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Hong Kong action cinema - Wikipedia. Hong Kong action cinema is the principal source of the Hong Kong film industry's global fame. It combines elements from the action film, as codified by Hollywood, with Chinese storytelling, aesthetic traditions and filmmaking techniques, to create a culturally distinctive form that nevertheless has a wide transcultural appeal.

In recent years, the flow has reversed somewhat, with American and European action films being heavily influenced by Hong Konggenre conventions. The first Hong Kong action films favoured the wuxia style, emphasizing mysticism and swordplay, but this trend was politically suppressed in the 1. Wong Fei Hung. Post- war cultural upheavals led to a second wave of wuxia films with highly acrobatic violence, followed by the emergence of the grittier kung fu films for which the Shaw Brothers studio became best known. The 1. 97. 0s saw a resurgence in kung fu films during the rise and sudden death of Bruce Lee. He was succeeded in the 1.

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Jackie Chan—who popularised the use of comedy, dangerous stunts, and modern urban settings in action films—and Jet Li, whose authentic wushu skills appealed to both eastern and western audiences. The innovative work of directors and producers like Tsui Hark and John Woo introduced further variety (for example, gunplay, triads, heroic bloodshed, and the supernatural).

An exodus by many leading figures to Hollywood in the 1. Early martial arts films. The genre emerged first in Chinese popular literature. The early 2. 0th century saw an explosion of what were called wuxia novels (often translated as . These were tales of heroic, sword- wielding warriors, often featuring mystical or fantasy elements. This genre was quickly seized on by early Chinese films, particularly in the movie capital of the time, Shanghai. Starting in the 1.

The Burning of the Red Lotus Monastery and its eighteen sequels) were hugely popular and the genre dominated Chinese film for several years. The first martial arts film in Cantonese, the dominant Chinese spoken language of Hong Kong, was The Adorned Pavilion (1. The magic qi rays are created using crude hand- drawn animation. By the late 1. 94. China—the Second Sino- Japanese War, the Chinese Civil War, and the victory of the Communist Party of China—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 (1. Sacred Fire, Heroic Wind (1. These movies emphasized more . The most famous exemplar was real- life martial artist Kwan Tak Hing; he became an avuncular hero figure to at least a couple of generations of Hong Kongers by playing historical folk hero Wong Fei Hung in a series of roughly one hundred movies, from The True Story of Wong Fei Hung (1. Wong Fei Hung Bravely Crushing the Fire Formation (1. 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 .

Even so, during the 1. Cheng Pei- pei and Connie Chan Po- chu were prominent alongside male stars, such as former swimming champion Jimmy Wang Yu, and they continued an old tradition of female warriors in wuxia storytelling. Hu soon left Shaw Brothers to pursue his own vision of wuxia with independent productions in Taiwan, such as the enormously successful Dragon Inn (1.

Dragon Gate Inn). Chang stayed on and remained the Shaws' prolific star director into the early 1.

The 1. 97. 0s kung fu wave. Seriously trained martial artists such as Ti Lung and Gordon Liu became some of the top stars as increasing proportions of running times were devoted to combat setpieces. Chinese Boxer (1. Jimmy Wang Yu, is widely credited with launching the kung fu boom. But remaining at the vanguard, at least initially, were Shaw Brothers and director Chang Cheh. Chang's Vengeance (1.

The Boxer from Shantung (1. Five Deadly Venoms (1. Crippled Avengers (1.

Kung fu cinema was particularly influenced by Chang's concern with his vision of masculine values and male friendship. Lau began directing his own movies for the Shaw brothers in 1. The Spiritual Boxer, a progenitor of the kung fu comedy. In subsequent titles like Executioners from Shaolin (1. The 3. 6th Chamber of Shaolin (1.

Legendary Weapons of China (1. Lau emphasized the traditions and philosophy of the martial arts and strove to give onscreen fighting greater authenticity and ever greater speed and intricacy. In the West, kung fu imports, dubbed and often recut and retitled, shown as . African- Americans particularly embraced the genre (as exemplified by the popular hip- hop group, the Wu- Tang Clan) perhaps as an almost unprecedented source of adventure stories with non- white heroes, who furthermore often displayed a strong streak of racial and/or nationalistic pride. 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.

Bruce Lee. Lee completed just four movies before his death at the age of 3. The Big Boss (1. 97. Fist of Fury and Way of the Dragon (both 1. Enter the Dragon (1. Eastern film historian Patrick Macias ascribes his success to . The English- language Enter the Dragon, the first- ever US- Hong Kong co- production, grossed about US$2.

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. The fad did little to engender mainstream respect in the West for the relatively new phenomenon of martial arts cinema. But despite such posthumous treatment, Lee continues to cast a long shadow over Hong Kong film.

Jackie Chan and the kung fu comedy. Like many kung fu performers of the day, Chan came out of training in Peking opera and started in film as a stuntman, notably in some of Lee's vehicles. He was groomed for a while by The Big Boss and Fist of Fury director Lo Wei as another Lee clone, in several movies including New Fist of Fury (1. But in 1. 97. 8, Chan teamed up with action choreographer Yuen Woo Ping on Yuen's directorial debut, Snake in the Eagle's Shadow. The resulting blend of physical comedy and kung fu action provided Chan with his first hit and the rudiments of what would become his signature style. Chan's follow- up movie with Yuen, Drunken Master (also 1.

The Fearless Hyena (1. Especially notable in this regard were two of Chan's childhood Peking Opera School classmates, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, who also made careers of this specialty, sometimes co- starring with Chan. Hung, noted for the seeming paradox of his overweight physique and physical agility, also made a name for himself as a director and action choreographer from early on, with titles like Enter the Fat Dragon (1. Romantic Horror Movies Below Her Mouth (2017). Reinventing action cinema. 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 1. 98. 0s, 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 film. His first film in this vein, Project A, saw the official formation of the Jackie Chan Stunt Team and added elaborate, dangerous stunts to the fights and typical slapstick humor (at one point, Chan falls from the top of a clock tower through a series of fabric canopies). The new formula helped Project A gross over HK$1.