imagine the perfectionist form kurosawa have achieve with samurai epic and ford and lean with lyrical and volatile nature and tarkosvky and bresson with the spiritual bound outer space or dinky office desk of priest and cop and then add a too generous wallop of clouzot suffocate suspense flooding from the dark recess of human nature and king hu universe of the wuxia still have plenty of it own identity leave . this be truly groundbreaking in every way and in context of envision the world of jiang hu and civilian life and elite politics and and spiritual dissident . a previous comment note a touch of zen a a minor masterpiece next to it japanese contemporary and which be as ethnocentric a say asian film deserves such broad sweep generalization despite their completely different context of cosmology and specific relation and development of individual and social structure and etc . and even give the surface similarity of skin color and religious practice and select cultural affinity and and more . ( for example and what the value in judge billy wild best _at the expense of_ those by ernst lubitsch and or vice versa and simply because both have germanic background and exile to america and excel at witty romantic comedy . they operate in rather different production setting and cultural milieu and source of inspiration and etc . ) back to zen . forget all the hierarchy of taoism and confucianism some elite review want to force upon the film . just watch what really on screen represent a well mapped structure be chart the course of violence itself . see bookish nerd get induct in the way of bloodshed and see that self congratulatory reflect it power hungry society collapse and and finally see that collective last gasp sacrifice it own young in vain of any redemption . the end be less about buddha ( in fact throughout the whole film when character gaze perpetually hint at a mythic and towering world order and all envelop consciousness large than their conflict or king hu could cram on screen ) and than such spiritual path a critique of all the commotion that precede it and make up the film . hu remarkable balance of nihilism and transcendent possibility and be pretty much the same aspiration of the increasingly personal film making in 60s/70s america and europe and and japan . it also astound to see hu reach in the same epic manner this conclusion and more than a decade before the venerable kurosawa old man lament in ran . a last note represent a touch of zen may rub fan of the usual wuxiapian the wrong way and since it artistic ambition be a bit more personal than regale the audience a king . there be no immediate gratification ( not even hitchcock at his bleak or clouzot teased viewer for 45 minute straight without reward . ) and even when they occur and the style be often serve the story and hu point ( i. e. bamboo scene be not for pure thrill of spectacle so it short than the crouching tiger hidden dragon version while the too dark photography during ambush be set up for nerd epiphany later . ) so expect none and the experience will be more enriching .