Hong Kong action cinema
Hong Kong action cinema is the principal source of the
The first
Hong Kong action cinema peaked from the
Early martial arts films (early 20th century)
The signature contribution to action cinema from the
The boom came to an end in the 1930s, caused by official opposition from cultural and political elites, especially the
Post-war martial arts cinema (1940s to early 1960s)
By the late 1940s, upheavals in mainland China—the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese Civil War, and the victory of the Chinese Communist Party—had shifted the centre of Chinese language filmmaking to Hong Kong. The industry continued the wuxia tradition in Cantonese B movies and serials, although the more prestigious Mandarin-language cinema generally ignored the genre. Animation and special effects drawn directly on the film by hand were used to simulate the flying abilities and other preternatural powers of characters; later titles in the cycle included The Six-Fingered Lord of the Lute (1965) and Sacred Fire, Heroic Wind (1966).[2]
A counter-tradition to the wuxia films emerged in the
"New School" wuxia (late 1960s to early 1970s)
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Chinese martial arts (Wushu) |
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In the second half of the 1960s, the era's biggest studio, Shaw Brothers, inaugurated a new generation of wuxia films, starting with Xu Zenghong's Temple of the Red Lotus (1965), a remake of the 1928 classic. These Mandarin productions were more lavish and in colour; their style was less fantastical and more intense, with stronger and more acrobatic violence. They were influenced by imported samurai movies from Japan and by the wave of "New School" wuxia novels by authors like Jin Yong and Liang Yusheng that started in the 1950s.[5][6]
The New School wuxia wave marked the move of male-oriented action films to the centre of Hong Kong cinema, which had long been dominated by female stars and genres aimed at female audiences, such as
Kung fu wave (1970s)
The early 1970s saw wuxia giving way to a new, grittier and more graphic (and
Chang's only competitor as the genre's most influential filmmaker was his long-time
The kung fu boom was partly fueled by enormous international popularity, and not just in East Asia. In the West, kung fu imports,
The popularity of these movies in North America would continue into the 1980s when ninja movies were introduced. In popular culture, the films of this era were colloquially known as Kung Fu Theater or Black Belt Theater, names that many independent stations used for their weekly airing slot.
The Brothers (1979), a Shaw Brothers production, was a significant departure from the kung fu films the studio was known for. The Brothers was an action crime-drama, about two brothers on opposing sides of the law. It was a remake of the Indian crime drama Deewaar (1975), written by Salim–Javed.[10] In turn, The Brothers laid the foundations for the heroic bloodshed genre of 1980s Hong Kong cinema, inspiring John Woo's breakthrough film A Better Tomorrow (1986).[11]
Bruce Lee
No single figure was more responsible for this international profile than
The English-language Enter the Dragon, the first-ever US-Hong Kong co-production, grossed an estimated US$350 million worldwide,[14] making it the most internationally successful film from the region. Furthermore, his decision at the outset to work for young, upstart studio Golden Harvest, rather than accept the Shaws' notoriously tightfisted standard contract, was a factor in Golden Harvest's meteoric rise and Shaw's eventual decline.[3][15]
Jackie Chan and the kung fu comedy
The only Chinese performer who has ever rivalled Bruce Lee's global fame is
Although these films were not the first kung fu comedies, they launched a vogue that helped reinvigorate the waning kung fu genre. Especially notable in this regard were two of Chan's childhood
Reinventing action cinema (1980s to early 1990s)
Chan's clowning may have helped extend the life of the kung fu wave for several years. Nevertheless, he became a star towards the end of the boom, and would soon help move the colony towards a new type of action. In the 1980s, he and many colleagues would forge a slicker, more spectacular Hong Kong pop cinema that would successfully compete with the post-Star Wars summer blockbusters from America.
