Hong Kong action films have made inroads into households worldwide with its ‘incredible energy and blazing passions’. Synonymous with ‘graceful bullet ballets’, ‘gravity defying wire-fu fight scenes’ and ancient magical beings engaged in martial arts beatdowns (Macias, 2007), Hong Kong action films have managed to amass such a large cult that it is now considered a cultural mainstream, widely available and imitated.

The Hong Kong action film display of acrobatics by the main hero is in contrast to traditional Western action films, which are instead marked by explosions, car chases and gadgets. James Bond and Die Hard are such examples. However, in recent years, Hong Kong action film’s influence on Hollywood popular cinema has been particularly heavy, with films like The Matrix and Kill Bill where the narrative and mechanistic form follows the Hong Kong model. Such success has ironically led to its own downfall and the Hong Kong action film is currently in crisis, losing much of its hold on the action film genre. This paper attempts to examine this.

<p>Hong Kong action films are rooted in the ancient literary genre of wuxia, which goes as far back to Shuo Jian Pian (On the Sword), written during the Warring States Era, 403–221 B.C (Rist, 2002).For as long as film existed, many silent martial arts/adventure films were made in China (Rist, 2002).

These culminated in the post war, 1950s, Hong Kong Wong Fei-Hung movies. A real-life kung fu expert, healer, philosopher, and champion of justice (Pollard, 2001), Wong is the typical wuxia hero and appears in no less than 100 films (Logan, 1995).

In The True Story of Wong Fei-Hung, Part 1: Whiplash Snuffs the Candle Flame (1949), one can see the roots of Hong Kong Action Film,

…with acrobatic jumping from one level of an interior set to another, with the single protagonist in the centre of a circle of adversaries, and with sword, pole and unarmed combat (Rist, 2002, para. 3).

The next step in this evolution would be the rise of King Hu—arguably the ‘most significant innovator of wuxia pian (especially the cape and sword genre) and its greatest practitioner’. He innovated to meet an audience craving for new levels of energy in their films. Hu’s first wuxia pian, Come Drink With Me (Da Zui Xia, 1965) was a box office success and it ‘ushered in the first real wave of Hong Kong action films’, changing the landscape of Chinese-language cinema forever (Rist, 2002, para. 3).

In comparison to Hu’s movies, Wong Fei-Hong movies had ‘little or no imagination in the filming of these (fight) scenes, and Kwan’s (the lead actor) moves are un-athletic to say the least.’ (Rist, 2002, para. 3).

Hu was a practitioner of Peking Opera and brought elements over to his films where “Hu brought visual sophistication and energy to the new-style martial arts picture, for example his fighting scenes are synchronized with a percussive beat (drums and gongs) reminiscent of Peking Opera aesthetics. But to make the fights seem even more spectacular, King Hu fused these Eastern concepts of dance with Western forms of filmmaking.”(Green, 2005, para. 7)

A detailed comparison, by Rist (2002, para. 3) between Come Drink With Me and a contemporary film released in the same year, The Jade Bow (directed by Zhang Xinyan and Fu Qi for Great Wall/Sil Metropole), sheds further light:

The Jade Bow is a highly entertaining and colorful film, with female characters in the principal action roles. It contains some imaginative special effects, but lacks the convincing action, deft editing and graceful movement of Come Drink With Me. Only a few moments of speeded-up action and some supernatural “special effects,” uncharacteristic of Hu’s developed style,—e.g., animated rays of chi emanating from the palms of human hands—hinder full appreciation today of this landmark film.

It (Come Drink With Me) features the finest screen performance of Cheng (or Zheng) Pei Pei in, perhaps, the definitive prototypical role for warrior women in action. She is the central figure in a number of brilliantly choreographed fight scenes which include long tracking shots and cutting-on-movement, both of which enhance the film’s dynamism and beauty. The setting of an inn for one of the key sequences, where Golden Swallow (Cheng) catches coins on a hairpin (through the magic of montage), the introduction of a mistaken identity plot device—she is taken to be a man—and the decision to cast the events during the Ming Dynasty, in the 14th century, are all trade marks of Hu’s mature work. (emphasis own)

These techniques resulted in the start of audiences and directors appreciating the value of the fight scene and over time, audiences wanted more realistic action aesthetics. Chang Cheh is remembered as the key contributor in this area. Cheh was perhaps the most successful wuxia director with his film The One Armed Swordsman (1967) being the first swordsplay film to make HK$1 million at the box office (Green, 2005, para. 4), continuing Action Film success.

