Double Bill Admission $4.00

Set in a remote Buddhist monastery in 16th Century China, Raining in the Mountain deals with a power struggle that ensues when the Abbot of the Three Treasures Temple announces his retirement. His leading disciples become rivals and form alliances with the Abbot's visiting secular advisors. When a prisoner who has chosen priesthood over exile arrives at the monastery, his special qualities of spirit and intelligence gradually point to him as the surprising choice for successor--and the focus of all the rivaling contenders.
Writing for the Berlin Film Festival, King Hu explains his choice of subject matter: “I am not a Buddhist...but I do have a keen interest in the history of Buddhism and in observing the psychology of Buddhist monks. A Buddhist temple presents a microcosm of the human world. I am particularly fascinated by the struggle in the mind of monks: between sublimity and human weaknesses, between the renunciation of, and attachment to, the outside world.” Raining in the Mountain displays the masterful, breathtaking fighting scenes for which King Hu is famous; Hu notes, however, that “these scenes are to be understood as expressions in the form of dance, not as blatant violence.”