胡金銓=King Hu; 武俠=Wuxia; 客棧=Inn; 寺廟=Temple; 京劇=Beijing Opera; 《大醉俠》=Come Drink with Me; 《龍門客棧》=Dragon Gate Inn; 《迎春閣之風波》=The Fate of Lee Khan; 《空山靈雨》=Raining in the Mountain; 《山中傳奇》=Legend of the Mountain
Inns and temples are key locations in King Hu’s films. In this thesis, I will examine how King Hu uses the inn and the temple as stages to perform action scenes and show other functions. I am going to consider five films of King Hu chronologically—Come Drink with me (1966), Dragon Gate Inn (1967), The Fate of Lee Khan (1973), Raining in the Mountain (1979), and Legend of the Mountain (1979). The first three films comprise the Inn trilogy, while the latter two form a diptych of temple life This thesis will explore the relations among the setting, the aesthetics and the thematic concerns regarding good and evil in these two groups of films. The first section deals with the Inn trilogy, which King Hu models the inn and the actions within it on Beijing Opera performance traditions. In Come Drink with Me, the inn functions as a place for disguise and action. The inn achieves a central importance in Dragon Gate Inn, and becomes a site for more major actions. And in The Fate of Lee Khan, the inn completely dominates the film space. The inn trilogy is a process of getting into the inn and the inn becomes more and more staged within the trilogy. The second section focuses on Raining in the Mountain and Legend of the Mountain. In Raining in the Mountain, the temple is a variation of the inn up to a point. King Hu uses the temple not only to perform his signature action scenes but also to allude to Zen teachings. King Hu’s main focus turns from spiritual to primarily aesthetic concerns in Legend of the Mountain; however, a power struggle is also the focus on both films. The inn and the temple are not only stages for the action within the films but also metaphoric sites to mark the development of King Hu’s artistry and thematic concerns over his career.
目次
Chinese Abstract i English Abstract ii Acknowledgements iv List of Figures vi Introduction 1 I.Secular Stages 8 II.Sacred Stages 44 Conclusion 59 Works Cited 60