Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Raining in the Mountain Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 1, 2020

Between Raining in the Mountain and Black Narcissus, there seems to be a clear message being proffered to film lovers to stay far, far away from religious enclaves at high altitudes. Of course, that’s said with tongue placed firmly in cheek, but there are at least a couple of (admittedly tangential) connections between this acclaimed King Hu film from 1979 and the now basically legendary film from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger which appeared in 1947. Those include an isolated location housing a coterie of believers and a lot of questionable behaviors on the part of the inhabitants. There’s also a rather interesting connection to India in both of the films, something that’s overt in Black Narcissus but which is only alluded to in Raining in the Mountain (commentator Tony Rayns gets into this connection in his appealing analysis). Otherwise, Raining in the Mountain is perhaps at least a little less Freudian, even if its ultimate body count may be a bit higher. Raining in the Mountain is also a kinda sorta wuxia outing, which of course differentiates it from Black Narcissus rather dramatically, but it’s interesting to see how Hu rather ingeniously twists and bends this genre to suit his own narrative needs.

There are two plots interwoven with each other in Raining in the Mountain. One involves a priceless religious scroll that is housed in the monastery (and which is the source of the Indian semi-connection, per Rayns’ cogent commentary), while the other involves the succession of power with the imminent retirement and/or demise of the current elderly abbott. That change in the power echelon has resulted in several “outsiders” being invited into the monastery as either advisors or in fact candidates for the position. Among these are two acolytes of Esquire Wen (Sun Yueh) named White Fox (Hsu Feng) and Gold Lock (Ng Ming-Choim), who are in fact undercover thieves on a mission to relieve the sanctuary of its priceless scroll. However, a whole second set of thieves, General Wang (Tien Feng) and his acolyte Chang Cheng (Chen Hui-Lou), are also on the hunt for the parchment while also keeping an eye on White Fox and Gold Lock.

Though it may be starting to sound a bit like a farce, Wang and Wen also have a hand in the other main plot, the choosing of the new abbott, which introduces even more characters vying for that position. An almost Agatha Christie-esque set of connections between various characters plays out and provides a few surprises. There's a virtually lunatic ambience to the plot proceedings here, which is perhaps best demonstrated by the fact that characters just often kind of dart to and fro without any really traditional "action" scenes unfolding. Things become decidedly more cartoonish in a fun climax in the woods which is probably the closest this film comes to offering expected wuxia trappings.

Raining in the Mountain Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Raining in the Mountain is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Film Movement Classics, an imprint of Film Movement, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.24:1. Film Movement's insert booklet actually provides at least a little more information than is usual for the label by stating this was "digitally restored in 2K by Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute". There are also a couple of introductory text cards before the actual film starts providing even a bit more information, in that the restoration was done in 2018 and was culled from the negative, an interpositive and a release print, which suggests of course that the negative had some issues. Really interestingly, at least with regard to the probably questionable decision to "mask" burnt in subtitles that I mentioned in our recent The Jewish Soul: Classics of Yiddish Cinema Blu-ray review, one of the introductory text cards also states that burnt in subtitles (I'm assuming on the release print) were digitally removed. In any case, all of the above may already indicate that there are some pretty wide variances in quality seen in this transfer. Parts of it look absolutely fantastic, with a vividly suffused palette, great detail levels and a nicely resolved fine grain field. Other sections are seriously washed out and almost completely desaturated (with just a faint purplish hue left), and even in some of the better saturated moments, there are sudden and very noticeable color temperature shifts. There's also a very peculiar cutaway to one character at slightly past the 1 hour 13 minute mark that looks anamorphically squeezed, especially when compared to identical cutaways in the same sequence that aren't. Finally, there are some odd motion stutters here that almost reminded me of PAL to NTSC conversions. For instance, pay attention during the first scene of White Fox and Gold Lock running around the grounds of the monastery and pause for a moment to examine a document by a window. White Fox's arm just kind of suddenly jerks unnaturally as if a frame was either missing or repeated. I actually tried to frame advance through this and several other sections that had this same anomaly but I'm just not able to authoritatively state what's causing it. I'm frankly not sure if this is endemic to the encode or some flaw in this particular disc, but I'm mentioning it here in case anyone else experiences it. Still and all, this is often a very pleasing looking transfer of an often visually ravishing film. My score is 3.25.

Raining in the Mountain Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Raining in the Mountain features an LPCM 2.0 Mono track that, like the video element, has a few issues, but which doesn't offer anything so substantially damaged that it prevents enjoyment. There's some pretty noticeable distortion in many of the scoring cues, with a kind of crackling noise evident in the upper midranges. Dialogue and some of the fun and frankly goofy sound effects don't really encounter huge problems and are rendered with good fidelity. Optional English subtitles are available.

Raining in the Mountain Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary by Tony Rayns


• Treasure of the Spirit (1080p; 17:57) is a new video essay by Chinese language film expert and author Stephen Teo, who discusses the intersection of the three major religious traditions of China, Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism.


• Raining in the Mountain Trailer (1080p; 1:56)

The disc also offers the typical About Film Movement option on its Main Menu, which provides both text and a trailer about Film Movement. Trailers for other Film Movement releases are also offered. The well appointed insert booklet features an interesting essay by Samuel Jamier entitled "Farewell Dragon Inn". The booklet also comes with cast and crew information and some stills.

Raining in the Mountain Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I purposely didn't overtly mention the "Indian connection" I talked about above vis a vis the Tony Rayns commentary, but I'll drop a pretty broad hint by saying it connects this film rather interestingly (and unexpectedly) to outings (indeed, franchises in some cases) like The Monkey King: Havoc in Heaven's Palace, Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons and even The Forbidden Kingdom. That may at least pique the interest of those who know some or all of those properties, but this is certainly not a fantasy film in a traditional sense, though it features some of the "heightened reality" (literally at times) of admittedly kind of goofy wuxia films. But it's the kind of subtle if scathing deconstruction of supposed Buddhist norms (expectations?) that gives this film a really distinctive quality, all of it informed by Hu's really vivid visual aesthetic. Both video and audio encounter some hurdles, but with those caveats in mind, Raining in the Mountain comes Recommended.