A travelling scholar, intent on translating a Buddhist sutra, loses his way in the mountains. Time and space collapse around him as he continues his journey, encountering ghostly visitations amid a haunting fantasia of color, light and landscape.

Shih Chun stars as He Qingyun, a scholar tasked with copying and translating a religious text that haas the power to release lost souls. He travels to a remote outpost to get the job done without distraction, only to have more and more odd distractions than he ever thought he’d want or need.The first 20 minutes or so of the movie are gorgeous shots of He wandering the countryside (the movie was shot in South Korea) and it’s the first inkling we get of King Hu’s taking his own damn sweet time to let the movie really settle in (it clocks at just over 3 hours).  There are beautiful vistas to be eyeballed and Hu basks in them.

He reaches his destination, only to be roped into tutoring the daughter of a local woman (who’s kind of a yenta), who seems to have some mesmerizing drumming abilities. She and He share an intimate night, and are wedded quickly thereafter. What He doesn’t know, though, is that his new wife and mother-in-law want to steal the “lost souls” text for their own twisted reasons. A neighbor woman named Cloud (who looks a little like the woman earlier playing a flute who mysteriously disappears) introduces him to a group of monks and soon enough there are magical spells being cast (banging cymbals and thumping drums and billowing smoke seem to make up the substance of the spells) back and forth in a battle for the scrolls.

Legend of the Mountain is an extremely visual ghost story of a movie, full of stunning set pieces and landscapes, as well as practical, almost hokey effects. It’s a treat for the eyes that might test the patience of jaded movie watchers who need a scare a minute, but if you can go with the flow and succumb to its many moods, you will enjoy it immensely.