Jackie Chan and the modern martial arts stunt action film
In the early 1980s,
Chan continued to take the approach – and the budgets – to new heights in hits like Police Story (1985), which is considered one of the greatest action films of all time.[22] Here was Chan dangling from a speeding bus, destroying large parts of a hillside shantytown, fighting in a shopping mall while breaking many glass panes, and sliding down a pole covered with exploding light bulbs. The latter is considered one of the greatest stunts in the history of action cinema.[23] The 1988 sequel called for explosions on a scale similar to many Hollywood movies and seriously injured leading lady Maggie Cheung – an occupational risk Chan had already grown used to. Thus Jackie Chan created the template for the contemporary urban action-comedy of the 1980s, combining cops, kung fu and all the body-breaking potential of the modern city with its glass, metal and speeding vehicles.[24]
Tsui Hark and Cinema City
Chan's move towards larger-scale action films was paralleled by work coming out of
John Woo and the "heroic bloodshed" and "gun fu" triad films
As a producer, Tsui Hark facilitated the creation of
For the remainder of the 1980s and into the early 1990s, a deluge of films by Woo and others explored similar territory, often with a similar visual style and thematic bent. They were usually marked by an emphasis on the fraternal bonds of duty and affection among the criminal protagonists. The most notable other auteur of these themes was Ringo Lam, who offered a less romanticized take in such films as City on Fire, Prison on Fire (both 1987), and Full Contact (1992), all starring Chow Yun-Fat. The genre and its creators were accused in some quarters of cravenly glorifying real-life triads, whose involvement in the film business was notorious.[26]
The wire-work wave
As the triad films petered out in the early 1990s, period martial arts returned as the favored action genre. But this was a new martial arts cinema that took full advantage of technical strides as well the higher budgets that came with Hong Kong's dominance of the region's screens. These lavish productions were often adapted from the more fantastical
As so often, Tsui Hark led the way. He produced
International impact
First wave: kung fu craze (1970s–1980s)
Hong Kong's international impact initially came in the form of
Kung fu film releases in the United States initially targeted
Sascha Matuszak of
In Japan, the manga and anime franchises Fist of the North Star (1983–1988) and Dragon Ball (1984–1995) were influenced by Hong Kong martial arts films, particularly 1970s kung fu films such as Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon and Jackie Chan's Drunken Master (1978).[34][35] In turn, Fist of the North Star and especially Dragon Ball are credited with setting the trends for popular shōnen manga and anime from the 1980s onwards.[36][37]
Similarly in India, Hong Kong martial arts films had an influence on
Hong Kong martial arts films such as Enter the Dragon were the foundation for
The success of Bruce Lee's films helped popularize the concept of mixed martial arts (MMA) in the West via his Jeet Kune Do system. In 2004, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) founder Dana White called Lee the "father of mixed martial arts".[45] Parkour was also influenced by the acrobatic antics of Jackie Chan in his Hong Kong action films,[46][47] as well as the philosophy of Bruce Lee.[48]
Second wave: modern action films (1990s–2000s)
This section needs additional citations for verification. (May 2018) |
Hong Kong action cinema's innovative developments in the 1980s had not only established Hong Kong as the dominant cinema in East Asia, but reawakened Western interest. By the 1990s, there was a second "Asian invasion" from Hong Kong action cinema, heavily influencing and revitalizing Hollywood action cinema. There was a significant crossover of Hong Kong stars, filmmakers and action choreographers from Hong Kong to Hollywood, in addition to the wide adoption of Hong Kong action filmmaking techniques in Hollywood.[49] The wide adoption of Hong Kong action film conventions was referred to as the "Hong Kongification" of Hollywood.[50]
Building on the reduced but enduring kung fu movie subculture, Jackie Chan and films like Tsui Hark's Peking Opera Blues (1986) were already building a cult following when Woo's The Killer (1989) had a limited but successful release in the U.S. and opened the floodgates. In the 1990s, Westerners with an eye on "alternative" culture became common sights in Chinatown video shops and theaters, and gradually the films became more available in the mainstream video market and even occasionally in mainstream theaters. Western critics and film scholars also began to take Hong Kong action cinema seriously and made many key figures and films part of their canon of world cinema.
From here, Hong Kong came to define a new vocabulary for worldwide action cinema, with the aid of a new generation of North American filmmakers.
Influence of heroic bloodshed and gun fu films
The heroic bloodshed genre had a considerable impact on world cinema, especially Hollywood.[51] The action, style, tropes and mannerisms established in 1980s Hong Kong heroic bloodshed films were later widely adopted by Hollywood in the 1990s, reshaping the way Hollywood action films were made.[11] Lam's City on Fire (1987) inspired Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992);[52] Tarantino was an admirer of the heroic bloodshed genre.[53] The Killer also heavily influenced Luc Besson's Léon: The Professional (1994).[51] Eventually, John Woo himself introduced his brand of heroic bloodshed to Hollywood in the 1990s. By the late 1990s, Woo's style of cinema had become firmly established in Hollywood.[54]
Exit of many leading figures (late 1990s to early 2000s)
Due to the new-found international awareness of Hong Kong films during the 1980s and early 1990s and a downturn in the industry as the 1990s progressed, many of the leading lights of Hong Kong cinema left for Hollywood, which offered budgets and pay which could not be equalled by Hong Kong production companies.
