Kung fu film
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Someone like Jean-Luc Godard is for me intellectual counterfeit money when compared to a good kung fu film." --Werner Herzog via Bitter Cinema. |
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Kung fu film is a subgenre of martial arts films and Hong Kong action cinema set in the contemporary period and featuring realistic martial arts. It lacks the fantasy elements seen in wuxia, a related martial arts genre that uses historical settings based on ancient China. Swordplay is also less common in kung-fu films than in wuxia and fighting is done through unarmed combat.
Kung fu films are an important product of Hong Kong cinema and the West, where it was exported.
Global influence
The competing Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest studios entered Western markets in the 1970s by releasing dubbed kung fu films in the United States and Europe. Films like The Big Boss (Fists of Fury) and King Boxer (Five Fingers of Death) were box office successes in the West. By the 1980s and 1990s, American cinema had absorbed the martial arts influences of Hong Kong cinema. The Matrix, directed by the Wachowskis, was choreographed by martial arts director Yuen Woo-Ping. Martial arts stars like Jackie Chan and Jet Li left Hong Kong to star in American films, but occasionally returned to Hong Kong.
See also
