The Fate of Lee Khan, and Raining in the Mountain.
Born in Taiwan in 1950, Hsu auditioned for Taiwan’s Union Film Company in 1966 because she needed money to support her family. She impressed King Hu, who had left Shaw Brothers in Hong Kong to work in Taiwan, and made her debut with a small part in his smash hit Dragon Gate Inn (1967).
King Hu’s philosophical wuxia masterpiece A Touch of Zen (1971), in which Hsu starred as a lady knight on the run from some assassins, took her to the Cannes Film Festival in 1975. The film, which had been a box-office failure in Taiwan and Hong Kong, won the Grand Prix de Technique Superieur at the festival.
“I was impressed with the respect that filmmakers were accorded on the Croisette in Cannes, because back home in Taiwan, filmmakers were looked down on,” she said.
Hsu resolved to return to Cannes one day and win the festival’s top award, the Palme d’Or, for herself. Eighteen years later she did just that as the producer of mainland Chinese director Chen Kaige’s Cultural Revolution drama Farewell My Concubine .