A Touch of Zen (Again)

A cli-fi masterpiece of nature and power, violence and the sacred.

A Touch of Zen — King Hu’s foundational wuxia influential, now celebrating its 50th year on Earth — teaches us, with patience and wonder, that all we have, after our spasms of anger and war, is what we share with our living, breathing, loving world.

And so I (finally) found A Touch of Zen in Yosemite National Park, a sacred place for my family, while I was with more of them than ever. It was a personal, political interconnection which only intensified — surrounded as it was by some of the most beautiful land on Earth — A Touch of Zen’s meaning and impact.

It was a life-altering moment, in a life already so changed by so many repetitively apocalyptic events. I have written often of such cli-fi essentials, for what feels like far too long, to see so little change, so far.

Read about more of them below. And deeply meditate on your good fortune to have what you still yet have, while you have it.


Future Boy Conan, Miyazaki’s Hidden Masterpiece


Children of the Sea’s Transcendental Song


Interview: Director Tomm Moore’s Stunning Song of the Sea


Chasing Ice And Coral, Running Out of Time


Korra, Uncensored


Zoonosis: Climate Crisis and Coronavirus


The Cli-Fi Wonderland Of Kipo And The Age Of Wonderbeasts


Expression Of Hope: Interview With The Breadwinner Director, Nora Twomey


Cli-Fi: Peace On Earth’s Intertextual Extinction