To add to the energy, Cheh characteristically used ‘chaotic and full of quick cuts, handicams and fast zooms’ (Green, 2005, para. 9). Cheh also exploited technology and various other techniques to add to the ‘realism’.

Firstly Cheh’s films used fake blood to make the fights appear more visceral instead of Hu’s bloodless combat. Also weapon props were replicas made from metal, heightening the realism but most importantly, the 1950s kung-fu films had simply allowed actors to improvise their fights, but now the martial-arts instructor became an important crew member (Bordwell, 2000, p. 206).

Cheh used trained martial artists to choreograph the fights where Shaw’s promotion stated that “the fake, fantastical and theatrical fighting and so-called special effects of the past will be replaced by realistic action and fighting that immediately decides life or death” (Ho, 2003)

Because of this, audiences desired more than what they were then given. The action film style began to move away from dance-like choreography that followed the tradition of Peking Opera, to livelier and bloody aesthetics, reflective of the mood of the audience.

It was at this time that Bruce Lee appeared. Lee was born in San Francisco and was a Kung Fu instructor and cha-cha champion. (Green, 2005)

It was an impressive feat that The One Armed Swordman broke box office records grossing over HK$1 million; however Lee’s debut film The Big Boss made a whopping HK$3.2 million. For Lee, the winning formula was groundbreaking in the history of Hong Kong action films. Choosing to work with a start-up studio, Lee enjoyed creative control and was able to form his own style, with his martial art training employed as his edge. Wuxia films had gone out of fashion with a further desire for realism and greater energy – and Kung Fu was the answer.

Lee was an instant hit, single-handedly pioneering a new Kung Fu trend featuring “real” fighters who use their own strength and techniques to fight, dismissing the gadgets and wire flying that was popular with the wuxia genre (Green, 2005).

As Green (2005) puts it, it was at this time that a sudden hunger for Hong Kong action films awoke in the West.

Lee’s first three movies broke local box office records and proved to be highly successful globally. Enter the Dragon, the first-ever US-Hong Kong co-production, grossed about US$90 million worldwide, making it the most internationally successful film from that region up to then.

Lee was succeeded in the 1980s by 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 and the supernatural).

This was to be the peak of Hong Kong Action Film.

Moving forward, to inject ever greater adrenaline rush in the films and to lure audiences from increasing Hollywood competition, the late 1990s saw extensive use of visual effects (or computer generated digital effects, as distinct from special effects).

This trend was also brought about by the diminishing number of real Kung Fu experts. They were, anyway, not received well by the audience who now wanted good-looking, handsome young men to front the films. To address this, new Kung Fu movies featured babyfaced Cantopop music idols such as Ekin Cheng and Nicholas Tse.

Results varied:

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. 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 (Hong Kong action cinema, 2007)

There was also a move towards more ‘high-tech, more American-styled action pictures’ such as Downtown Torpedoes (1997), Gen-X Cops and Purple Storm (both 1999) (Hong Kong action cinema, 2007).

Meanwhile, during this time, in the West, the ‘alternative’ culture of the Hong Kong action film became very popular, and gradually the films moved from Chinatown video shops and theatres to become more available in the mainstream video market and even occasionally in mainstream theatres. On the scholarly front, Hong Kong action films began to be accepted as part of the academic canon of world cinema, taken and studied more seriously. While the western acceptance of Hong Kong action film as a product has grown considerably, there was also an introduction of Hong Kong action film as a style that paved the way for many of its artistic elements that crept its way into mainstream Hollywood films.

Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (1992) drew inspiration from City on Fire and his two-part Kill Bill (2003–04) was in large part a martial arts homage, borrowing Yuen Woo-Ping as fight choreographer and actor. Robert Rodriguez’s Desperado (1995) and its 2003 sequel Once Upon a Time in Mexico aped Woo’s visual mannerisms. The Wachowski brothers’ The Matrix trilogy (1999–2003) of science-fiction-action blockbusters borrowed from Woo and wire fu movies and also employed Yuen behind the scenes (Hong Kong action cinema, 2007).