John Woo left for Hollywood after his 1992 film Hard Boiled. His 1997 film Face/Off was the breakthrough that established his unique style in Hollywood. This effort was immensely popular with both critics and public alike (it grossed over US$240 million worldwide). Mission: Impossible 2 (2000) grossed over US$560 million worldwide. Since these two films, Woo has struggled to revisit his successes of the 1980s and early 1990s.[55]
After over fifteen years of success in Hong Kong cinema and a couple of attempts to crack the U.S. market, Jackie Chan's 1995 film Rumble in the Bronx finally brought him recognition in the U.S. Since then, he has made several highly successful films for U.S. studios including Rush Hour (1998), Shanghai Noon (2000), and their respective sequels Rush Hour 2 (2001), Shanghai Knights (2003), and Rush Hour 3 (2007). Between his films for U.S. studios, he still makes films for Hong Kong studios, sometimes in English (Mr. Nice Guy and Who Am I?), often set in western countries like Australia or the Netherlands, and sometimes in Cantonese (2004's New Police Story and 2006's Rob-B-Hood). Because of his enormous U.S. popularity, these films are usually released in the U.S., a rarity for Hong Kong films, and generally attract respectable audience numbers.
Jet Li has reduced his Hong Kong output since 1998's Hitman concentrating on Hollywood instead. After a minor role in Lethal Weapon 4 (1998), he has gone on to star in several Hollywood films which have performed respectably and made a name for him with American audiences. So far, he has returned to Chinese cinema for only two films: Hero (2002) and Fearless (2006). He claimed Fearless would be his last traditional kung fu film.
Chow Yun-fat has also moved to Hollywood. After his 1995 film Peace Hotel, he has made a handful of films in Hollywood which have not seen as much success as those of the aforementioned figures'. These include The Replacement Killers (1998), The Corruptor (1999), Anna and the King (1999) and Bulletproof Monk (2003). He returned to China for 2000's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and 2006's Curse of the Golden Flower.
Recent trends (late 1990s to present)
The Hong Kong film industry has been in a severe slump since the mid-1990s. The number of local films produced, and their box office takings, are dramatically reduced; American imports now dominate in a way they had not for decades, or perhaps ever. This crisis and increased contact with Western cinema have probably been the biggest recent influences on Hong Kong action cinema.[56]
Luring local and regional youth audiences away from Hollywood is a constant concern. Action movies are now generally headlined by babyfaced Cantonese pop music idols, such as Ekin Cheng and Nicholas Tse, enhanced with wires and digital effects – a trend also driven by the waning of a previous generation of martial arts-trained stars. The late 1990s witnessed a fad for Cantopop stars in high-tech, more American-styled action pictures such as Downtown Torpedoes (1997), Gen-X Cops and Purple Storm (both 1999).
Andrew Lau's wuxia comic-book adaptation The Storm Riders (1998) earned a record-breaking gross and ushered in an era of computer-generated imagery, previously little used in Hong Kong film. Tsui Hark's lavish CGI-enhanced efforts Time and Tide (2000) and The Legend of Zu (2001), however, were surprisingly unsuccessful.[clarification needed] Comedy megastar and director Stephen Chow used digital effects to push his typical affectionate parody of martial arts conventions to cartoonish levels in Shaolin Soccer (2001) and Kung Fu Hustle (2004), each of which also set a new box office record.[citation needed]
Striking a different note were a series of crime films more restrained and actor-driven than the earlier, John Woo-inspired examples. The Milkyway Image production company was at the vanguard with examples like Patrick Yau's Expect the Unexpected (1998), Johnnie To's The Mission (1999) and Running Out of Time (1999). Andrew Lau and Alan Mak's blockbuster Infernal Affairs trilogy (2002–2003) has set off a mini-trend of brooding police thrillers.[citation needed]
Collaboration with other industries, particularly that of Mainland China, is another increasingly common survival and recovery strategy. Hong Kong stars and other personnel have been involved in international wuxia successes like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Hero (2002) and House of Flying Daggers (2004).
See also
- Cinema of the world
- hkmdb.com
Notes
- ^ (Chute & Lim, 2003, 14–15)
- ^ a b (Chute & Lim, 2003, 2)
- ^ a b c d e (Logan, 1995)
- ^ "Chinese Martial Arts: Philosophical influences"Chinese martial arts
- ^ (Chute and Lim, 2003, 8 & 15)
- ISBN 978-1-932643-19-0.
- ^ "Festival de Cannes: A Touch of Zen". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 4 May 2009.
- ^ (Teo, 2003)
- ^ African Americans, Kung Fu Theater and Cultural Exchange at the Margins by Amy Abugo Ongiri in the Journal of Asian American Studies. Project Muse PDF version . Retrieved 1 April 2006.
- ^ Mondal, Sayantan. "Amitabh Bachchan starrer 'Deewar' was remade in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam – and Cantonese". Scroll.in. Archived from the original on 30 January 2017. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
- ^ a b "Heroic Bloodshed: How Hong Kong's style was swiped by Hollywood". British Film Institute. 11 July 2019. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
- ^ a b GreenCine primer: Hong Kong Action Archived 2006-03-21 at the Wayback Machine by Patrick Macias . Retrieved 1 April 2006.
- ISBN 978-1-84403-762-9.
- ISBN 978-1-5011-8763-6.