The twin developments in Hong Kong and Hollywood meant that Hong Kong action films, once enjoyed as a unique alternative to popular Hollywood action movies, has now lost its distinctiveness – instead, it now directly competes with them. This is, however, no level playing field for the Hong Kong industry. The expertises (in film making and industry), scales, deep pockets and muscle of the Hollywood studios meant that Hong Kong filmmakers have their odds stacked against them.

This is compounded by the trend of heavy Visual Effect use. Visual effects are new in the the market and are very costly. Visual Effects budgets of US$50m per film are commonplace in Hollywood (example: Spiderman 2, Star Wars), while an entire film’s budget, including marketing costs, in Hong Kong will not even reach half that.

Asiaweek (2002) on The Touch:

‘Producer Thomas Chung explains, basically, that … the CGI sucks, and they want it to look at least halfway decent before getting laughed out of theatres in a US release. He didn’t need Miramax to tell him the CGI was pathetic, it is blatantly obvious to everyone.’

As a result, this visual effect intensive climate badly hurt the Hong Kong film industry and it has fallen into a severe slump since the late-1990s. What replaced it were the ever popular Hollywood imports that flooded the market, giving audiences million dollar treats that only served to cultivate their taste buds.

To solve the problem, some have turned to international funding.

‘There are new investments in local films from US companies,’ added the Chairman of the MPIA, Mr Chucindo Hung. ‘Their cooperation with Hong Kong film directors and famous movie-stars is a growing trend… Audiences in the US and Europe are becoming more interested in Hong Kong’s bid-budget movies. Big-budget action movies or costume movies with state-of-the-art special effects will be very popular in international markets.’ (Hong Kong International Film and TV Market 2000, 2000)

With the establishment of the Asian center for Columbia Tristar in Hong Kong early this year, some people obviously think that multinational funding for Chinese-language movies is the way of the future (Yu, 2000, para. 7).

But with the current trend of action films and Hollywood’s resources, Hollywood does not need to tap on the traditional skills of the Hong Kong action filmmakers, which have now become irrelevant with the overtaking by special effects. International co-production is not a solution to this crisis.

However, there has been a glimmer of hope. Even without international co-production, a handful of films have succeeded in recent years, going against the trend of the slump.

The common factor amongst these successes can be attributed to excellent story development, awareness and appeal of audience – not just the typical blind imitations of successes Hong Kong cinema is associated with.

Infernal Affairs is a fine example: following its debut success it had 2 sequels that were equally acclaimed. However, its success formula was quickly noticed and the film ushered in a whole wave of copied crime-heist type films. However, none was as groundbreaking.

Market forces will ensure more Infernal Affairs, as the industry evolves in response to competition. As the standards are raised and productivity increased, Hong Kong filmmakers will find their place in the world again.

References

Bordwell, D. (2000). Planet Hong Kong: Popular cinema and the art of entertainment. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Green, T. (2005). The Rise and fall of the house of Shaw. Retrieved July 16, 2007, from Hong Kong cinema: View from the Brooklyn Bridge Web site: http://www.brns.com/shawbros/pages/shaw3.html

Ho, S. & Ain-Ling, W. (2003). One Jolts, the Other Orchestrates. The Shaw Screen, Hong Kong Film Archive.

Hong Kong action cinema. (2007, July 11). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 15:40, July 16, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hong_Kong_action_cinema&oldid=144029699

Logan, B. (1995). Hong Kong action cinema. Woodstock, NY: The Overlook Press.

Macias, P. (2007, March 28). Hong Kong Action. Retrieved July 16, 2007, from GreenCine Web site: http://www.greencine.com/central/guide/hongkongaction

Pollard, M. (2001, April 8). Wong Fei Hung: The Man & the Legend. Retrieved July, 2007, from Kung Fu Cinema Web site: http://www.kungfucinema.com/articles/2001-04-08-01.htm

Rist, P. (2002, October 31). A Touch of Hu: A Fan’s Notes and an Appreciation . Retrieved July, 2007, from Off Screen Web site: http://www.horschamp.qc.ca/new_offscreen/kinghu.html

Yu, S. L. (2000, Dec 3). Made in Taiwan? Not very likely. Taipei Times.

Written by Shaun Yong