Enter the Dragon struck a responsive chord across the globe. Made for a minuscule $850,000, it would gross $90 million worldwide in 1973 and go on to earn an estimated $350 million over the next forty-five years.
- ^ a b (Teo, 1997)
- ^ "Kung fu, stunts, screwball comedy – Jackie Chan on his winning formula". South China Morning Post. 14 June 2020. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
- ^ "Dragon Lord". Love HK Film. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
- ^ "Dragon Lord (DVD Description)". Amazon UK. Retrieved 12 April 2011.
- ^ David Everitt (16 August 1996). "Kicking and Screening: Wheels on Meals, Armour of God, Police Story, and more are graded with an eye for action". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 12 April 2011.
- ^ Internet Movie Database Business Data . Retrieved 1 April 2006.
- ^ "【ジャッキーチェン興行成績】 第12回:日本での興行収入". KungFu Tube (in Japanese). Retrieved 21 November 2018.
- ^ "The 100 best action movies". Time Out. 29 April 2016.
- ^ Seitz, Matt Zoller (6 March 2018). "Police Story Movie Review & Film Summary (1985)". RogerEbert.com. Ebert Digital LLC. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
- ^ Bright Lights Film Journal, An Evening with Jackie Chan Archived 2013-01-18 at archive.today by Dr. Craig Reid, issue 13, 1994 . Retrieved 1 April 2006.
- ^ (Bordwell 2000)
- ^ (Dannen, Long, 1997)
- ^ Unsung Heroes: Reading Transgender Subjectivities in Hong Kong Action Cinema by Helen Hok-Sze Leung. Web version 2004–05 . Retrieved 1 April 2006.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-521-77602-8.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-59884-244-9.
- ISBN 978-0-520-23265-5.
- ^ ISBN 978-988-8390-71-7.
- ^ Matuszak, Sascha (1 July 2015). "Bruce Lee's Last Words: Enter the Dragon and the Martial Arts Explosion". Vice. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
- ISBN 978-1-134-08396-1.
- ^ "New Fist of the North Star: Interview with Buronson". ADV Films. Archived from the original on 18 February 2007. Retrieved 5 May 2010.
- ISBN 9780972312493.
- ^ Jensen, K. Thor (2 October 2018). "The Absurd, Brilliant Violence of Fist Of The North Star". Geek.com. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on 11 October 2018. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
- ^ Thompson, Jason (10 March 2011). "Jason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga – Dragon Ball". Anime News Network. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
- ISBN 9781903254776.
- ^ "Bruce Lee storms Bombay once again with Return of the Dragon". India Today. 15 September 1979. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
- ISBN 9789053565803.
- ISBN 9781932643190.
- ISBN 978-1-4766-2309-2.
- ISBN 978-1-4766-1823-4.
- ^ "Spartan X". Arcade History. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
- ^ Wickert, Marc. 2004. Dana White and the future of UFC. kucklepit.com. See Wikiquotes for the text.
- ISBN 9781135117429.
- ISBN 9780857712271.
- ^ "Parkour History". Parkour Generations. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-59884-243-2.
- ISBN 978-1-4766-0770-2.
- ^ a b Volodzko, David (13 June 2015). "30 Years Later, This Chinese Film Still Echoes in Hollywood". The Diplomat.
- ISBN 9780810873780.
- ISBN 9789622099197.
- ISBN 9789622096523.
- ^ Asia Week, The Next Mission by Winnie Chung, 30 June 2000, Vol. 29 no 5 . Retrieved 1 April 2006.
- MovieMaker Magazine issue 49: The New Orient Express Hong Kong to Hollywood Archived 2006-03-24 at the Wayback Machineby Patrick J Gorman . Retrieved 1 April 2006.
References
- Brady, Terrence J. Alexander Fu Sheng: Biography of the Chinatown Kid. Charleston, SC: CreateSpace, 2018. ISBN 978-1717363671.
- ISBN 0-674-00214-8.
- ISBN 0-345-41503-5.
- Chute, David, and Cheng-Sim Lim, eds. Heroic Grace: The Chinese Martial Arts Film. Los Angeles: UCLA Film and Television Archive, 2003. (Film series catalog; no ISBN.)
- ISBN 9780786862672.
- Logan, Bey. Hong Kong Action Cinema. Woodstock, NY: The Overlook Press, 1995. ISBN 0-87951-663-1.
- Teo, Stephen. Hong Kong Cinema: The Extra Dimensions. London: British Film Institute, 1997. ISBN 0-85170-514-6.
- Teo, Stephen. "Shaw's Wuxia Films" in Ain-Ling, W. (2003) The Shaw Screen, Hong Kong Film Archive.
- ISBN 0-7434-4817-0.
External links
- The Rise and Fall of the House of Shaw – Essay charting the history of Shaw Brothers Studios.